Sexual freedom: Is the backlash on the way?

It would be tempting to think that the history of humankind is a linear progression from ignorance to enlightenment. Unfortunately this is not the case.
In terms of sex, we may be freer now than ever before to experiment and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh – but things could still be a lot better.
Consider these hard realities. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the increase. Abortion is still illegal. Gay bashings are common on our city streets. Despite the appointment of a brand new Pope, the Catholic Church – still our major religion – has done very little to modernise it’s attitudes towards sexuality or address the issue of child sex abuse. And in global terms, Islam – more notoriously conservative on sexual matters even than Christianity – is on the rise.
Now, here’s another statement to contemplate. The sexual freedom we enjoy today may too dangerous to indulge in tomorrow, if we don’t start acting more responsibly. The truth is, when it comes to our sexual health, many of us tend to be reckless. In surveys, up to 52% of Irish people admit to having had unprotected sex. Add to that statistic figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, which show that that sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) increased by 6% between 2002 and 2003 and then 12% between 2003 and 2004 and it doesn’t take long to figure out that things are getting worse, not better.
Without wishing to be alarmist, infectious diseases work like this – once a certain number of people in a population is infected, the disease reaches a kind of critical mass and the infection rate rises ever more quickly. That way lies a potential epidemic.
I don’t mean to upset you over breakfast, but the most common STDs among Irish people are ano-genital warts, chlamydia and non-specific urinary tract infection. They are all very unpleasant and have potentially serious consequences – but none of them are fatal. On the plus side, right now, Ireland does not have a massive AIDS problem, but if we continue to have unprotected sex, it is likely that we will see a significant increase in the number of HIV infections too.
Do people think about having unprotected sex in advance? Or is it that they drink too much or otherwise get out of it and as a result fail to think? If the situation arises for you, dear reader, remember this – we are still years away from finding a cure for AIDS, not least because global spending on a vaccine is still less than 1% of global spending on all health product research and development.
PROMOTION OF ABSTINENCE
If STD infections continue to increase, it is likely that a backlash against sexual freedom will follow. There are reports that this has already happened in a number of countries. Chastity is seen as the solution and there is some evidence that this message has been gaining in popularity.
Where movements of this kind gather momentum, coercion is seldom far behind. In parts of South Africa, where HIV affects up to a quarter of the population, young girls submit to virginity testing. Although the testing is supposedly voluntary, any girl in a small community refusing to be tested will almost inevitably be regarded as having lost her virginity and as a possible carrier of the disease.
The current US administration, meanwhile, has adopted an attitude to sex based on fundamentalist Christian thinking. A multi-million-dollar fund has been made available for so called sex education programmes in schools, on condition that such classes are for the exclusive promotion of abstinence.
It may be tempting to decide that what happens over the water has nothing to do with us, but chastity movements from the USA, such as the Silver Ring Thing, have toured Ireland, preaching the ‘sex is sin’ message and it’s related guilt trip to Irish teens. So far without much success, it has to be said…
There is a dark side to all this Christian righteousness. Studies in the US have found that chastity pledgers are often told that condoms don’t work and that they are then more likely to engage in higher risk behaviour, such as anal sex, as they think that this allows them to keep the pledge on a technicality. The bottom line is that teaching abstinence as sex education is not sex education at all and may well do more harm than good in controlling STD infection rates.
According to an article by Dr Marty Klein in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, anti-abuse programmes that teach children about ‘bad’ sex may lead to skewed perceptions about sex.
While no one could reasonably argue against teaching kids to protect themselves against abusers, Klein contends that it is equally important that children learn that sex can be a joyous and wonderful experience. Klein argues that unless the sex education message is balanced, future generations may find it difficult to function sexually as adults. In other words, while honest and informative sex education is vital, sadly sex education is often nothing more than scare tactics – sex is dangerous, sex is sinful, sex is abusive and so on.
There are other causes for concern. Future generations may enjoy sex less than we do because of unrealistic and negative body images. Feeling comfortable about our bodies is an important part of being able to enjoy sex. The more pressure we put on people to conform to idealistic body images, the more negative we will feel about our imperfect bodies and the less we will enjoy allowing others to see them in their naked glory.
MIND-BLOWING SEX
Increased pressure on both men women to be attractive has led to a growth in the popularity of plastic surgery. However, the increase in certain types of plastic surgery may mean that we are damaging our ability to enjoy the full carnal thrust of sex.
In her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy notes that vaginoplasty – cosmetic surgery to make the vagina more ‘attractive’ – has increased in popularity over the last 5 to 8 years. This surgery can cause scarring and damage the nerves, leaving the vagina too numb or painful to have sex.
Interestingly, it isn’t only women who are anxious to correct what they perceive as flaws. According to a report in the Sunday Independent, the plastic surgery company, Advanced Cosmetic Surgery, performs more than 20 penile enhancements in Ireland each a month. Possible side effects include numbness, skin discolouration, bleeding and infections – so beware!
So is there a kind of sexual meltdown on the way? Are our children likely to turn into a different breed entirely: call them the New Puritans?
Perhaps, like Californian porn stars, in the future we may need to bring a clean bill of health with us on dates. Perhaps we will see those committed to chastity marrying younger and younger – without any of the maturity needed to make adult relationships work. Perhaps sex will become more of a solo activity, with cyber sex becoming increasingly popular not only because the technology is improving all the time, but because it will allow us to have sexual pleasure without ever having to deal with the messy issue of relationships.
I don’t mean to get bogged down in doom and gloom – after all this is a sex column and for the most part devoted to discussing all that is wonderful, amazing, incredible and amusing about the topic – but it’s important that we realise our sexual freedom is under threat.
History shows us that most societies go through phases of liberation and conservatism in a cyclical manner. From the ancient Greeks and Romans or the pre-Catholic Brehon laws of Ireland, there are plenty of examples of societies as liberal as our own that have decided that enough was enough and the party was over.
Ignoring the problems won’t help, but by being smart about safe sex, by lobbying for better sex education for our schools, by teaching our children that sex can be – no, that sex is – a very good thing, we can go some distance to protect it.
When I’m feeling optimistic I think that the future will be a better place than today and I’m curious to see how it will all work out. I like to think that come the 2020s I’ll have the spondulix to catch a low-cost shuttle into space every now and again – and still have enough energy left over for regular mind-blowing sex. I’d like to grow old disgracefully, preferably in zero gravity.
There is no way of knowing exactly what the future holds, but one thing we can be sure of: there’s is no time like the present, so enjoy it while you can.