Happy Atheist Forum

I just put up a new post about sex dealing with the sexual culture in America.  I would have liked to put more emphasis on the part religion plays in the twisting of sexuality but I wanted wider appeal and think it comes across as subtext.  Please let me know what you think.

The Sick Sexual Culture of America (http://www.thisisby.us/index.php/content/the_sick_sexual_culture_of_america)

And by all means, please feel free to comment on the page with your opinion on American sex culture especially as affected by religion!

Very nice post Kylyssa.What I always wondered is why in the USA they are so puritan regarding to sex. If for example the french president has two or more maitresses then nobody gives a damn, but if in the USA one tit falls out of a lady's dress the whole country is in uproar. Not to mention the American TV and film industry that shows people making love with their cloths on; a seven years old boy giving a seven years old girl a kiss being thrown off school for sexual harassment , etc. etc.. As I'm a foreigner I can only judge the USA from the outside, so I might not see the full picture, but what I've seen so far is that a lot of Americans regard sex as being something bad. On one hand you've got this very puritan views (most likely fueled by religion) and on the other hand you've got in the USA the largest porn industry in the world. Both don't seem very useful to educate the american people in having a healthy sexlife. For that reason alone I think that it is very important that you keep those marvelous articles of yours coming.

Thanks, Tom.

I'm currently writing two books on sexuality topics.  One is a political piece and the other is a book on healthy hedonistic sex.

I feel the religious right in America is Hell bent (pun intended) on setting the sexual revolution back a hundred years.  I've taken it on as my mission to counter it.

Hey Tom62 - I share your views of American sexual attitudes.  And I agree, the porn industry in the country is huge, but the publicly accepted portrayal/discussion of sex is highly curtailed.  Its hypocritical to me.  I've always presumed that the reason we have a puritanical sexual outlook is because so many of the country's early settlers were puritans, and their views became established and propagated down through history.

Here's something funny to think about:  if the vast majority of Americans are religious, and the vast majority publicly disavow pornography, then who's buying all the porn?  This country is filled with lying bastards!

I agree with all of you. Sexuality seems to be publicised, at least, as a very rigid, almost formal interaction in the US. And there's a certain code of conduct, too: courting, long term straight relationship followed by standard, orthodox sex (no room for fetishism or anything here). There's are two codes that get emphasised by American media: "Shhhhhh! Only have.... have the s-word when you're married and keep it hush hush because children might be watching this program and they must be shielded from everything bar political, academic and religious indoctrination," along side "You are a man, therefore you like big breasted, stupid, submissive and sexually over-active blond women with big lips and permanently confused expressions. Otherwise you can't be part of the cool gang." It's a strange contradiction between the excessive censorship of sexuality on mainstream American TV and the excessive emphasis on sexuality - mainly targeting men - by the American private sector as a tool for advertising... yet somehow, inexplicably, they manage to blend together half way in between and almost compliment one another. Also, bizarrely, I don't know very many members of the American public who see it either way; it's mainly in things like US TV and other media that I've observed this.

Europe, in general, is a lot more relaxed with regards to most of the rigid, formal orthodoxies that can manifest around sexuality. It's much more obvious in British TV and we don't mind making reference to deviance from the norm either. We still get a fair amount of this crap in magazines and such, though: "Here is a car that is parked next to a semi-naked, living, breathing, life-sized Barbie doll. She could be your girlfriend and you could sleep with her... if only you had that car " Yes and if only her c**t wasn't 'MADE IN CHINA'.