Sexual Shame in Our Politics

Comment

Comment by jay H on October 28, 2012 at 7:03am

Shame is a complex and powerful emotion, an evolutionary component of our socialization instincts. The strong desire to not be seen as orthagonal to the norms of the group functions as a way of keeping members coordinated without overt coercion.

Of course such a powerful drive is often subverted, or used to manipulate. Entities as diverse as environmental groups to religious groups and everything in between actively work at creating frameworks to instill a sense of shame and tweak others to their particular preferences.

Sexual areas are particularly subject to such manipulation because of the deep psychological baggage, hence: "homosexuality is bad", "hedonism is bad", "alternative sexuality is bad", "prostitution is bad", all are ways to attempt to bring people to your preferred behavior when you don't have sufficient coercive power to do it.

Comment by Tonya Wynn on October 25, 2012 at 3:14pm

I'll have to read it later, but religion certainly does use shame regarding SEX.  I think it is because sex is so powerful and the church fears that power and allure.  But, we do need to be responsible/safe about sex.