Ovi Magazine Issue #12: Sexuality Published: 01-03-2006

The way
will find love
By Jan Sand
The two most inflammatory subjects within human societies are sex and religion. Although there are many more
urgent problems confronting humanity, which are far more basic to survival, violations to conformity in sex and
religion arouse the most controversy frequently accompanied by violence.
The recent outcries over Janet
Jackson’s nipple and the cartoons
depicting Muhammad substantiate
that something emotionally explosive
exists in both of them and
apparently an over close public inspection
of both religious icons and
sexual instruments can be dangerous.
And the many restrictions that
religions place on sex indicate that
there is a connection between the
two.
The legend of Adam and Eve and
how their relationship distorted humanity’s
relationship to the Christian
God has laid heavy psychological
burdens on Western society and
many of the commercial, monetary
and personal relationships between
men and women that exist in the
secular world.
It has recently been discovered
that primitive life even down to the
bacterial level indulges in sexual
practices because there seems to
be a strong evolutionary reason for
individuals to share their separate
genetic capabilities. Bacteria are
endowed with the capability to
choose between sexual and asexual
reproduction, something, until recently,
denied humans.
But cloning is still regarded
amongst humans with horror in
spite of the fact that multiple births,
which produce clones, are celebrated
and the only parthenogenetic
birth in Christian tradition is
regarded as exemplary.
The mechanics that each species
utilizes in sexual practices is difficult
or impossible to generalize
across species. The definition that
separates species is based on the
capabilities of two individuals to
utilize their sexuality to produce
young. Therefore people who attempt
their sexual acrobatics across
species are regarded by both society
and nature itself as not particularly
acceptable, whatever the pleasures
that might be generated in the process.
And, of course, what may be
appropriate to one species may be
difficult to accept behaviourally in
another.
It is customary for female praying
mantises to bite off the heads of
their male partners in coition which
facilitates the release of spermatozoa.
I doubt this would work well
amongst humans as, aside being
exceedingly messy in the average
bedroom, most men would find it
rather uncomfortable. The praying
mantis, I would think, might consider
the guillotine as a sexual utility
which throws a new light on the
machine.
The mechanism of sex amongst the
higher species roughly consists of
inserting a specific protuberance on
the male into a particular cavity of
the female so that the haploid cells
may conjoin. In a somewhat different
process, many species of fish
and invertebrates and a wide range
of plants merely release their male
cells more or less to the will of the
environment counting on the huge
quantity released to reach the proper
destination of their proper female
counterparts. Were humans to
adopt this method the atmosphere
would probably be continuously
replete with flying spermatozoa
and it would be extremely difficult
to determine paternity unless DNA
for individuals were somewhere on
register. And women would have
to dress accordingly to prevent accidental
insemination. In all probability,
people who were subject to
allergies would have great difficulties.
Beyond this, a good deal of human
custom in male-female relationships
would have to change radically.
I will not speculate as to what
might generate sexual pleasure
under these conditions nor whether
males or females would be under
the duress to even find each other
attractive.
The multitudes of sexual instruction
manuals that now exist providing
advice as to which and how
many male protuberances may be
inserted and manipulated in the
several female cavities to generate
maximum mutual pleasure indicate
that there is a good deal of variety
in the process. Nevertheless, the
fecundity of the species testifies to
the fact that there are many paths to
successful reproduction. So many,
in fact, that the stability of a sustainable
environment for the planet
is now in severe danger.
The old saying is that love will find
a way but considering how fond of
each other multitudes of couples
become, it seems more likely that
the way will find love.