Commentary on Gymniad - III

Another thing that I did not understand is that humans, alone among all creatures, are ashamed of our sexuality. Such an attitude is not natural: it had to be taught. History does not take us back very far, but it is safe to say that we have labored under this burden of shame for thousands of years.

Why was such shame spread, and even enforced? Why did we have to be squeezed into a mold of the unnatural? Who stood to gain by such a perversion of our nature? I submit that it was, again, the patriarchal forces that came into prominence after the agricultural revolution. Those patriarchal, machista men had already perverted love and sex in their own lives, and they were ashamed. They were, in other words, ashamed of themselves.

Coming more into times that we are familiar with, we are met with the biblical prohibitions against allowing ones "nakedness" to be seen (even by family), and Paul's sad, anti-sexual attitudes. These trends unfortunately increased, and were enforced with ever-greater ferocity during the "Middle Ages" in Europe.

But we do not have to be like that. For the sake of our mental, physical, and emotional health, let us reject all that is not natural, and begin again to truly love.