ABSTRACT
The belief that the price of increasing affluence and sophistication (at least through the middle ranges) is loss of the ability to act and feel as a "natural man" has long been a part of the American cultural tradition. At all class levels, marital sexual relations provide the major source of sexual outlet for most men and women during their sexual careers. In all social classes, also, marital and sexual relations are considered the preferable and most desirable outlet. Other sources of outlet are most often seen by their seekers as compensations or substitutes rather than really preferable alternatives. This chapter presents a comparison of the ways husbands and wives in the lower, working, and middle classes evaluate marital sexuality, the attitudes they have toward sexual relations, and the gratifications and dissatisfactions they find in these.
