Sex
&
Puritanism
A few thoughts
One of the annoying things about our society is the way it deals with sex. Frankly it is both repulsive and annoying how our society overtly sexualizes so much.
Since our society at least in the west is obsessed with sex in the sense of sexualizing so much, waning interest is frequently viewed has some sort of calamity, a disaster to be thwarted, retarded and reversed. Even societies that make much of a premium on female modesty and repress overt sexuality in fact obsess over sex.
In the Muslim world the hysterical fervour with which in some places pressure is brought to bear on women to hide their bodies and be modest, the moves, by fanatics like the Taliban to exclude women has much as possible from the public square speaks of an infatuation and total sexualization of the female body. the sight of bare skin of a women's arm, or of her hair is loaded with sexuality and men are deemed utterly unable to control themselves so the totally serxualized female form must be hidden and in fact women are so totally sexualized that women must be excluded entirely from the public square according to some of these fanatics. In fact women are so thoroughly sexualized that the mere public presence of a woman is deemed sexually provocative by some fanatical groups.
Such extreme sexualization of woman goes hand in glove with the idea that women are in some sense male property whose sexualized essence has value to the male holders of the proprietry interest in the female whose sexualization and sexual nature are deemed to exist for male satisfactions and interests.
Thus the display of female flesh is deemed to be a display of the sexualized female body that allows other males to participate in the sexual enjoyment of women and thus violate the proprietary interests of the men of the family.
Now the usual justification for such is that the Koran requires and mandates female modesty. Of course the Koran also mandates male modesty but that is usually forgotten by the sex obsessed puritans of fanatical, fundamentalist Islam.
Such extreme sexualization of woman goes hand in glove with the idea that women are in some sense male property whose sexualized essence has value to the male holders of the proprietry interest in the female whose sexualization and sexual nature are deemed to exist for male satisfactions and interests.
Thus the display of female flesh is deemed to be a display of the sexualized female body that allows other males to participate in the sexual enjoyment of women and thus violate the proprietary interests of the men of the family.
Now the usual justification for such is that the Koran requires and mandates female modesty. Of course the Koran also mandates male modesty but that is usually forgotten by the sex obsessed puritans of fanatical, fundamentalist Islam.
In comparison a nudist colony is desexualized and therefore "modest" despite the fact that everything is so to speak showing.
Since it is clear that Puritan's of whatever stripe are in fact sex obsessed and do in fact sexualize bodies and more specifically female bodies to a truly extraordinary degree it is also clear that if anyone has a dirty prurient mind it is the sex obsessed Puritan.
Thus during Victorian times Puritans proceeded to sexualize so many aspects of life. Some fanatics refused to say words like leg, or trousers because it referred to directly or indirectly to body parts that could be sexualized. This was of course both absurd and frankly sick. Sex was so obsessed over that anything that may, even obliquely, refer to it was to be rigorously excluded from public mention. Ones very vocabulary was to be rigorously and continually policed in order to exclude any potentially "sexual" expressions or mentions of the carnal body. This is of course quite similar to the aims of fanatics who have so sexualized the body that showing certain areas of the body in public like arms above the elbow legs etc., is deemed "sexual" and must be shielded from public view thus sexualizing, and turning carnal the display of female hair or arms and legs. Thus the entire body, especially the female body is sexualized and turned from someone's body into a collection of erotic, sexual parts that exist to excite people, generally men. A women becomes her sexualized body.
If our society overtly obsesses over sex, other societies obsess by making determined efforts to avoid so-called sexual images and behaviour and by covering up the highly sexual body, especially the female body. Making all this effort to deny sex, cover it up etc., indicates a clear infatuation and obsession with it. Making all this effort to avoid it indicates at least the same degree of infantile interest in sex as modern Western societies but in a particularly grotesque and prurient manner with very unfortunate social consequences.
Pierre Cloutier
Since it is clear that Puritan's of whatever stripe are in fact sex obsessed and do in fact sexualize bodies and more specifically female bodies to a truly extraordinary degree it is also clear that if anyone has a dirty prurient mind it is the sex obsessed Puritan.
Thus during Victorian times Puritans proceeded to sexualize so many aspects of life. Some fanatics refused to say words like leg, or trousers because it referred to directly or indirectly to body parts that could be sexualized. This was of course both absurd and frankly sick. Sex was so obsessed over that anything that may, even obliquely, refer to it was to be rigorously excluded from public mention. Ones very vocabulary was to be rigorously and continually policed in order to exclude any potentially "sexual" expressions or mentions of the carnal body. This is of course quite similar to the aims of fanatics who have so sexualized the body that showing certain areas of the body in public like arms above the elbow legs etc., is deemed "sexual" and must be shielded from public view thus sexualizing, and turning carnal the display of female hair or arms and legs. Thus the entire body, especially the female body is sexualized and turned from someone's body into a collection of erotic, sexual parts that exist to excite people, generally men. A women becomes her sexualized body.
If our society overtly obsesses over sex, other societies obsess by making determined efforts to avoid so-called sexual images and behaviour and by covering up the highly sexual body, especially the female body. Making all this effort to deny sex, cover it up etc., indicates a clear infatuation and obsession with it. Making all this effort to avoid it indicates at least the same degree of infantile interest in sex as modern Western societies but in a particularly grotesque and prurient manner with very unfortunate social consequences.
Pierre Cloutier
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