Tuesday 10 February 2009

Let's Talk About Sex ...

It struck me, as I'm sure it did many others after the first session, that the thing people reacted to with the most gusto - whether it was a fit of the giggles or a chorus of 'ewww' - were the confessions that were in some way linked to sex: whether it's an illicit snog with someone you know you shouldn't be snogging, or the top-of-the-list-making 'I slept with my boyfriend's dad', the vast majority of the confessions were connected in some way with sex or sexual activity - or even the mere possibility of sexual activity.

So what I'd like to know is ... why? We're supposed to be living in an 'enlightened' age where pretty much anything goes and the wealth of information and images available on any subject, to suit all tastes and proclivities, can be had at the touch of a button or the flick of a switch. So why is it that sex still seems to bother us so much? Answers on a postcard please ...

2 comments:

  1. To be honest I observed the same reactions you did and I was indeed participating in them. For me and I expect it may be the same for many of our classmates, some things for example 'sleeping with your boyfriends dad' is viewed as immoral and wrong. I don't think the problem here is the act of sex but the betrayal that was attached to the act.

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  2. This is interesting...
    I only found myself yesterday laughing with my friend across the hall about this particular topic. Yet, as the night fell I found myself partcipating in the acts that me and my friend were laughing about, not only a couple of hours ago.
    Now I have the chance to sit and ponder, why is there so much stigma attached to sex.
    We all watch it - be it in a film or on some pornographic internet website.
    And the majority of use entertain ourselves with it.
    Still we are mostly refrained from speaking about it.

    Perhaps this is because our gentials are seen as private and intimate, and the communities around us have conditioned the topics that have become socially acceptable - Sex not being one of them.

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