The taboo of sex

Harbringer

Your A One Flower Garden
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I attribute my current delirium to my lack of sleep, but thats not really important. Heres what I dont get, what about sex made it something to taboo, i just dont get it, what ever in the past could have warranted a bunch of societies, namely americans, tabooing of something that I perceive only good can come from. Whats so bad about sex?
 
I think it has to do with clothing. When we started wearing those, nekkedness became the unseen. And sex usually requires nekkedness.

Or maybe not.
 
It produces children. That's the root of the taboo I believe.

That's it, alright.

Why should that be a taboo? The goal of species after all is to reproduce and expand their numbers.

The taboo is kept to keep fidelity within relationships. It is implausible that a promiscuous society would have well-adjusted children if they cannot have a stable set of parents. The classical role of a mother and father has provided a balance and a normality to the lives of children, and the taboo is there to keep the normality.

It's almost like a sexual revolution, nowadays, to be honest. :p
 
I attribute my current delirium to my lack of sleep, but thats not really important. Heres what I dont get, what about sex made it something to taboo, i just dont get it, what ever in the past could have warranted a bunch of societies, namely americans, tabooing of something that I perceive only good can come from. Whats so bad about sex?
"The bad", in many societies, comes from a few people who cannot practise it either at all or cannot practise it a lot and in the way the want it, because they devoted their lives on spirituality, so, from jealously, they also try to force the rest of the people to also abstain or practise it only for reproduction.

That's one quick guess, but there're also other reasons. :lol:
 
I have no taboo about sex.....i'd probably shock alot of those that do with some of the conversations I have!!:lol:
 
Why should that be a taboo? The goal of species after all is to reproduce and expand their numbers.
Whilst that is indeed the goal of a species, the goal of a social group has a few more provisos attached.

The taboo of sex is thus primarily focused on a message that goes something like: don't dilute our in-group's genetic stock, way of life, political influence and so on by procreating with outsiders. Hence the specific taboo on pre-marital sex. Notice how when it's a question of sex within marriage, within the community, then the message is quite different and the taboo drops away and becomes one of: why the hell aren't you guys gettin' jiggy and popping the grandchildren?

It's a result of xenophobia really.

There is also the economic question of how to practically raise and care for children outside of a family structure.
 
"The bad", in many societies, comes from a few people who cannot practise it either at all or cannot practise it a lot and in the way the want it, because they devoted their lives on spirituality, so, from jealously, they also try to force the rest of the people to also abstain or practise it only for reproduction.

While this is true in part, I think its a bit unfair to those people who genuinely believe that pre-marital sex is taboo because of their faith. Remember, in olden times there was no contraception and so pre-marital sex could often result in children, obviously having huge social and economic repercussions for the couple involved.

However its equally true that the modern world is far different from this. What really angers me is when religious groups try to force their beliefs on others who have no wish to support their faith: those who would ask us to abstain because "God said so"
 
The 'taboo' of sex has nothing to do with the fact that it produces children. Its about the pleasure that it gives. In our society, anything that provides quick and easy pleasure is suspect, and considered a very dangerous thing that must be tightly controlled.
 
The 'taboo' of sex has nothing to do with the fact that it produces children. Its about the pleasure that it gives. In our society, anything that provides quick and easy pleasure is suspect, and considered a very dangerous thing that must be tightly controlled.

I blame religion for that.
 
The 'taboo' of sex has nothing to do with the fact that it produces children. Its about the pleasure that it gives. In our society, anything that provides quick and easy pleasure is suspect, and considered a very dangerous thing that must be tightly controlled.
Dude, are you kidding me!!!? If ever there was a quick fix pleasure driven culture, it's right here right now.
 
Sex transmits diseases. There are lots of references in old writings to unclean women. It might well mean more than that she didn't wash very often.
Women are in the position to want sex to be a taboo because they're the ones who have to raise a child alone outside of marriage.
Too many of the ones I encounter also seem obsessed with the idea that sex means love, and you can't have the former without the latter. That leads to sex being a taboo.
 
I blame religion for that.
No doubt it has alot to do with it, but its probably much more complex than that. All cultures surround the sex act with elaborate rituals, and bind it to things that are seen as beneficial to society, like marriage.
Dude, are you kidding me!!!? If ever there was a quick fix pleasure driven culture, it's right here right now.
Not pleasures of the same magnitude as sex. If people gave in to the pleasures of the flesh too entirely, not alot of work would get done. Pleasure is seen as the reward for effort. Easy effortless pleasure merely for the sake of pleasure is seen as a bad thing.
 
Sex itself has been taboo in very few cultures, but every culture has had taboos about sex. Now, taboos are pretty much arbitrary, but sex is a good subject, given the consequences. Besides creating children, access to mates has long been a cause of violence. Better to come up with some taboos that to see all the young men killing each other over women.
 
Not pleasures of the same magnitude as sex. If people gave in to the pleasures of the flesh too entirely, not alot of work would get done. Pleasure is seen as the reward for effort. Easy effortless pleasure merely for the sake of pleasure is seen as a bad thing.
I meant compared with previous societies, which were far more touchy about sex.
Sex transmits diseases.
Good point.
 
Some cultures are more "touchy about it" (aka sexually conservative) than others, it's like that with everything. I think that probably food and sex are the most taboo-ized or ritualized human activities, makes sense as they are our most basic biological drives.
 
I meant compared with previous societies, which were far more touchy about sex.
Yes, and many people see the loosening of the controls on sex as being one of the major causes for todays problems. Its all part of this sense out there of there being an assault on traditional 'family values'. When people talk about 'family values' theyre talking about sex within marriage only. Sex has to be controlled and regulated. Thats what the entire elaborate institution of marriage is all about. Regulating and controlling the intense, mindblowing pleasure of sex.
 
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