Word: sexes
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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THERE IS, however, one solid reason for the unease of adolescence, and it is very simple: one's body is literally changing. You grow taller, stronger, features change, the need for sex becomes greater. As your body changes, you feel out of touch with it, unfamiliar, uprooted, disoriented--and the quest of adolescence is a quest for something solid to hold...
...turned out, of course, he was in a rather asexual group. There was on one he wanted to sleep with in it; and although other members of the group had talked a fair amount about sex, none of them had actually gone through with anything. This is not, of course, the way it always was; the boy knew that on occasion there had not only been love-making at Wsalen, but love-making in group sessions. He could not, therefore, say anything for sure, but his thoughts all pointed in one direction...
Perhaps Freud saw sex as the dominating force in life because civilization had forced it to become just that; and the time in history at which man first became conscious of himself as apart from the animals may have been the first step in his undoing. Man had to constantly reassure himself. He knew he was different from the animals; but, perhaps because the distance was so small, he grew up tight about it. Man had to constantly reassure himself, as we are reassuring ourselves today. He had to persuade himself over and over of his superiority to the animals...
...same time, however, it at least recognizes the physical need of the body which is as great, probably greater, than that of the mind. To meet this, society has made one thing possible, and given its approval--that is sex, because sex is the strongest and most urgent need of the body--next, say, to the need for food...
...because of this structure, sex rapidly becomes the only alternative to the world of the mind. It becomes an equally absurd ritual. Sex is real. There is certainly no doubt about that. But it is only real as part of our animalism. This should not be denied, and we need not be ashamed of it. Sex is one part, one fiber in the tapestry. If I love you, I will love your arms and legs, your hands and feet, your elbows and ankles and toes. My body will love your body, and sex will be part of that...