Are we a "liberal" society

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Sunday June 04, 2006 12:41 by Bob

What are our attitudes to sex?

How do most people classify sexual perversion?
And how justified are we in our attitudes toward sex?

The controversy over the age of consent in Irish courts should be framed with in an honest examination of our general attitude.

I will consider a wide range of different relationships:

If a well preserved 70 year old man (he looks like Clint Eastwood) is having a relationship with an extremely beautiful and extremely confident 25 year old woman , most men if they were being honest with themselves would secretly admire the old man for being a "legend" but wonder if the women is a "gold digger."
Most women would think the young woman was a "slut."

If a 25 year old goodlooking athletic man is in a relationship with a well preserved 70 year old woman most men and women would recoil in horror at this "perverted" young man.If the 70 year old man was decrepit dirty and used a z-frame to get about and the 25 year old woman was fat dumpy and wore glasses and worked in a library, most men and women would assume the old man was a pervert and the woman was being taken advantage of.

If the 25 year old man was a skinning geek with glasses and the 70 year old woman used a cane, the man would be a target for extreme violence from most men and disgust from most women.

If the 70 year old Clint Eastwood type was in a relationship with a 17 year old girl who was extremely beautiful and confident he would be classed as a pervert and criminalised. The 17 year old would seen as a victim.

If a goodlooking confident 16 year old boy was having sex with a 70 year old woman, he would be classed as a pervert and institutionalised.

If a goodlooking 19 year old man was having sex with a goodlooking 17 year old girl with her consent the man could be criminalised because the mother and father of the girl were strict and religiously they would probably report it to the police against the wishes of their daughter.
The man would been seen as scum by most girl and older women and a "legend" by his peers but an opportunist by most older men with daughters.
Most young men and many older men would see the 17 year old as a little slut but most women would have sympathy for the innocent young girl corrupted by a chancer.

If a goodlooking 19 year old woman was having sex with a goodlooking 17 year old boy the woman would not be criminalised because even if the boy had a strict and religious father and mother, they would probably decide that their boy was growing and up and becoming a man. The father would secretly admire him while most of his peers and many older men with sons would call him a "legend."
The woman however would be seen as a slut by both both men and women.

Now if the 19 year old man was a geek with glasses and the 17 year girl was fat and shy the 19 year old man would be treated as a pervert and the young girl as a vulnerable victim.

If the 19 year old woman was fat and shy and the 17 year old boy was a geek with glasses, the woman would be seen as slut and the 17 year old boy would not be seen as a legend but most of his peers would admire him for getting laid but still laugh at him while his father be glad his son was not gay and older men would simply laugh.

If the 17year old girl was fat and shy and the 19 year old man was good looking and handsome, the man would be a pervert and the girl would be a slut.

If the 17 year old boy was goodlooking and handsome and the 19 year old woman was fat and shy, the boy would be ridiculed but admired for getting his hole, while the woman would a slut.

if a goodlooking 70 year old man was having sex with a goodlooking 25 year old man, most people would recoil in disgust. If both were ugly most people would recoil in disgust.
if a goodlooking 70 year old woman was having sex with a goodlooking 25 year old woman, most people would recoil in disgust and if they were ugly even more so.
If a 70 year old man was having sex with lots of 70 year old women, most men would see him a lovable old rogue.
If a 70 year old women was having sex with lots of 70 year old men most people would be disgusted.
if two 70 year old men were having sex most people would be disgusted.
If two 70 year old women were sex having most men would be disgusted while some women would see it as beautiful if they really loved each other.
if two 25 year old goodlooking men were having sex most men would be disgusted while many women would see it as beautiful as long as we didn't have to watch them kiss eachother.
If two 25 yearold goodlooking women were having sex many men would be delighted but only if they liked to include a man occasionally. Most women would be interested too.
if the two gay men were ugly most men and most women would be digusted.
if both lesbians were ugly most men and most women would be disgusted.

If a man and a woman are in a relationship but with a high likelihood of producing children with genetic problems, most people would have sympathy with them and consider them brave for risking having kids. Nobody would criminalise them for bringing a deformed child into the world.

But if a consenting brother and sister or father and daughter or son and mother or uncle and niece or nephew and aunt or cousins are having sex and having inbred kids most of us would be absolutely horrified.

If a black man was having sex with a white woman many white men even racially tolerant men would see it as disgusting or at least vaguely uncomfortable. The woman would be a slut and the black man as some kind of rapist. A dominant fantasy among many blackmen would be to have sex with a white woman. Many blackwomen would see the white woman as a slut and the blackman as merely satisfying his sexual appetite.

If a black woman was having sex with a white man, many white men would admire him but disapprove of the black women as a slut. Many blackwoman would approve of the white man. Many blackmen would disapprove of the white man but tolerate the black woman.

If woman like to use vegetables like carrots or cucumbers as sex toys many men would approve.
If a man like to have sex with a dead chicken he would be seen as a pervert.

If a man or a woman of any age like to have sex with animals most people would be repulsed.

But none of these sexual behaviours would really be punishable by law.
Because the age of consent is 17 and homosexuality is legal.

Having sex with children, necrophilia,animals and incest are the ultimate taboo and all right thinking people would be horrified but only having sex with children (quite rightly) and incest is taken seriously in court.

But each of the relationships described would be objected to by many many people and inspire extreme violence in many cases.

In a supposedly liberal society we are not as liberal as we make out.