Taking it Back

There's a lot of wars being fought on abstract nouns

War on terror
War on drugs
War on culture (well inverse the word order)

but one war I have beef with is

the War on Sex

I think religion has used and manipulated sex, and I'm tired of anyone in my bedroom other than me. No politician, no cleric, no moral majority need tell me about the sexual behaviors of my choice and their consequences.

I understand that sex carries with it an incredible bonding factor. It's called OXYTOCIN.

Personally, I believe sex can be beautiful and wonderful and magical (enter faeries stage left) in a loving committed relationship. It can. Perhaps it was designed that way. If not by a deity, by evolution. Something is to be said about a monogamous pair bond as it strikes out into the world to produce little genetic copies more adept at interacting with their environment. Or giving their kids a better chance at success than they had. (pick your poison: science or religion)

It can. But sex is also deeper than that; or perhaps shallow is the word I'm looking for.

Either way. Sex is an individual's own choosing.

Religion, Politics, Morality-- they've all taken sex hostage, and the ransom is marriage.

Whether it's a fetish or homosexuality, adultery or premarital sex: people seem to think they know what's better for someone else. Especially in the realm of sex. Because sex is so taboo we don't talk about it.

Sure you can talk about how much the media inundates us with sex images and suggestions. True.

But we as a society don't talk about it. We don't educate our youth about it, we send them to school where they get abstinence only education and are taught that condoms are virtually ineffective against HIV.

So what they learn they learn in locker rooms and bathroom stalls. And the teen pregnancy rate is on the rise for the first time in years.

We need to take sex back. Refuse to pay an arbitrary ransom and begin open, honest, even if uncomfortable discussion with youth. And perhaps with our selves.