Philosophy Now Forum

Critics of the sex-positive movement and compulsory sexuality say that those things are oppressive.

Good so far.

But when those critics say who is being oppressed they add to the categories/"orientations"/identities structure by lumping everything else into the popular new category of "asexuality".

A few problems:

1.) People are still primarily being seen as sexual beings.

2.) What if a person is not asexual? What if none of the categories describe his/her relationship with human sexuality? What if he/she is a healthy heterosexual who simply does not value sex? The sex-positive movement, as I understand it, sees such a person as "repressed". The critics of the sex-positive movement apparently also see such a person as repressed.


True liberation will be when everybody has the freedom to respond to human sexuality in whatever way they are inclined without any formal or informal social sanctions.

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What about pedophilia, bestiality, and also rape? What about also considering procreation, instead of making sex into this idea of 'eternal pleasure'?

I believe there should also be a consideration of self-control.

When a person is subjected to social sanctions because of his/her pedophilia, is he/she "repressed"?

WanderingLands wrote:What about pedophilia, bestiality, and also rape? What about also considering procreation, instead of making sex into this idea of 'eternal pleasure'?

I believe there should also be a consideration of self-control.

What about antisexualism?

Antisexualism aside, what about being able to think that sex is not desirable, should not be a priority, is overrated, etc. without being seen as "repressed"? What about being able to not like sex without being seen as "repressed" or hearing that you need the help of medical and/or mental health professionals?

It is a fallacy to make a dichotomy of sexually 'repressed' and sexually 'active'; I believe there must be a balanced libido at least to keep a healthy body and mind. There are many negative side effects to having too much sex or being too sexual, both physically and mentally. You can have hair loss, loss of semen, lack of sexual stimulation, possible STIs and STDs, and can psychology affect you in a negative way if you were to have too much porn or to become too obsessive with sex.

Tim4Wisdom wrote:compulsory sexuality

What's compulsory sexuality? O.o

One thing - all directly involved enjoys themselves and suffers no injury "afterwards" (you see what i mean... )

That's one level.

The other is when society as such has moral or religious considerations for what is appropriate. That's more complex, and I guess it's hard to say anything apart from a situation-to-situation basis, although organisations like UN might have recommendations.

The Voice of Time wrote:

Tim4Wisdom wrote:compulsory sexuality

What's compulsory sexuality? O.o

Sex that is done to meet the demands/expectations of society--not the result of the intentions of the self.

And where do you think you find that?

The Voice of Time wrote:And where do you think you find that?

I do not know about other cultures, but in the culture that I live in everybody almost constantly hears/sees messages telling him/her that sex is "natural", "normal", "healthy", etc. and feels social pressure to be sexually active.

You find it everywhere all of the time.

Why is that pressure?

You're not gonna have sex unless you're horny or have found somebody you'd like to have it with anyways.

I mean, if you're in a bad environment, you can be pressured to do all sorts of stuff because people are idiots. But society on large, at least in my country of Norway, it's really up to whatever you feel like. There's no more "pressure" than the one you create yourself.

If there is any pressure it's probably because you are in a relationship where you are not able to satisfy your partner. In which case one should usually not be in a partnership, but most choose to stay and then they probably will feel some pressure, but the pressure they've first of all put on themselves because they choose to stay. You can't stick to an unsatisfying relationship and expect it to not demand extra of you ^^

Sure you're not just talking about some random bad environment or a movie?