Sex is not shameful
THE November 8 issue of the Inquirer carried a front page story on a controversy generated by a Malaysian newspaper that featured the results of a survey on the favorite sex positions of the Malaysian youth. Among the favorites mentioned were “spooning, galloping and tea bag positions.”
Government leaders reportedly rebuked the Kuala Lumpur Weekend Mail and called its three-page feature story “irresponsible and downright vulgar.” The publication’s chief executive issued an apology but the Weekend Mail staff defended its decision to publish the survey results saying, “sex and sex-related issues should be discussed openly to avoid negative perceptions.”
I agree, but it is not only to avoid negative perceptions about sex but also, and more importantly, to enable the public to look at sex more objectively and with a more mature attitude.
The reaction of the Malaysian government to a subject which is perfectly natural and normal is similar to the way our own highly conservative Board of Censors (euphemistically renamed Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) reacts to any honest and frank portrayal of sex on television and movies.
Taboo
The board has never allowed nudity or portrayal of the sexual act, even if this is essential to the story. It considers such things as absolutely taboo and unfit for public consumption.
Little does it realize that the more it suppresses healthy and natural expressions of human sexuality, the more people get curious about these.What censors and moralists succeed in doing is to keep the masses forever in the infantile stage of mental and emotional development. Such an attitude only ensures that the public never graduates from adolescence in matters of sex.
Witness what happened to the much publicized Topless Bars. When they first opened in San Francisco (I think in the ’70s), large throngs of people flocked to them to stare at bare-breasted waitresses. But after only a few months, patronage dropped to almost zero so many of the bars had to close shop. Curiosity over naked female bodies indeed has a saturation point.
When I visited Bali in Indonesia, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and the French Riviera in southern France, and saw for the first time hundreds of half-naked (and a few completely naked) women cavorting or playing volleyball on the beaches, I was frankly excited and filled with curiosity. I couldn’t help staring at them.But after a few days in the world-famous resorts, the sight of naked women around me became so ordinary they could pass in front of me without distracting my attention.This is what will happen if we allow less censorship in our movies. Perhaps the very young should not be allowed to see adult films because they are still very impressionable, but certainly adults should have the freedom to see them.
Eroticism in temples
In India, there is a famous ancient temple in Khajuraho some 800 km northwest of Bhubaneshwar and 1,000 km northeast of Elephanta, where various positions of the sexual act are openly depicted on stone statues. Temples are places of worship. So, what are those explicitly erotic statues doing there? Why were they sculpted there in the first place?
Considered “vulgar, licentious, shocking and pornographic” by conservative and moralistic western minds, the erotic stone statues are nothing of the sort. Upon further reflection and contemplation, one begins to see something deeper and even spiritual in the statues of couples in various acts of sexual intercourse.
As Henri Stierlin clearly explains in his beautiful coffee-table book “Hindu India, from Khajuraho to the Temple City of Madurai,” “We need to seek the profounder meaning of the hymn to carnal love that covers the most beautiful temples of Khajuraho.
“These scenes are not isolated, hidden away from the believer, such as those found in the inner chambers of the brothels in Pompeii and Herculaneum. On the contrary, the erotic theme is a leitmotif in certain parts of the facades of the sanctuaries.
“There is no concealment. The embracing couples are exhibited alongside the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Without thought of modesty or offense, the sculptors have focused on the art of coitus. The sculptures constitute a paean of praise to the sexual act in its most complex form. As a result, the refinement of the poses and their very ostentation confer on them a kind of nobility. There is nothing remotely vulgar about these works.
“In Hindu mythology, divine perfection consists in unity. The separation of masculine and feminine in the natural world creates a tension, the desire to unite and create in the manner of the gods. Serenity results from the union of complementary opposites.”
The sexual act therefore is akin to the original act of creation. And there is nothing in it that we should be ashamed of.
http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=32358
Government leaders reportedly rebuked the Kuala Lumpur Weekend Mail and called its three-page feature story “irresponsible and downright vulgar.” The publication’s chief executive issued an apology but the Weekend Mail staff defended its decision to publish the survey results saying, “sex and sex-related issues should be discussed openly to avoid negative perceptions.”
I agree, but it is not only to avoid negative perceptions about sex but also, and more importantly, to enable the public to look at sex more objectively and with a more mature attitude.
The reaction of the Malaysian government to a subject which is perfectly natural and normal is similar to the way our own highly conservative Board of Censors (euphemistically renamed Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) reacts to any honest and frank portrayal of sex on television and movies.
Taboo
The board has never allowed nudity or portrayal of the sexual act, even if this is essential to the story. It considers such things as absolutely taboo and unfit for public consumption.
Little does it realize that the more it suppresses healthy and natural expressions of human sexuality, the more people get curious about these.What censors and moralists succeed in doing is to keep the masses forever in the infantile stage of mental and emotional development. Such an attitude only ensures that the public never graduates from adolescence in matters of sex.
Witness what happened to the much publicized Topless Bars. When they first opened in San Francisco (I think in the ’70s), large throngs of people flocked to them to stare at bare-breasted waitresses. But after only a few months, patronage dropped to almost zero so many of the bars had to close shop. Curiosity over naked female bodies indeed has a saturation point.
When I visited Bali in Indonesia, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and the French Riviera in southern France, and saw for the first time hundreds of half-naked (and a few completely naked) women cavorting or playing volleyball on the beaches, I was frankly excited and filled with curiosity. I couldn’t help staring at them.But after a few days in the world-famous resorts, the sight of naked women around me became so ordinary they could pass in front of me without distracting my attention.This is what will happen if we allow less censorship in our movies. Perhaps the very young should not be allowed to see adult films because they are still very impressionable, but certainly adults should have the freedom to see them.
Eroticism in temples
In India, there is a famous ancient temple in Khajuraho some 800 km northwest of Bhubaneshwar and 1,000 km northeast of Elephanta, where various positions of the sexual act are openly depicted on stone statues. Temples are places of worship. So, what are those explicitly erotic statues doing there? Why were they sculpted there in the first place?
Considered “vulgar, licentious, shocking and pornographic” by conservative and moralistic western minds, the erotic stone statues are nothing of the sort. Upon further reflection and contemplation, one begins to see something deeper and even spiritual in the statues of couples in various acts of sexual intercourse.
As Henri Stierlin clearly explains in his beautiful coffee-table book “Hindu India, from Khajuraho to the Temple City of Madurai,” “We need to seek the profounder meaning of the hymn to carnal love that covers the most beautiful temples of Khajuraho.
“These scenes are not isolated, hidden away from the believer, such as those found in the inner chambers of the brothels in Pompeii and Herculaneum. On the contrary, the erotic theme is a leitmotif in certain parts of the facades of the sanctuaries.
“There is no concealment. The embracing couples are exhibited alongside the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Without thought of modesty or offense, the sculptors have focused on the art of coitus. The sculptures constitute a paean of praise to the sexual act in its most complex form. As a result, the refinement of the poses and their very ostentation confer on them a kind of nobility. There is nothing remotely vulgar about these works.
“In Hindu mythology, divine perfection consists in unity. The separation of masculine and feminine in the natural world creates a tension, the desire to unite and create in the manner of the gods. Serenity results from the union of complementary opposites.”
The sexual act therefore is akin to the original act of creation. And there is nothing in it that we should be ashamed of.
http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=32358
posted by Misteryo Philippines Network (MPN) at 3:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home