The Last Taboo: The Blowfish Blog

I have a new piece up on the Blowfish Blog. It's on a phrase that's commonly used when talking about unconventional or marginalized sex: "the last taboo." The piece is titled, oddly enough, The Last Taboo, and here's the teaser:

You might have heard that homosexuality is the last taboo. Sadomasochism. Incest. Bestiality. Necrophilia. A very quick Google search on the phrase “the last taboo” adds scatology, pedophilia, sex among the elderly, and even virginity to the list (along with a wide assortment of non-sexual topics, including atheism, abortion, cannibalism, menstruation, death, consciousness, anti-Palestinianism, money, mental illness, and the discounting of business-class seats on airplanes).

Okay. Reality check number one: Not all of these things can be the last taboo, can they? At the very least, doesn’t one of them have to be the next- to- last taboo, and another one the next- to- the- next- to last, and so on? Unless every one of these taboos is miraculously falling at exactly the same time... in which case I suppose they could all be the last taboo. But that doesn’t seem very likely, does it?

Reality check number two: Does anyone actually believe that any of these sexual preferences and practices is the last taboo? Does anyone really think that the taboo against, say, sadomasochism is truly the last sexual taboo in our culture? That if the taboo against it fell and we completely and casually accepted SM, our society would then, for better or worse, be a sexual free- for- all, entirely devoid of any sexual taboos whatsoever?

Have any of the people using this phrase taken a look around them? At, you know, the world?

To read more about why the phrase "the last taboo" shows a gross misunderstanding of human sexuality, read the rest of the piece. Enjoy!

Comments

[Jesse Weinstein]

Here's where Greta reposted this piece on this blog: http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2008/07/the-last-taboo.html