The criminalization of the sex

Abigail Pereira Aranha

Have you noticed that it seems that sex is a crime?

Men and some women only get married because of sex and women know this, but everyone pretends not to. The under 18 can not even see or hear about those things (although there was a time when a woman was married in adolescence). There was a time when a woman was only knowing anything about sex after marriage. And this time, even a couple did not know each other's bodies.

Sex, supposedly because is so dirty, can hardly be mentioned. We can not speak of "that" with anyone, especially if female. If you want to access pornography, you must be at least 18 years. Still, it's not good to be seen accessing it in an Internet cafe or in a computer room. If you're at work, your job is at risk. If you are at home, it gives a family problem. There is an internet filter in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which makes such access not be even possible. A "red light district", a night club or a house that has prostitutes usually needs to be in a "discreet" place. How many girls have been expelled from home in the past for becoming pregnant or simply losing their virginity without marriage? How many girls had hassles and suffered reprisals after an acquaintance see them in a pornographic magazine, page or film? A woman gains a crooked look simply for she does not seem sexually repressed, even though she has not a very active sex life. Until recently, adultery was also crime.

And why the rapist is hated even among the prisoners? The rapist, even as a depoliticized and without a formed ideology monster, turns against the principle "if you want, just in marriage". Though if those who commit rape should not be supported, the action against them has behind a crackdown against a sort of crime against property. Not only is the property of the female victim of her own body, that body is, in a way, family heritage too, even in Brazil today where women have no problems to get marriage for not being a virgin. And the rapist does not have to be caught by the police, he might be lynched by any group of a hundred people who are nearby. This is not only to repair an aggression, it is to ensure all women that sex will be done by the criteria of themselves or family, with disdain to the male heterosexuality. So the offer of sex almost disappears and the majority of the female bodies reaches the price of a marriage or a "case", being offered by the women in a way a little less grotesque than a drug to an addict.

You probably have seen or heard of a campaign to legalize prostitution. Who is against and who is in favor has each one their errors, but behind this issue has the subject of sex. Prostitution is illegal in many countries. But, look, it's not just a matter of religion. One of the countries where prostitution yields prison for both the prostitute and the customer is the Christian capitalist United States. Another is the atheistic communist China. The arguments against prostitution are divided into two parts: hypocrisy of humanity and Christian provincialism. But the part of genuine concern for the dignity and the welfare of the prostitute, is precisely the legalization of prostitution that would protect the prostitute. But the "morality" makes a society making the prostitute as their Judas doll, a physical representation of the sexuality that men do not want or can not admit to society and that women do not accept on their spouses. Who is against legalizing prostitution is not concerned with prostitution ring, the dignity of prostitutes, etc. Who is against pornography is not concerned about AIDS, sex industry, etc. In fact, there was a time when sexual crimes were divided into against "honest woman" and against "public woman", the latter punished with lighter penalities.

Oh, and even if it were true that prostitution and pornography are always linked to organized crime, it would lead to other problems. 1) What prevents a non-criminal prostitution or pornography, besides a law that makes these activities criminal without any reasonable justification? 2) Why a man wanting to see a decent female body or doing a decent sex should be a police matter? 3) Organized crime is an organization that, by definition, can eliminate the crimes clues, interact with the constituted power and, therefore, earn a lot of money, right? 4) When something already exploited by organized crime is criminalized or punished more harshly, what the police does besides catching petty criminals and annoying honest people? 5) Will we defeat organized crime only legalizing the destructive envy of the beauty of other women and of the others' orgasm?

The non-reproductive sex, without legal coercion and pleasant is still unacceptable to most people. Let us remember that terms like "fuck", "prostitution", "orgy" and "whoring" are swear words and insults with generic meanings ("doctrinal prostitution", for example).

Note that the anti-sexuality is "purity"; the woman who behaves as desexualized is "honest", "right", among other adjectives; the man who behaves as desexualized is "serious", "pure"; a hotel that does not allow sexual encounters is "familiar"; a literature with sex suggested ceases to be "healthy"; and so on. In that, there is no Christian or Muslim, capitalist or communist, macho or feminist, West or East. Or rather, there are all of them. But why all this? Is there any plausible reason to make sexuality an evil, a character flaw, most undesirable that greed or dishonesty? Nothing.