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SEXUALITY

Sex American Style, Part 2

By John Grabowski
The effects of the “sexual revolution” and an appeal for a new view of sex


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Is sex just about ecstatic release and personal fulfillment—or does it have a deeper role in God’s plan for the human person? Dr. Grabowski outlines the consequences of contemporary American views of sexuality, and argues for a revision of these views. Using Peter Gardella’s book, Innocent Ecstacy, Grabowski describes the complex of historical and present-day factors that have shaped Americans’ view of sex, rendering chastity nonsensical in most people’s eyes, and even sex itself unable to fulfill its own lofty promises.


Sex American Style is a regularly featured column exploring issues of sexuality and chastity in the Catholic tradition.


The preceding part of this column traced some of the diverse influences that have shaped the current view of sex in America and many other parts of the world with the aid of Peter Gardella’s 1985 book, Innocent Ecstasy.

The final product of this complex history is what Gardella terms “innocent ecstasy”—sex understood as the key to ecstatic release, personal fulfillment, and salvific wholeness freed from any religious referent or association with sin. It may be, as he notes, that this modern view has brought with it benefits such as increased sexual skills and sensitivity and perhaps, for some, greater sexual pleasure. Yet the price for such advances is very high. There are indications that the new focus on the “quality” of sex has increased pressure on the young to engage in sex before marriage in order to evaluate their own level of sexual proficiency. The identification of sex and happiness has fueled the rise in the divorce rate, as marriages break apart in the face of unrealistic expectations. There are also new burdens borne by both sexes in our sexually “liberated” society: women must simultaneously embody sexual innocence and certify sexual success, while men face the pressure of satisfying women through their performance. Finally, the pursuit of orgasm as the equivalent of religious ecstasy has become a quasi-ascetic practice with the youthful and fit its new monks. Thus conceived, sex cannot deliver the utopia it promises.

Gardella’s sketch is helpful in bringing into focus many of the currents that have shaped the American view of sex, but there are additional factors that should be noted to bring this picture into still sharper relief.

It is difficult to understand the pervasiveness of sex in popular thought and culture today without adverting to the massive change in cultural attitudes and practices known as the sexual revolution, which swept through the western world in the 1960's and 70's. And the catalyst for this revolution was the progesterone pill, which offered to the modern world the promise of sexual fulfillment without risking the perils and responsibilities of pregnancy. There is strong evidence that modern contraceptives and the behaviors they have enabled have also contributed to the increase of extramarital sex and divorce to which Gardella points. The pill is especially important for understanding the current situation of many Catholics in regard to sexuality (as will be treated in the next column).

Another factor that made the “sexual revolution” possible was the postwar prosperity of the western world, which has created a consumer culture so powerful and pervasive that it has successfully repackaged sex itself into a product for consumption and economic profit. The success of magazines such as Playboy and its more graphic imitators transformed pornography from an underground traffic to a very public, multibillion-dollar industry. This reduction of sex to a commodity for private pleasure and profit is a manifestation of the dark underside of the modern pursuit of fulfillment through sexual release.

Fueling the burgeoning consumer culture of postwar America and its western allies has been the explosion of technology. However, as Jacques Ellul and others have noted, technology can have a profoundly depersonalizing effect on society, robbing life of the intimacy that makes it human. Ironically, even communications technology, which has the capacity to link people around the globe in ways never before possible, can erode real human contact. Consider the office worker who spends a twelve-hour workday in a tiny cubicle whose only contact with coworkers might be in the form of email or the family whose dinner conversation is replaced by evening television. The result of this is a new search for intimacy to fill the interpersonal void created by technology—a search that often gravitates toward sex. This too can lead to greater pursuit of sex apart from marriage as well as greater strain on existing marriages as couples’ sexual relationships are expected to supply the whole range of their interpersonal needs.

Finally, Gardella’s portrait is somewhat dated as there are indications that at least some of pursuit of happiness through indiscriminate sexual activity characteristic of the sexual revolution was moderated somewhat by fears of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases during the 1990's. However, recent studies have signaled a return to more dangerous forms of sexual behavior by many young people—both heterosexual and homosexual—as the “safe(r) sex” message has apparently failed to take root among them.

The final portrait of contemporary American attitudes and practices regarding sex on the basis of Gardella’s history and an analysis of some other contemporary trends is a disturbing one—particularly for Christians. Much Christian teaching regarding sex has been framed in terms of chastity, yet chastity at first blush appears utterly foreign to a culture such as this. If sex is integral to personal happiness and fulfillment, how can any form of sexual restraint be understood as something positive? What sense can be made of the Christian esteem for consecrated virginity? How should married couples value their sexual relationship as a gift without demanding that it provide heaven on earth for them?

Providing clear answers to questions such as these is one task of an effective contemporary catechesis in sexuality and chastity. This catechesis will also have to offer a cogent and compelling vision of the meaning and purpose of sex to provide an alternate to current ideologies that reduce it to ecstatic release for personal fulfillment and self-transcendence. It will also have to highlight specific practices that can enable individuals and communities to appropriate this vision and live it out. This is because virtue is never realized in abstract theory, but only in concrete human cultures and communities and the practices that sustain them.

The American ethos of sex, even if shaped in part by Christian sources, is one that has lost sight of the real meaning of human fulfillment and the ways in which sex can help or hinder its realization. Our culture needs this fuller picture. It is up to Christians to find new ways to provide it.

Copyright © 2000 John S. Grabowski




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