Reasons to Engage in Intimacy with Those You Desire by Lisa
Let’s be frank, the basic mechanics of sex are straightforward. Insert the male organ into a hole, move it back and forth, and voila! However, our complex human minds have a knack for complicating even the simplest of actions.
Over time, we’ve imposed rules on our sexual behaviour and started categorising these behaviours as identities. Suddenly, engaging in sexual activity with a man labelled you as “homosexual” or “bisexual”. Today, we have a multitude of identities related to sexual activities, and we define and judge each other based on these arbitrary labels. With the growing acceptance that sexuality is fluid, when will we finally stop trying to label others and ourselves? Let’s explore different attitudes towards sexual identities around the world to try and understand…
The Kama Sutra Perspective
In India, many Hindu sects view what are often labelled as homosexual acts as just one of the many diverse ways that love can be expressed to achieve “moksha”, a state of mind required to break the cycle of reincarnation. The Hindu texts mention that sex acts can occur between men or women who are friends and trust each other. Oral sex is emphasised, and penetration with artificial phalluses is also suggested. These acts do not define the practitioners as homosexual or as defying the order of nature, they are carried out between people as friends rather than homosexuals. Ancient Greek scholars had a beautiful catch-all phrase for such unions – “lover”.
Despite this, homosexuality was made illegal in India in 2009, a country where 80 per cent of the population identify themselves as Hindu, a religion where homosexual acts are not necessarily problematic. The specific act is Section 377 of India’s penal code, which forbids ”sex against the order of nature”, which is interpreted as gay sex, with a possible sentence of 10 years in prison. The law dates back to the days of British colonial rule in India. Unsurprisingly, Section 377 has been met with strong opposition.
