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Taboo
Taboo
refers to practices that are generally prohibited because of religious
or social pressures. Our English word taboo comes from "tabu"
which means "forbidden" in Polynesian. This discussion is
confined to sexual taboos, which are sexual practices that have been
prohibited because of their perceived negative or harmful effects on
society. Some sexual behaviors have been taboo throughout history and
remain so today. These include behaviors such as incest and rape, as
well as many paraphilias
such as pedophilia (sexual abuse of children by unrelated adults),
necrophilia (sexual arousal from viewing or having sex with a corpse),
and bestiality (sexual relations with an animal). Other sexual behaviors
that were once taboo no longer are, even though they may not be as
approved as some other behaviors that have been accepted as
"natural" or "normal". Included in this category are
masturbation, oral and anal sex, homosexuality, some forms of bondage,
and sex with a menstruating woman. This change can in part be attributed
to societies' gradual acceptance of what constitutes normal and harmless
sexual experiences between consenting adults.
Incest
is a behavior that is considered taboo and illegal in nearly all
societies. Incest refers to any kind of sexual contact (oral, anal, or
vaginal sex, fondling, or masturbation) between members of the same
family. Definitions of what constitutes a family member vary, but
ordinarily they include not only parents and siblings, but grandparents,
uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, step kin, and in most cases, first
cousins. The incest taboo is thought to protect families and society
from the negative effects of inbreeding, once common among European
royalty and in some other societies.
Masturbation
has historically been a taboo, but is now viewed as normal by nearly all
medical authorities and social scientists. Even the majority of people
in our society now understand masturbation to be a common sexual
behavior that is not harmful. A number of studies in the last several
years indicate that attitudes toward masturbation have relaxed
considerably compared to earlier times. Even with this increasing
acceptance of masturbation as a natural experience of human sexuality,
it is not uncommon for people of all ages to have concerns, questions
and guilt over their self-pleasuring experiences. The idea of one
pleasuring him- or herself through some form of direct physical
stimulation has been the source of great controversy for many
generations. Some religions have referred to this sexual taboo as an
"unnatural act" because it had no reproductive goal. Others
have focused more on proper sex being the union of the body and spirit
of a married couple. Though the Bible has no clear-cut prohibitions
against this sexual activity, both traditional Judaism and Christianity
generally regard masturbation as sinful. The Catholic Church in the
Vatican paper "Declaration on Sexual Ethics" (December
29, 1975) noted that "masturbation is an intrinsically and
seriously disordered act." Thus, masturbation has been described as
"self-abuse," "defilement of the flesh," and
"self-pollution."
Although menstruation
is a normal part of the female reproductive cycle, it is the subject of
considerable misunderstanding as a taboo. Menstruation is the sloughing
off of the uterine lining that builds up during the previous month. It
occurs about once a month in most women between the ages of
approximately 12 and 48. In ancient times, a menstruating woman was
regarded as unclean and liable to pollute foods she handled, or cause
crops to wither. The primary reason for this taboo seems to be the fear
of blood. It is thought that menstrual taboos were enforced by men who
connected a woman's monthly cycle with the turning of the tides, the
changing of the seasons and other events that were mysterious to them.
Superstition and taboos
around a woman's monthly cycle continue to persist in our contemporary
society. A common superstition in western culture is the belief that
walking under a ladder will bring you bad luck. This myth supposedly
evolved from earlier times when people would not walk under a bridge in
case a menstruating woman was nearby because they feared her blood would
fall on their head. The belief that the normal process of menstruation
is somehow dirty or evil is still evident in the slang expressions of a
woman having the "curse" or being "on the rag". It
is often seen by men and women as a physical or emotional handicap that
makes women "inferior" to men, and many couples view
intercourse during menstruation as messy and sloppy and avoid intimate
activities for hygienic reasons, although this is not medically
necessary.
Bestiality and
necrophilia are strong sexual taboos and are forbidden by all major
religions. They are considered illegal in the United States and almost
everywhere else in the world. Historically, the primary reason for
opposition to these behaviors was related to the fact that they were not
procreative acts. Furthermore, sexual relations between humans and
animals or corpses violated the notion that proper sex was to take place
between a married couple. In more modern times society has found both of
these practices abhorrent because of the fear of spreading diseases, and
because in neither case does someone wishing to practice these illegal
social taboos have the willing permission of their sexual partner.
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Sex
