Sex is a dirty word: Yes or No?

 

2016-02-26

PART 1

Victor Ivan, founder editor of the Ravaya newspaper, had recently discussed a taboo subject in two ground breaking articles. 

This is in response to President Maithripala Sirisena’s outraged remarks after a female fan threw a bra at pop icon -Enrique Iglesias. 

His writing here is ground breaking because, as I recall, Ranga Jayasuriya (One of the Daily Mirror columnists) is the only other journalist to have written about the sexual dilemmas of Sri Lankans in recent times. 

He said bluntly and with courage that Sri Lanka needs a sexual revolution. Everyone else avoids the topic like the Ebola virus.

Victor’s Ivan’s writing was timely and fills a void because the print media in both Sinhala and English (And presumably in Tamil) avoid any serious discussion of the fundamental questions related to sex and sexuality in Sri Lanka. 

Views are highly conservative and puritanical, defending the stifling status quo. Writing about sex is approved of only if it is crime-related, or when it becomes gossip. 

Hence, the subject is effectively taboo, and ‘sex’ amounts to a dirty word rather than a noun, which clinically states one’s gender and preferences.

Victor Ivan’s thinking in this context is laudable because many journalists of his generation share the same horror of this taboo word. The younger generation by and large share the same horror and prejudice. If anything, they seem to be even more puritanical than their predecessors, coming out with titillation, gossip and dirty jokes using the internet instead of any serious exchange of views.

The very word leads us to a hidden world, where things are assumed or taken for granted, rather than known, identified and discussed based on empirical data. 

In a modern society, this amounts to a huge social malaise, and it doesn’t help that almost all our top intellectuals and thinkers are Victorian prudes. 

Discussing sexuality, as I have discovered, is the best way to alienate ‘thinking’ people, both men and women. Their minds go blank the moment you say ‘sex.’

The problems imposed on our society by this Puritanism and refusal to discuss a subject so vital to our reproduction, well being and safety are enormous. 

- See more >>>