In a world where it is considered an offence to show our naked body in public and lovemaking is to be hidden, and yet gratuitous violence or depictions of murders are considered to be entertainment, how can our young people learn to show affection for, to honour, or to make love to those they choose to love as partners?
Our young people are growing up in a world of desensitisation, and this is most pronounced in terms of their sexuality. Desensitisation from hard, fast and abrasive sex, that is oriented towards the goal of peak orgasm in the minimum of time, in a world that never has time for anything. Or psychological desensitisation arising from fear of real intimacy that would shine a light on the truth of who we actually are, reflected in the eyes of our lover. Even things like genital shaving or waxing in women, and men, that leads to reduction in physical sensitivity; or where men are having Botox injected into their testicles, to make them look larger and less wrinkly, or women are getting their labia trimmed to make them look more acceptable, or putting household cleaning products into their genitals to make them less odorous, or where people are getting their anus bleached…. In a culture where there is outcry that the genitals of girls are cut and yet it is acceptable to cut away part of the genitals of boys within hours of their birth.
Where do our young people learn about making love and sexuality? They learn the mechanics of making babies and avoiding STDs in school and most learn anything else from watching porn. Where many young girls’ first experience of sexual penetration is anal sex, or their boyfriends want oral sex before they will kiss them….
By the time of their 40s most men are experiencing some form of erectile dysfunction and this is considered to be normal. It doesn’t need to be. Both men and women are experiencing deep distress from lack of intimacy and touch and feelings of isolation, such that many are actually taking their own lives. Far more are simply existing through their lives, rather than thriving and creating and contribution to the lives of those around them.
This in a world where tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of children are being trafficked and supplied as commodities to be used as, often disposable, sexual objects.
These are only a tiny pin-prick of the total impact and cost to the individual, their families, communities, and the world at large. What of the economic impact? How much art or literature or pleasure is never created because too many are trapped in these cages and spaces of despair and misery?
