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You are most welcome Len, glad to hear it. I always really appreciate your generous and thoughtful commentary. Man, I should have you review my book -if I ever get around to writing one 🙂
Gary,
Thank you for a piece full of wonder and wisdom. It is as broad as the wings of a swan while at the same time as concise as an egg. What an achievement! Especially appreciated is the cogent “note” about Helen, which deserves recognition as a really exciting discovery that adds new depth and meaning to the vital archetype of her character and role. You have sent my mind on a flight of shifting the shape of its thinking. Thank you!
Thanks Carrie. Yes, I had a bit of a laugh at that one too 🙂
Even today attitudes toward sex can be so very strange. Considering it is right down there on Maslow’s hierarchy with air, water, food and shelter (it probably comes right after shelter) that makes no rational sense at all. The only way it makes “sense” is if you deny access to birth control and/or get religion involved.
Excellent article, Gary. I had to laugh at the part where people found it far more acceptable to show a swan mating with a woman than showing a human man mating with her I guess bestiality is ok if it is between a human female and an animal male. When it is the other way around, (human male with a female animal) society gets vary upset for the animal. It comes down to the idea of who is the dominant one in the transaction. Since males are thought by society to be the sexually dominant ones (more rapes are perpetrated by males than females) then it is perfectly acceptable for a male animal to have sex with a human female because this implies the sexual drive is rightly male animal. When the human male has sex with a female animal, it is thought to be a human dominant male forcing sex on an unwilling and “dumb” animal.
While I am not advocating bestiality in any form, it is interesting that double standard; it says that human males are far more threatening sexually than male animals are. It also implies that human females are far more willing to have sex with any male, animal or human, than a female animal would be. The implications on all sides are stereotypical and a statement more on social mores than on actual participants and their motives or desires.