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Sex Love and Marriage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Extract

Why do we say, rightly, that sex is something that generally speaking, should not be talked about in public, in mixed groups, especially between boys and girls? Is it because sex is mean and shameful, perhaps even sinful?; Is it because sex is the private concern of men only, something therefore, that women need not bother about and are not entitled to know about? Is it because sex is something holy and sacred, something to be protected; a mystery whose secrets we penetrate only gradually; something, therefore, to be kept secret, in various measures, from the eyes of the uninitiated; and all this in order that this holy thing might not be abused by ignorant, careless, or wicked people?

Certainly not for the first reason. Sex is not dirty and shameful still less sinful. ‘God created man to his own image; male and female he created them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1957 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 This essay is an amalgam of some points made in a number of talks on tnis subject to different groups of people, from school-leavers to young married couples. It is an attempt to present the theme in broad outline, rather than a discussion of any one aspect in close detail. Inevitably, there are a number of different levels of thought and a certain unevenness in writing.

2 I am not making moral judgments here, in any of the many senses that word seems to have. I am merely stating certain psychological attitudes.

3 God and the Unconscious. (Harvill Press; pp. 157-158.)