Is Western society highly sexualised?

Is western society highly sexualised?

It would appear that sexuality is strictly controlled under the blanket of ethics, parental control about public media, religious influence, and laws that regulate public speech and public behaviour; but it may not be the case; very recently, we've heard in the news that hackers have stolen details of 37m users of adultery dating site Ashley Madison.

There are many factors that could influence our current sexual behaviour. The repressed desires, the lifestyle that poorly influence a couples relationship, the lack of time, shift work, traveling time between work and home, the cost of life that make parents or couples work endlessly through the day. Adding to the lack of balance in sexual behaviour, there are plenty of direct and subliminal messages that humans constantly receive that influence their behaviour.

Our hormones have to put up with daily hassles, if not constant pain, making cortisol reign in our bodies to numb the feeling of pain. The natural hormones that rejuvenate our bodies, relax us, and make us feel happier, facilitate intimacy and make human interaction more enjoyable, decrease their levels in the body as a consequence of traumatic events or chronic pain.

Apart from work and life commitments, the intellectual constructs that we constantly create, distort reality; and psychological issues add to the deterioration of our bodily functions.

Sex is intrinsically related to life, to the continuation of species, which is to say to the perpetuation of life. The nonsexual process of reproduction in animals is called parthenogenesis, from the Greek word for virgin birth. This happens in some reptiles, bacteria and few plants species; the rest of the plant and animal species need sex to reproduce since the first appearance of eukaryotic cells; even jelly fish need sex.

Where there is no sex there is no life - the greatest variety of living species would not exist without sex.

Looking at sex in humans, its romantic connotations, the sexual attraction, the infatuation links to love in relationships, we cannot deny its power; it is so strong that it has not been disregarded by religions, traditional powers such the aristocracy and monarchy; and different cultures where the patriarch or the matriarch would mediate between humans regarding the access and enjoyment of sexual favours.

Its manipulation can be stronger than any other driver in life apart from safety, perceived power or nutritional needs.

So why has sex been considered a 'taboo' so often and why glimpses of sexual behaviours have been used as suggestions or manipulations in order to make humans behave in certain ways?

Alec Gisbert (founder of The Philosophers' Corner)