Why is Sex Taboo?

[satyrblade]

In response to my friend Inara's question, "Why do you think sex generates so much anger and fear among mainstream folk?" I had this reflection and response:

Sex is scary. It's unpredictable, vulnerable, and primal. Society makes rules to maintain at least an illusion of stability, and sexuality is too powerful a force to ever truly be reliable

Comments

[archway]

I sent a response to FB...~S~ BTW, you might appreciate my most recent post here on LJ....

[brightlotusmoon]

This is wonderful. May I quote it in parts?

[satyrblade]

Thank you. And yes - please feel free to spread the word.

[brightlotusmoon]

Awesome.
Honestly, I've always believed that fear of sex and sexuality is based on various religious issues: Attempts to control people, particularly women. Cults and sects do it too, like the Warren Jeffs cult. In the end, it's all about sex, no matter what excuse someone comes up with, like InvisibleDeity Told Me To.

[jezebellydancer]

I have always been fascinated that parents will allow their children to watch violence that is so explicit, but balk at even speaking to their children or allowing them to see loving affection, let alone sex.

Violence is okay, but sex is not.

You have boiled down the reasons for this very succinctly. Thank you so much for the post.

[lorenalis]

I would guess that another part of this is due to religious teachings. In all of my studies, the only religions that put taboos on sex are those based off of Judaism; this includes Christianity and Islam. To my knowledge, most other cultures had no real taboos on it consensual sex or even ritual sex for religious purposes. It wasn't until the advent of Judaism that taboos on this subject truly came about. Now that these religions are so prominent, their taboos are also prominent and have even bled over to influence people not raised in those traditions.

Just my two cents :)

[lucretiasheart]

Agreed. Although every culture has some rites or rituals regarding sex, only the desert religions freak out over it as far as I've been able to find.

[ghilledhu]

Actually, certain branches of Hinduism have some fascinating taboos around sex as well, much of it relating to marriage and caste restrictions.

Buddhism has...maybe taboos isn't quite the right word, but surprisingly negative associations, which isn't surprising considering the point of Buddhism is to get rid of desire and to break the cycle of suffering, death, and rebirth into the world. There's a "wonderful" quote from the Buddha about how it's better for a man to put his organ into the mouth of a venomous snake than into a woman.

[lorenalis]

Cool, nice to learn new things. I'm familiar with some Hindu mythology, but not necessarily it's teachings. Same with Buddhism. Will have to look some of these up :)

[lorenalis]

Actually, the Christian taboos spring from the Jewish. Keep in mind that, despite the gospels stating that Jesus said he came to do away with the law, the first Christians were Jews They continued to follow the Jewish laws and taboos propagating them among the converts. Not so sure about the Arabs. I've read some about their religious beliefs before Islam, but can't recall if they had sexual taboos or not.