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EXCUSES

Human beings are obsessed with sex.
It's only natural.

Or is it?

Doesn't it seem like there's a tremendous
amount hype in the direction of getting
people excited about sex?

If the biological drive toward sex was all that over
powering, wouldn't you expect people to spend more
time having sex, and less time talking about it?      "But what about AIDS?"
                                                      "Ever heard of condoms?"
It often seems to me that people are                  "Oh I hate those things."
really afraid of sex on some level,
and they much prefer to be tantalyzed-and-               For people in the grip
denied to satiation.                                     of an overwhelming
                                                         urge it doesn't take
There seems to be this in-built need to                  much to turn us off.
come up with excuses not to do it.

For a long time the popular reason was fear of
pregnancy and disease, but as contraception
and antibiotics got increasingly better, the
rug was yanked out from under that one.

So here we go into the sixties, and
now that we've got the Pill (and some
other pills...) we're all going to be
fucking in the streets, right?

But this heyday of hedonism was awfully
brief, and never really penetrated             (Sorry. Can't help myself.)
all *that* far into the mainstream.
People started working out philosophical
objections to promiscuity (the "sex as
an expression of love" concept).              The theological objections
                                              were ringing fairly
Then the mid-80s rolled along                 hollow just then.
and everyone seemed *overjoyed*
at the prospect of a fatal,                                     Maybe they
incurable sexual plague.                                        still are.
                                 Christian Conservatives
Now at last we can go            took it as confirmation
back to thinking of              that they were right
ourselves as raging              all along ("AIDS is the
animals who can only             wrath of God").
barely contain ourselves.
                                       They seize on data when      "Oh so
   Like dogs that bark                 it supports doctrine,        lesbians
   and snarl only when                 and reject it when it        must be
   on the leash.                       contradicts.                 God's
                                                                    chosen?"
                                       Unfortunately
                                       not a syndrome
                                       restricted to     Would I be
                                       the nominally     more impressed
Let me make a prediction here:         religious.        if they'd
When the cure/treatment for                              predicted a
AIDS is finally in place, there                          sexual plauge?
will be another 60s style blip.
"Oh boy, we can run for it                               But there must've
now... uh, run where?  Uh, what                          been someone
happened to that leash?"  We'll                          somewhere predicting
then have a new pop-philosophy                           a Sodom & Gommorrah
promoted to provide more                                 style catastrophe.
excuses for abstaining from
promiscuity.                                               It's not legit to
                                                           select your
                                                           predictions after
                                                           the event, and
                                                           ignore the ones
                                                           that failed.

             There's some
             supporting babble in

                  AIDSMYTHS




Okay.

So what exactly about sex is so
terrifying?

It's not a fear of anonymous bodies.

It's a fear that you won't live up to
expectations?

A fear that the sexual game will lead
to some unwanted personal involvement?

The popularity of masturbation:
heaven is where there are no other people.


                       (A strange inversion of
                       Victorian hypocrisy...)




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