14 JULY 1984, Page 22

No substitute

Sir: Is Matthew Parris (`The origin of sex', 7 July) right to regard sex as a substitute for aggression as if the two things were separate? Aggression is a basically mascu- line trait, though women of course are capable of being fairly masculine in this respect. Men's sexuality certainly can in- volve aggression, so much 'so that it can be regarded as a form of it. Sex may have been given enhanced expression because (to take Mr Parris' basic point) other forms of aggression are increasingly forbidden.

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