Let me make things straight from the very beginning. This heading should in no way be construed as some kind of public confession from my part made in the spirit of Lent. It is nothing of the sort. The above was the heading of a piece penned by Ariadne Massa in The Sunday Times of Malta (March, 23).
I had been planning for some time to comment about it but more compelling subjects kept coming in the way. Finally it’s time to write something about casual sex or, to be more precise, the pseudo-solution that is sometimes offered to the problem. Ok, we may agree or disagree, but I think that uncontrollable casual sex can be both a personal and a societal problem. I am not referring here to any moral consideration but on the personal level I am referring to the dehumanisation of sex while on the societal level I am referring to the potential impact on our health care budget.
The story in The Sunday Times of Malta was based on the 2013 annual report of the Genito-urinary Clinic. We were told that the clinic examined more people than usual due to the consequences of casual sex. According to the report in many cases it was impossible to trace the other person to get them checked for Sexually Transmitted Infections since the sex was totally anonymous where no names were exchanged or perhaps remembered.
The report blamed lack of sex education for the problem. I have no doubt that more education can play a part in a possible avoidance of being infected by sexually transmitted diseases. But this is only part of the story, and probably a very small part to boot.
There is an ever-increasing mentality education is a panacea. Whatever the problem there must be some kind of educational programme that can solve it or control it almost to the point of extinction. I had written about this mentality in a piece I penned about poverty for my commentary in The Sunday Times of Malta. Education is not the sole or the main solution to the problems associated with poverty or with the possible negative effects of casual sex. Both problems have deeply rooted societal causes. I will not repeat here what I wrote about the socio-cultural causes of poverty.
The same can be said about uncontrolled sexual behaviour: cultural, economic and social factors have to be taken into consideration if we want to understand what is happening.
Our neo-liberal economy has commoditized everything including relations, sexual as well as non-sexual. Everything is now for sale. Nothing is permanent. Things are used and thrown away. This mentality is translated into the belief that even people can be used and thrown away.
Some things become so cheap that they can be given away free in accompaniment to other things which can cost money. Free sex comes along, many times, with free gifts.
Women are among the worst victims. To-day they have been turned into sex-objects much more than this was ever done in previous generations. Even young girls are being sexualised beyond belief. Many have stopped seeing others as holistic human beings but they see just objects that can be used for one’s gratification.
The human body is just a pleasure machine. Norms are considered to be passé and truth a chimera. Gender is only and simple a social construct. Humans are the measure of all things. In this mentality God becomes the adult version of the Father Christmas myth. Deferred gratification is frowned on. Sex has been divorced from love and from marriage.
One result of this mentality is seen in the ever-growing number of broken marriages. No programme of education can turn this negative socio-cultural economic tide. Much more than that is needed. The annual report of the GU Clinic addresses the consequences and some of the superficial reasons for the increase in cased it is being faced with. Unfortunately the ultimate cause is not even referred to.