On a recent trip to the theatre, I laughed and clapped and cried at the current Broadway Tony Award winning show, Avenue Q. One of the songs from the show, sung by a big fuzzy animal puppet is “The Internet is for Porn!” The character’s joy and enthusiasm is fully life affirming, and he seems unaffected by his fellow characters urgent attempts to quiet him.
The unmitigated enthusiasm the audience unleashed on the performance of this number reminded me that almost all contemporary stories about sex are focused on sexual exploitation. Consequentially, the public’s experience of sex gets split between the tragic results of sexual exploitation or the individual (should I say secretive) experience of sex on the internet.
I hear there are some people who still enjoy sex with other people.
This line of thinking got me to look back at Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, a collection of sometimes-ribald stories from the 15th century. Those were the days.
I guess sex and sexual innuendo have always been popular. The sad reality today is that sex gets heavily burdened by the threat of disease and deception. One of the great sex moments in my life came as I helped facilitate sex education workshops for youth and their parents in the context of religious communities. We always began carefully, because everyone brings baggage to the topic. But before long, we could see young and older faces relax and even laugh as the topic of ourselves as sexual beings came out of the closet and enjoyed the effects of sunlight. In reality, we are a species incarnate.
I hope you get a good laugh, or at least a warm smile, from some aspect of your sexuality this week.
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