Over the weekend, I published a series of sex oldies from prior years of Planet Waves. This was my Superbowl Sunday/Venus-Chiron-Neptune offering to the universe. A reader named Indrani replied with this letter as a public response, which I would offer for your consideration and gentle reply. Offered by me for resolution to Radharani. –efc
Dear Eric,
What you write about sex is very interesting. I’m a Sydney (Australia)-based lawyer (yes, I see myself as a lawyer — saw a mini-series called ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ when I was seven and thought: “that man should have had someone to stand up for him…”) but I have had a very deep interest in sex from an early age (I wrote a master’s thesis on sex in contemporary Indian literature about six years ago).
I always found interesting the responses of men and women to me and as I got older (I’m 38 now), it is totally clear that these responses were largely sexual in nature (either wanting to have sex with me — I was an intellectually precocious kid — or (in the case of women), not wanting me anywhere near their husbands. I thought it was a ‘problem’ with me but over the last few years (going through my ’emancipation’ and self-awakening, I began to realise that the problem is not with me — I’m actually very cool (ie very accepting) of sex as a normal and healthy form of self-expression and especially deeply-felt affection and plain-old garden variety intimacy.
As a communicative, self-expressive (and straight) woman, I am shocked at how difficult it is for me to actually get any sex! The sexual politics men (and this seems to be more to do with men than women) wrap themselves in is astonishing. It may be intimacy-based fear, and as you say, a direct problem stemming from religious hang-ups. Understandable if you’re from a Judeo-Christian-Islamic background, but what if you are a Hindu (like me) where sex is just as ordinary as the Sun rising (nothing ‘ordinary’ about either miracle, you’ll say — and you’ll be right)? Hindus worship Shiva and Kali – very sexual deities — the linga and yoni — the penis and vagina. The fundamental belief in our religion is that there are TWO deities, male and female and both are equally necessary (interestingly, there is also much literature dedicated to homosexuality — also a natural and healthy expression in Hinduism. It’s an animisitic religion largely — the plant and animal world is filled with examples of homo and other sexuality, so that may be why the ancient texts are so hip with it all).