Bestiality and Contraception

If that title doesn't get me some google hits, I'm done for.

An update on my personal life is at the bottom of this post, if you care about that and not about bestiality, you have a bizarre sense of what is interesting, but you can scroll down nonetheless.

So, last week Shorto wrote an article for the New York Times about the ongoing and burgeoning war on contraception in American society. It was a flawed article, sure, but he made some good points, and opened up the eyes of many about the slippery slope problems that could be associated with letting some rights to abortion fall to the wayside.

Another thing that I think he did fairly well was pull out the logic of those who would like to reserve sexuality for Christian heterosexual marriage, and think about the arguments they make. I think those folks really do think that back in the day, when sex only happened in marriage, and the body was a temple, there was less homosexuality, and not the undue emphasis on sexuality that there is today. As Shorto says, "Contraception, by this logic, encourages sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance (like homosexuality) and a preoccupation with sex that is unhealthful even within marriage."

If you are wondering how the availability of contraceptions increases homosexuality, this is not the blog to answer your questions -- I am flummoxed as to how they got to this conclusion.

Stephanie Coontz in writing about marriage and how we think about it today, has pointed out that we have a false and rose-colored idea of what marriage used to be, and in all of our romanticizing and white weddings we are harkening back to an ideal than never existed. The same is true with these people's ideas of sexuality in heterosexual marriages back in the olden days.

It wasn't all it is cracked up to be. Sure, we don't know a lot about how marriage really worked for the people involved because history decided as a discipline a while ago to pay less attention to the private sphere, but some good scholarship has been unearthing it. Sure, men had sex with their wives, maybe their wives only had sex with them. But marriage is certainly not the only place that sex happened.

a. It's called the oldest profession for a reason. Enough said.

b. Casual MSM sex was a lot more common. Men who have sex with men were more common than they are now. Men were often bedfellows, and often had sex with each other. Usually whoever was the penetrator got to keep their identity as a man, and whoever was penetrated lost that identity -- or at least that identity became more troubled.

c. Bestiality happened. I think in part it happened, like MSM sex, because there was no fear of pregnancy. In those days, we lived more closely with our domestic animals and livestock, and opporutunity was definitely a factor. If you want a conversation of this that doesn't rely on the vague and unsatisfactory term "in those days" check out the first chapter of this book. It talks both about MSM sex and bestiality/buggery. Also, if you are in this field, it's a great teaching text.

Do I think that if contraception is made illegal or inaccessible in this country there will be an increase in prostitution, casual homosexuality and people screwing their sheep? No. I don't. But I am also very wary of people who say that it will make marriage in a sacred and pure (barely) sexual union that it never was.

Personal Update:
I was in BigCity this weekend for the exciting FamilyEvent. It was nice, I'm so proud of my sister it makes me cry. It was also very stressful, as spending time with broken and blended family is.

I greatly underestimated my aunt and uncle who live in LiberalCity in RedState where TP also lives. I had been putting off coming out to them for months because they are Republicans and Catholic, and maybe the most classist people I've ever met and I was terrified of them. When I told her that I was going to be in LiberalCity for two weeks, she asked why, and I said that the person I was dating lived there, and she immediately said "Oh? What does she do there?". Which was a relief. We'll deal with gender identity another day. Honestly, I think their biggest concern is that I promise to always call when I'm in town and let them take me out to dinner, mooch off their privilege, and, of course, drink their ginger margaritas (YUM).

I haven't heard from DreamJob. Fingers still crossed, should hear about whether I'm getting a 2nd interview this week.