EROS DENIED Introduction/Summary Eros denie

Eros denied. Sex in Western society by Young (1964) is a book about the sexual mores of the West as compared to other societies and cultures. The author states that the subject of sex continues to have a sense of confusion and fear; he states that throughout the West, most spend their entire lives in this hesitant state regarding sex and love. Reasons for this state of mind may be due to human nature as well as societal mores stemming from the structure of Christian and post-Christian attitudes. Sex is excluded from the realm of normal.

Sex is excluded even in the form of certain words; as with English, the French, Italian and German have words which are taboo in conversation and literature. The author views this phenomenon as an example of how we are not at peace with ourselves regarding love and sex; anxiety and quilt is renewed in each generation. Images are also excluded; descriptions and depictions of people having sex are passed around by men in the absence of women. The author states that images of sex are excluded for reasons of discomfort regarding sex, rather than for aesthetics.

American law regulates access to these types of images and uses the word corrupt when regarding law of obscenity. In Britain the legal definition of obscenity regards the phrase deprave and corrupt; in 1868 the Hicklin Judgement provided this law for ninety-one years and the phrase was "corrupt and deprave those who are open to such influe

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people from having sex with a new person when they want to. Other reasons include our own feelings and decisions (eventual loss of spouse). The author also makes note of the notion that the retention of semen is believed to be held as a way of conserving vital strength. Next the revolt against orthodox Christianity is discussed; libertinism pertains to a way of life that valued promiscuous sex. The beginning of this period was against the asceticism in Christianity, it was based on a rival conception of the Christian God and was considered a heresy. The second period was against Christianity itself; it included class tension and a revolt against religion, ethics, and society. The end of this period was marked by an extreme variant of libertinism which the author called sexual stakhanovism. Promiscuity existed for its own sake rather than as a revolt against something else; this pattern is now in Europe and America. Critique The red queen. Sex and the evolution of human nature by Ridley (1993) regards sex as a part of human nature. Human beings are said to inherit tendencies to reproduce. The notion of survival of the fittest builds on this notion and points out that bodies do things that perpetuate the genes that wi

Category: Psychology - E