2008 Woodie Awards
Modern marriage makes people posses each other
Humans suffer through another prolonged sexual crisis
Vince Ochoa
Issue date: 3/13/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Sexual issues are among the most crucial problems demanding attention today.
Throughout human history, the problems of sex have occupied a central place in society. Relationships between the sexes have conjured the attention of millions of troubled people.
The social and sexual inadequacy of the contemporary psyche that our society has developed has worsened a sexual crisis by characterizing it by the psychology of modern man, the idea of possessing the married partner and the belief that the two sexes are unequal in every way.
Marriage has introverted the individualistic family based on private property and has cultivated the idea that one partner should possess the other, an idea more pervasive now than under the patrimonial system of marriage. In contrast to today, for long historical periods the idea of a man possessing his wife didn't go further than a purely physical possession.
This is not the first time that new values have blurred the meaning of moral commandments about sexual relationships.
Sexual crises were acute during the Renaissance and the Reformation, when social advancement created the establishment of a new social force, the ruling class.
The sexual morality of the feudal world developed from the tribal way of life, the collective economy and authoritarian leadership that stifles individual will. This clashed with the new and strange moral code of the ruling class.
Sexual morality of those in power founded the principles in a sharp contradiction to the basic morality of feudalism. Strict individualism and the exclusiveness and isolation of the family replaced the collective work that was characteristic of the economic structure of patrimonial life.
Under capitalism, the ethic of competition, the principles of individualism and exclusive private property grew and destroyed the idea of the community. For a whole century, when old norms turned into new ideals, men wandered confusedly between two very different sexual codes and attempted to accommodate themselves with both.
Throughout human history, the problems of sex have occupied a central place in society. Relationships between the sexes have conjured the attention of millions of troubled people.
The social and sexual inadequacy of the contemporary psyche that our society has developed has worsened a sexual crisis by characterizing it by the psychology of modern man, the idea of possessing the married partner and the belief that the two sexes are unequal in every way.
Marriage has introverted the individualistic family based on private property and has cultivated the idea that one partner should possess the other, an idea more pervasive now than under the patrimonial system of marriage. In contrast to today, for long historical periods the idea of a man possessing his wife didn't go further than a purely physical possession.
This is not the first time that new values have blurred the meaning of moral commandments about sexual relationships.
Sexual crises were acute during the Renaissance and the Reformation, when social advancement created the establishment of a new social force, the ruling class.
The sexual morality of the feudal world developed from the tribal way of life, the collective economy and authoritarian leadership that stifles individual will. This clashed with the new and strange moral code of the ruling class.
Sexual morality of those in power founded the principles in a sharp contradiction to the basic morality of feudalism. Strict individualism and the exclusiveness and isolation of the family replaced the collective work that was characteristic of the economic structure of patrimonial life.
Under capitalism, the ethic of competition, the principles of individualism and exclusive private property grew and destroyed the idea of the community. For a whole century, when old norms turned into new ideals, men wandered confusedly between two very different sexual codes and attempted to accommodate themselves with both.