(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Reply to response akaiyume gave to my last entry

Control of sexuality is a tactic driven by the primate side of human nature. In primate socities, sexual cues drive the games of dominance and submission. The alpha male controls the sexuality of every other male (who submit willingly or by force) and, by extension, the sexuality of every female. It is as though the alpha male has every other male in the tribe collared.

So humans respond to control over sexuality because it is a psychological "pressure point" the authorities can use to earn our submission without us even really knowing why.

This is also why authoritarian governments cannot resist passing laws regulating the use of sex.

These laws are embarassing for the powers-that-be, though, because they cannot be justified by the "Enlightenment" principles that guided the development of our Constitution.

Comments

[herbalgrrl.livejournal.com]

Most any taboo-- that is something that is commonly done but which cannot be talked openly about because of societal pressure-- is a pressure point that can be manipulated to control people because they have been trained not to look at it analyticaly & many get darned uncomfortable when someone tries to.
You should see the response I get to talking openly about poly as a potentially very healing & logical response to human emotional & sexual needs. The most common answer I get is a nice tautology that *It won't work because most people won't do that because most people don't do that*

[alobar.livejournal.com]

The exceptions to authoritarian sexual control are few, but well worth noting. Mike was telling me about a woman (whose name I forget) who was a high ranking party member under Stalin who made sure that sexual freedom was a guaranteed right in the USSR. I shall have to ask Mike for more concrete info.