Essay Posted by Sheepy. on 2002-April-28 13:09:34, Sunday
Intergenerational love, adults who love youths and adult attracted minors, we
are hardly a modern day phenomenon, are we? We've existed largely in
peace through the millennia amongst the animate, young and grown of the
happy hunter gatherers, who probably had no taboos, until more or less recent
times.
Yet today we find ourselves stereotyped by the definitions of the sex
repressive neo-Puritan societies that we reside amongst. We are loosely
defined as little less than a haunting image of a most fear inspiring evil that
stalks in shadows and chills the spines of families everywhere. Yes, as boy
lovers and girl lovers, we share common ground in persecution whilst
continuing celebrating our sexual attraction to youths -- all the while decrying
the facts that we enjoy few human rights protections and that the young people
who love us are, ironically, victimized by the courts. Juries are prejudiced by
societal stereotyping. Judges are wholly unsympathetic.
And, should we be convicted of any impropriety, even a minuscule
infringement of the law (a mutually enjoyed kiss perhaps) due to having acted
in response to our natural affections and /or sexual orientations, we stand
alone before the bench without customary access to many protections of due
process and upon the tipped scales of a biased, blind justice system. Indeed,
as youth attracted adults, we seldom enjoy basic liberties commonplace to
others. It is sad to note that those who might need help with depression are left
without the freedom to seek confidential, professional counsel to help them to
not break the law before hand -- such is the profundity of this hysteria.
Pondering our shared pains, regardless of the siren song we hear, whether
boy love or girl love, we can see that people within our respective communities
suffer anguish, prejudice, and injustice quite symmetrically, don't they?
Here is one article that will help enlighten how it can be said that political
leaders amd religionists have acted as dictators of what was and was not seen as
acceptable sexual practices throughout history.
Sex in History
by Al Link and Pala Copeland
Urban Male Magazine, Summer 2001
(reprinted with permission of the authors)
As we human beings have changed and evolved over our thousands of years
of recorded history so have our attitudes and expressions of all things sexual.
The only thing that hasn’t changed much is society’s desire to exercise a
certain amount of control over an individual’s sexual behaviour. Whether it be
through church or state, educational institutions or popular media of the time,
there have been rules and regulations, views and taboos about what we
should do sexually, how we should do it, who we should do it with and even
how we should think about doing it.
BODY PARTS
A particular area of interest to religionists and goverments, naturally, has been
the body and specifically those parts that are obviously connected with sex.
We’ve alternately hidden and displayed, worshipped and derided male and
female genitalia.
In most non-Christian cultures there were gods and goddesses of power and
fertility with exaggerated genitals. Some cultures liked penis gods so much
they had several, for instance the ancient Greeks honoured Priapus, Dionysus
and Hermes. The Eygptians exalted Osiris, Bacchus was the Roman version,
and Shiva reigned in India.
Penis and, less commonly, vulva worship were practiced and this was
reflected in objects connected with daily living. Vases in classical Greece
were decorated with phalluses. In the ruins of Pompeii penis symbols were
found just about everywhere, on bowls, lamps and figurines. Pitchers with
enormous penis spouts were a unique specialty of the Mochica culture of
Peru. The exteriors of medieval Irish churches were adorned with sculptures of
Shelah-na-Gig, a vulva icon. In Egypt enormous symbols of penis power - the
obelisk - were erected all over the landscape. Smaller penis symbols in the
form of amulets and bracelets were worn as magical protection against evil in
ancient Rome. In fact, the English word ‘fascinate’ is derived from ‘fascinum’
the Latin word for these magic penis images.
Words describing body parts vary from culture to culture and often reflect the
attitudes we have about them. In India and China the penis and vagina were
approached with respect and awe. Terms like Jade Flute, Arrow of Love,
Ambassador, Warrior for the penis and Valley of Joy, Ripe Peach, Lotus
Blossom, Enchanted Garden for vagina were used. In the English language
however, words are much more likely to be discourteous: dick, tool, meat,
dong and pussy, crack, slit.
Cock and prick are two of the longest-standing terms for penis in English.
Prick was actually a pet name up until the seventeenth century when times
became much more prudish and prick gradually became ostracized. Now it’s
used not as a term of endearment but of scorn. Cock, another penis word,
comes from the name for the male barnyard fowl but in the late seventeenth
century uptight early Americans were so offended by this that they began
calling the bird rooster. Other common objects also had their names changed
to make them more seemly: haycock turned into haystack, weathercock into
weathervane, and apricock into apricot,. Yiddish slang words for penis include
schlong, putz and schmuck. Believe it or not in 1962 comedian Lenny Bruce
was arrested because he used the terms schmuck and putz in his act!
When it comes to penises many cultures have considered bigger to be better.
But in classical Greece delicate and small penises (yummy) were the best.
Big sex organs were thought to be ‘coarse and ugly’. During this time young
athletes worked out in the nude. As protection for his private parts a man
pulled his foreskin over the head of his penis, tied it with a ribbon and then
fastened the ribbon ends to the base of the shaft. This precursor to the modern
jock strap was known as a dog knot.
Other means of protecting and, in most cases, emphasizing the penis include
codpieces, sheaths and even paper sculptures. Codpieces, which are brightly
coloured and gaily ornamented pouches for penis and testicles, were worn by
Europeans over tight breeches and under short jackets during the fourteenth
through sixteenth centuries. Protective and decorative penis sheaths were
common among primitive societies. Made out of everything from leather and
vegetable fibres to bamboo, gourds and shells these sheaths were the
mainstay of a man’s wardrobe. From the ninth to the twelfth centuries
Japanese men packaged their penises inside an animal shaped paper
sculpture. This practice was designed to increase sexual pleasure: the penis
would take on the qualities of the animal it was packed inside and the lovers
would then act out fantasies stirred up by the animal package.
LOOK BUT DON'T TOUCH
Although we’ve been fascinated by and have focused on our genitals since
time began, in many cultures there has paradoxically been a policy of look but
don’t touch, at least not your own. Self-pleasuring, or masturbation, has been
vilified for a number of reasons. For instance the Taoists in China condemned
male masturbation to the point of ejaculation as wasteful because too much
‘yang' or masculine energy would be lost with the expelled
semen. The Christian church raised masturbation to a level of damnable sin.
Penitential books published by the church during the eighth century, which
outlined proscribed sexual practices and their accompanying penalties,
emphasized masturbation over any other sexual offence.
From the eighteenth century onward doctors and scientists joined in the battle
against self-pleasuring. Leader of the pack was Swiss physician Simon Andre
Tissot who in 1758 preached that masturbation would stimulate an increase in
blood pressure in the head thereby damaging the nervous system and causing
insanity. Other doctors quickly joined the battle, blaming masturbation for such
ills as: acne, backache, blindness, constipation, epilepsy, gout, infertility,
nymphomania (alas) and vomiting. These were not the opinions of a few
quacks but commonly held beliefs throughout western society.
From the 1850s until the 1930s thirty-three patents were issued in the U.S. to
inventors of anti-masturbation devices. These painful and humiliating gadgets
included such items as: spermatorrhea bandages, which bound the penis so
tightly to the body that erection was not possible; a spike-lined ring which
drove sharp metal points into a penis that was becoming erect; sexual armour,
clothing with metal crotches which had holes through which urine could escape
but which had to be unlocked at the back for defecation; the “Stephenson
Spermatic Truss”, a pouch which tied the penis back and down between the
legs; and a harness which would ring an alarm and give an electric shock
when a penis attempted to enlarge! It wasn’t until Alfred Kinsey, in his
ground-breaking research about sex that began in the 1930s, proclaimed that
over 90 percent of men admitted to masturbating at least once that attitudes
began to relax.
SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Most likely because from the neolithic period (10,000 - 4,000 BC) up until the
late 17th century it was believed that men alone were responsible for
producing children through the magic of their semen, women ranked second in
just about everything including sex. Women were viewed as childbearers and
childrearers and as objects for male sexual satisfaction. Often it was not the
same woman who filled both roles.
In almost all cultures from ancient Eygptian, Babylonian, Greek, Indian, Asian
and on, women belonged to their fathers when they were very young and then
to their husbands when they reached marriageable age. Their behaviour,
particularly sexual, was most often highly restricted. The ancient Hebrews
stoned women to death for adultery. Early Romans could kill their wandering
women as well. Later they were simply obliged to divorce them as were
husbands in classical Greece.
Europeans kept their women from straying through the use of chastity belts
which first appeared there during the 12th century and became quite popular
during the 1400s and 1500s. Many chastity belts were secured by padlocks,
some had rigid metal bands which could be tightened or loosened depending
on the mood of the husband.
Ironically it was female members of the so-called oldest profession,
prostitution, who in many societies had a certain amount of freedom and even
influence. In Sumerian times (2,000 B.C.) prostitutes were respectable
members of the temple. Through sex with a sacred prostitute Sumerian
worshippers paid homage to their gods. Part of the prostitutes’ value was that
their earnings contributed substantially to the temples’ income. Temple (young
male and female) prostitutes were common in Greece and Rome, India, and
even early Christian Europe. In Avignon, France there was a church brothel
where the women divided their time between servicing clients and carrying out
religious duties.
Top-level courtesans enjoyed a more liberated status than other women during
many eras, ancient Greece, Confucian China, 15th century Rome, Louis’
France, and a few were able to become very successful women in a man’s
world. They often received better education, had more social freedom and
wielded influence in politics. End Quote
It appears, after all is analysed, that history is a mixed bag of sexual freedoms.
One point that stands out so disturbingly is that sexual freedoms throughout
recorded history, cross culturally, needed the support of the governmental
elite. The few exceptions were the rare instances where people actually took
the bull of government by the dork and fought steadfastly to establish their
rights to be different. In view of the fact that we will turn purple holding our
breath waiting for the governments to endorse Intergenerational love, the
question should knaw at each of our consciences -- will we fight for the civil
liberty to exist?
Equality of civil liberties, child rights and welfare, and sexual rights should be
fundamental and universal human rights and enshrined at the epicenter of the
cultures our modern day civilizations. An enlightened and secure "people
positive" culture will not arrive on the world scene in its absence. What are we
going to do about it? How can we proceed in a way that guards our current
anonymity and well being (and personal convictions) as well as promotes
dynamic change that will "first of all do no harm"? For any resolutions we
adopt must be carefully crafted with painstaking accuracy so as to be certain
our aim is squarely in the best interests of the kids we love the world over, and
does not violate the right of any to profess and to hold to our personal
convictions. In a culture with a deep respect for these last two considerations,
its citizens can accomplish anything.
Meet me at Common Ground. Let's talk about how we can become peaceful
and powerful advocates for world change.
Love,
Sheepy