Sexophobia

Sexophobia is the fear of sexual organs or sexual activities[1] and, in a larger sense, the fear of sexuality.[2] As such, it can be applied to the attitude of a person based on his or her educational background, personal experience and psyche, or to the general position of collective entities like religious groups, institutions or states.[3]

Sexophobia and religion

Sexuality is regulated in the three main monotheistic religions through the concept of sin. For instance, in Islam there is a series of designated haraam (forbidden) acts, of which zina condemn specifically many kinds of sexual relationships that are viewed as impure. Other religions such as Buddhism predicate a renunciation of sex[4] that may eventually lead to sexophobia.

Catholic Church

Sexophobia as the fear of sex and sexuality has a long and complex history related to the Roman Catholic Church, since its very beginning.[5] It condemned practices such as masturbation[2] and the general enjoyment of the body in favor of chastity and self-mortification. French philosopher Michel Foucault, in his book The History of Sexuality, analyses how the church developed a discourse on sexuality through the ritual of confession. Indeed, catholic priests had to confess whether they had committed any of the sins of the flesh, but also if they had thought of them, or desired them. In the High Middle Ages, confession was reserved to priests, but the church decided later to impose it also to common parishioners in order to generalize the confessions of the flesh among them.[6]

Sexophobia and the State

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union is often cited in studies about State sexophobia, where it was used as a repressive mean to control the population, and more specifically the youth.[7][8] This attitude dates back to the writings and politics of Lenin[9] and Stalin, and was used by the Soviet Communist Party from the 1930s on to censor and destroy all kinds of art works related to sexuality.[10]

Sexophobia and homophobia

Sexophobia as fear of sex may be linked to homophobic attitudes and behaviors, as doctors such as Martin Kantor describe many homophobes as being basically sexophobes, who fear and loathe sexual relationships both between partners of the same sex and between heterosexual partners.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Definition by The Free Dictionary, based on the Segen's Medical Dictionary
  2. 1 2 S. Patton, Michael (Summer 1985). "Masturbation from Judaism to Victorianism". Journal of Religion and Health 24 (2): 133–146. doi:10.1007/bf01532257. Retrieved 30 January 2015. Masturbation was condemned in Judaism and Christianity as the "secret sin" and became the base for social taboo as a sexual deviation in Western civilization.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Richard (2004). (Re)constructing Cultures of Violence and Peace. Rodopi. p. 96. ISBN 9789042011496. Sexophobia is the social and personal stigma associated with anything related to the physical and psychological aspects of sex and sexuality. This is evident from the 1961 Soviet Moral Code (…)
  4. ↑ Numrich, Paul David (25 February 2009). "The Problem with Sex According to Buddhism". Dialog - a journal of theology 48 (1): 62–73. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00431.x. Retrieved 30 January 2015. Given Buddhism’s historic emphasis on a renunciatory ideal modeled by a monastic community, a substantial portion of the essay examines the disciplinary rules and sexual behaviors of Buddhist monks and nuns.
  5. ↑ S. Patton, Michael (Summer 1988). "Suffering and damage in Catholic sexuality". Journal of Religion and Health 27 (2): 130. doi:10.1007/BF01532070. Retrieved 27 January 2015. For almost two millennia the Roman Catholic Church has canonically - legally - prescribed the sexual values of Roman Catholics through an elaborate system of religious-cultural formation, which has undoubtedly contributed to sexual repression in Western societies since the Middle Ages.
  6. ↑ Sevegrand, Martine (1996). L'Amour en toutes lettres [Love in all its letters] (in French). From the Bibliothèque d'Histoire collection. Albin Michel. p. 16.
  7. ↑ Kon, Igor Semyonovich. The Sexual Revolution in Russia: From the Age of the Czars to Today. Free Press. p. 1. Repressive sexophobia was an integral part of maintaining control over individuality.
  8. ↑ Livschiz, Ann (11 December 2008). "Battling "Unhealthy Relations": Soviet Youth Sexuality as a Political Problem". Journal of Historical Sociology (Blackwell Publishing Ltd) 21 (4): 397–416. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00343.x. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Lalo, Alexei (9 September 2011). Libertinage in Russian Culture and Literature: A Bio-History of Sexualities at the Threshold of Modernity. BRILL. p. 40. ISBN 9789004211193. Dmitrii Galkovsky shows Lenin’s personal extreme sexophobia through a fascinating reading of his “philosophical“ writings, correspondence and public talks.
  10. ↑ Francoeur, Robert T.; Noonan, Raymond J. (2004). The Continuum - Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. A&C Black. p. 40. ISBN 9780826414885. Stalinist sexophobia had practically exterminated all Russian erotic art.
  11. ↑ Murray, David A. B. (2009). Homophobias: Lust and Loathing across Time and Space. 2009. p. 37. ISBN 9780822391395.

See also


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