Yes, yes! Thank you Ayn Rand for describing things that never before had words. I was surprised to find her insights transferred to sex (relationships). This particular one BLEW... me... away...
"Do you remember what I said about money and about the men who seek to reverse the law of cause and effect? The men who try to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind? Well, the man who despises himself tries to gain self-esteem from sexual adventures- which can't be done, because sex is not the cause, but an effect and an expression of a man's sense of his own value."
"The men who think that wealth comes from material resources and has no intellectual root or meaning, are the men who think--for the same reason--that sex is a physical capacity which functions independently of one's mind, choice or code values... But, in fact, a man's sexual choice is the result and the sum of his fundamental convictions. Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life. Show me the woman he sleeps with and I will tell you his valuation of himself."
"He will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself, the woman whose surrender permits him to experience--or to fake--a sense of self-esteem."
"The man who is proudly certain of his own value, will want the highest type of woman he can find, the woman he admires, the strongest, the hardest to conquer--because only the possession of a heroine will give him the sense of achievement, not the possession of a brainless slut. He does not seek to gain value, he seeks to express it. There is no conflict between the standards of his mind and the desires of his body... Love is our response to our highest values--and can be nothing else. His body will always follow the ultimate logic of his deepest convictions."
