Traditional Sex as Political Rebellion

Throughout history, defying norms related to sexual practice has been a common way to express resistance to the dominant moral culture. Every culture, either actively or passively, endorses a set of guidelines for sexual behavior. Sexual rebellion, therefore, has always been inseparable from political rebellion. This was true in the ancient world when the Hebrews devised a sexual ethic in stark contrast to the pagan one prevalent at the time. It was true in the Medieval period when a resurgence of cultic sexuality was a rebuke to the restrictions imposed by Christianity. Although the new ideas that arrived with modernity and the Enlightenment played a central role in weakening taboos against certain forms of sexual expression in the West, even modern thinkers and critics of the old order (such as the Marquis de Sade and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) framed their sexual exploits as a form of sticking it to the man (or woman, as the case may be).