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assignment 05

In Rubin’s, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” she observes the notion of sex in Western culture. Rubin believes that sex is heavily viewed and practiced politically, rather than our natural property. Sex is only accepted in society in terms of marriage, love, or reproduction. And sex on any other terms is considered to be taboo, most especially if it involves homosexuals. Things like fetishes, sex toys, porn, and almost anything else in the context of sex, is presumed to be bad and unnatural. However the only unnatural part of this all really, is for western culture to even determine whether or not the act of sex is good or bad. It attaches sex with morality, when sex is just a natural expression, that we cannot always control, just like our hunger. Rubin mentions that our choice of diet is like our choice of sexuality. But, yet sexuality is viewed differently from other parts of our body. Western culture has idealized sexual behavior, and conforms people to their standards of “moral” sex.

Simply being a homosexual was considered to be a sexual offense. It places your entire character to be  good or bad just because of your sexual preference. And today, we can still see the same things going on. We are constantly under this pressure, when sex should be allowed, how, who, where, etc. Sex has become such a political system that it robs sex from its natural state. Our sex lives have socially become more of a burden. And this extends western culture’s power of judgement to say what is moral and immoral. How far is this supposed to go? There are limitations on how much relativism can go on in a culture. It is threatening our birthrights. Sexual oppression has been evident historically, and still is today.