The art of sound pictures (1930)

i68 THE ART OF SOUND PICTURES must be disguised by the addition of some less normal emotional expression. Studies of college students have proved that a certain amount of erotic captivation is normally felt during physical struggles between members of the same sex. This seems to be more generally true, however, of girls than of boys. In most colleges, there is some form of subjection of freshmen by upperclassmen. Frequently the freshmen are given a chance to struggle against their subjectors and to escape some part of the resulting hazing if they are successful. In one college it was the custom for the sophomore and freshmen boys to prevent each other from attending their respective class dinners. They would attempt to capture their opponents bodily, tie them up, and keep them confined until the dinner was over. These struggles were accompanied by a certain amount of captivation emotion, according to the results of psychological findings. At this same college, the sophomore girls compelled the freshmen girls to attend a “baby party.” At this affair, the freshmen were forced to dress in baby costumes, were physically confined in various ways, and were put through a series of stunts at the command of the sophomores. A careful study of the emotional reactions of the girls of both classes showed that the freshmen gave the baby party experience a high rating of pleasantness, and that they experienced a good deal of pleasant passion in the process of being subjected by the sophomores. The sophomores, on the other hand, apparently experienced captivation excitement during their physical struggles with the younger girls. In writing stories for the screen, physical struggles of