Sex seems so natural, so biological, so body-centric, or so it seems; but you go to other places or other times, and it seems so weird.
Holy Sex
You'd of thought sex was a bad smell, for example,
in Mediaeval Europe where the Catholic church tried to stop intercourse at
various (most) times, like:
× When one's wife is menstruating, pregnant, or nursing
× During Lent, Advent, Whitsun Week, or Easter week
× On feast days and fast days (of which there are lots)
× On Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
× During daylight
× If you are naked
× If you are in church
× Unless you are trying to produce a child
And be careful - no fondling, no lewd kisses, no oral sex, no strange positions, do it only once, try not to enjoy it, and wash afterwards to purify oneself from the pollution.
I should point out that religions are still desperate to control our sexuality (see for example, The Sex Manual for Puritans). The Medieval church blew hot and cold on sex, what with Pope's having children and all that; and we are just as likely to fall into witch hunts as any of our forebears, as, for example, with the Wenatchee sex ring, which still rumbles on in Court Cases in 2003.
Johnny Foreigner's Funny Ways
If you want to demonstrate that sexuality isn't natural, but is constructed by social interaction, bring on the Japanese. Here's a selection of stories that demonstrate that they march to a different beat:
× Got exam pressure boy? Get
mum to relieve it.
× While your schoolgirl friends are so keen to strip,
it's driving
down prices.
× Which might make you think that they are all growing
up too quickly …
× naaaa, really, there
is no such thing.
Ye Olde Sex
Alternatively, a dip into history shows up some attitudes to sex and sexuality that don't look so "natural" today:
× Love and sex and women in the art of ancient Greece (love the Barbie doll illustrations).
× Ancient Egyptian sexuality with it's sacred prostitutes.
× Family and sexual mores in ancient Egypt on how very sensibly, they'd send a girl soon after "first blood" to the temple, where she would have her first baby - and if she and the baby survived, then she would be available for marriage.
× Medieval
sex shows how the good old church got in on the act of trying to control
sexuality (yes I know I've had a pop at them once, but they deserve another visit).
× Law,
sex and Christian society in Medieval Europe handily summaries the book
of the same.
× History of sex is interesting, if a bit to focused on the Gods, and only complete from Mesopotamia (matriarchy) to Ancient Greece (lots of phalluses).
Today's Nutters
And of course, contemporaries can be pretty hair-brained:
× Escaping the web of temptation (are you a Christian struggling with pornography? Well fuck off then)
× Porn no more (for a Catholic version, seemingly more reasonable, but … "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (2 Mt. 5:27-28)" … well work it out yourself.
× And from that very special American hatemongering madness, Sex Slaves Rings, Child Abuse and Government Corruption - I like the idea that the government runs a worldwide sex slave ring, where can I get mine?
Serious Stuff
And of course, how would we know what was natural, unless we had science to tell us:
× Syndromes of abnormal sex differentiation gets very medical very quickly.
× Recognising healthy and unhealthy sexual development in children gives the usual mix of science and "normative" social constructs.
× The sensuous child: Dr Benjamin Spock and the sexual revolution a long but interesting and mature essay on the topic.
× The sexual life of children covers that gap in most people's knowledge: what happened before they were "Barely Legal"?