Our language about sexuality is dominated by public health, with its talk of risk, “protection,” health, choice, and rights. In so doing we scoff at babies””the crowning glory of human creativity””and where they come from.
For all of their intelligence, sophistication, and cosmopolitan ways, Westerners are increasingly uncomfortable with where babies come from.
I realize it’s a humorous and ironic claim to suggest that moderns””who dwell in an over-sexed, over-sensualized world””might actually be uncomfortable with the subject matter of sex. But I’m serious. They’re growing increasingly uncomfortable with where babies come from.
One consequence of IVF/ART in the early days was a sense of being an orphan – according to those/some/many who were the ‘result’; they are now old enough to reflect upon their ‘identity’.
One truly wonders where this form of technological/cultural displacement of ‘nature’ will end up. For the deep structural consequences of sin inevitably emerge in the end.
As for “sex”: I have it on good authority – a lecturer in cultural studies! – there are some 11 forms of it, from the one night “hook-up” through to biological parenting by on-going heterosexual partners. Mmmm…?!