Sexual Morality Today

For the last two millennia the Western World was bound to values and understandings that build upon the ideas of the Old and New Testament, in addition with the philosophical thought of ancient Greek and the eras of Alexander and Caesar. The Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th century still sets the foundation of modern life, however, these ideas inspired people to search for more, to develop and thrust forward the limits of understanding. The world wide expansion over the last 50 years and the rising level of sophistication has shaped society into a new age of unlimited information. We send people to the moon, spacecrafts deep into our solar system, and on our own planet we are able to “program nature” by changing DNA codes. Although these are very refined processes, the nature of them is simple – we want to change and overcome what we are.

We want to transcend nature. This starts by being able to dye your hair and using make up and goes as far as radical plastic surgery. If you do not like whom you are – change. This is the attitude of the post Enlightenment age – the age of possibility. An American saying is that it does not matter who you are, it matters who people think you are. This is the very nature of this age of possibility, the anonymous world of the internet and a lifestyle that is just concerned with the surface of people. The values that guided our lives for the last 2000 years are more than in question, they are about to be overthrown by the possibilities the future has to offer. This essay is mostly concerned with the development and perception of sexual morality in the Western World, rather than developing countries, the Middle and the Far East.

The Spirit of the Sixties created a wave of love and peace, the introduction of the contraceptive pill and the availability of all kinds of drugs made this new “wave of love” possible. Though flower power did not really work, people kept the lifestyle. This is where the spirit of the sixties got lost and the things hippies promoted as in real love, peace and a nuclear free world were betrayed by capitalism which fed off hedonism.

This is also the point in history where a new split between sexual morality and the ethics of sex emerged. The view of sexual morality changed when the picture of a sexually satisfied and impassioned woman motivated women to emancipate. The possibility to have sex without the risk of getting pregnant but still experiencing full pleasure was what gave women the consciousness to take on a different part in society.