By JOSELINE Byakatonda
Whether you know or not, the sexual revolution is booming! Knowing is the best way to prevent and treat this virus of sexual revolution spreading the ‘my body my rights’ notion. Often times, sexual revolution to a Christian’s mind is tagged to LGBTQ+ but this is just a subset of it. Sexual revolution encompasses everything about the natural feminine and masculine perception and how it’s portrayed to others. How masculinity and femininity is partly packaged, from: roles, intelligence, dressing, and their interplay in making society’s puzzle whole. HOW DID WE GET HERE-to this era of sexualization?
The Sexual Revolution or the Sexual Liberation Movement advocates took advantage of World War II aftermath in 1960s, as the media and society concentrated on economic growth and prosperity, to push for relaxation of stringent moral rules and values around sex and sexuality in United States and Western Countries, thereafter, spreading to the global World. Premarital sex, masturbation, various forms of contraception, like, the birth control pill, abortion, and homosexuality became somehow popular words not like before where just pronouncing them would earn one isolation or alienation. From 1960s to date, women started exploring sexuality openly outside the marital context and Christian men embraced polygamy without any remorse.
Television shows and films portrayed family life without bliss but scenes of married couples sleeping in separate beds. Marriage was a just for just and often portrayed as burdensome, inconveniencing. With the brain wash, just like it is happening now, many societal morals were relaxed and continue to erode. The tradition of confining sex to marriage and wrapping male and female bodies in a non-seductive way was trashed by law. In the 1950s, few would have imagined cohabitation and other vices to be issues worth of precious discussion time, though the moth continued eating up the root of society. The notion hence forth was ‘your body your right,’ yielding destruction for the next generation as being witnessed today and will certainly affect the next.
One of the effects was: Compartmentalization of the human person, separation of the body from the other components that make a person. In the years prior to the sexual revolution, which the sexual revolution activists called traditional era, a human being was seen as a whole, not fraction. What a person did to the outside of their body and environment was not viewed in isolation but a whole. The outer and inner state of a person have no correlation according to the sexual revolution. The debate was more about rights on how to manage the body and doing what one desires without hinderance, limits or feeling of guilt about how society views them.
The idea that our bodies and souls are not unified, our bodies are just but physical objects, our hearts and minds being separated from our bodies is one of the far destructive effects of the sexual revolution, that only a few have thought about. Practices like atheism, abortion, and other pervasive behaviours feed and lean on sexual revolution. So many women and men, nationally and internationally walk elegantly, speak fluently, yet deep inside are carrying deep wounds and trauma, some aware of it, others not, because of what they did or do with their bodies. A human is either whole or hollow, nothing in between.
Women and girls’ bodies are now instruments/ tools to be used and dumped, yet, they have also been nurtured to believe they are only valuable when sexy or sexualized. That, to be recognized as a woman you have to look attractive (by nature women are attractive even without their intention, however, here, the intent is to achieve attraction), eye catching and seductive for your femininity to be felt. You are only as valuable as attractive. Billboards, advertisements, magazines, music and now days even work and school uniforms are alluding to this either, knowingly or unknowingly.
But all the same, ignorance doesn’t nullify the effects, it rather compounds them. Fashion is the worst of all, in the name of invention, creativity, craftsmanship and others. So, while we talk of women emancipation, it has turned out to be women sexualization, with diverse and yet ndetected effects. For the men and boys, besides fashion and seductive dressing, it’s the interswitch of roles. The male gender is now reluctant to take on responsibilities, naturally designated as were nurtured in the traditional era. As the women are continually fighting for their space, men are instead alleviating their responsibility.
Of course, the traditional era had very stringent norms incriminating the woman, leaving the man, which the sexual revolution activists were addressing; however, the remedy is also bearing destructive effects. When men relinquish their roles, then boys will not even behave and identify as so because of the already mistaken identity. Over the years of the revolution, 1960s-1980s, developing countries being deeply rooted in traditional and social norms were shielded from massive influx of the destructive effects than those in developed countries where technology and economy has advanced. However, with increasing usage of technology in developing countries, the effects of the revolution are spreading like wild fire. Personal decisions are being substituted with peer and fit-in-influence without deeper thought.
To counteract this wave, positive aspects of sexuality should be discussed among young people through creation of safe spaces. Sexuality can no longer be left to be taught by dictation in schools as the objective of information may differ; these should however happen in homes. And if there’s a time ready for theology of the body it is now. The world is yearning for it, and Catholics have it on their shelves! The other information the get off our shelves into the communities is about natural family planning. The sexual revolution has provided multiple centers of easy reach hence counteracting would call for the same.
“Women and girls’ bodies are now instruments/ tools to be used and dumped, yet, they have also been nurtured to believe they are only valuable when sexy or sexualized…”
The Author is the ED for Catholic Christian Outreach Uganda
