Word: taboos
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...American sculptor and active New York feminist who graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota and Oxford, Millett views male supremacy as a myth that has been kept alive for thousands of years by a grandiose patriarchal conspiracy. "Primitive society," she writes, "practices its misogyny in terms of taboo and mana which evolve into explanatory myth. In historical cultures, this is transformed into ethical, then literary, and in the modern period, scientific rationalizations for the sexual politic...
...public figure, too much print and portraiture has done even greater damage to the staying power of other notables. Consider the following, who are all but universally regarded as public bores: HUGH HEFNER, who has spared no expense to disseminate his Playboy philosophy of name-brand hedonism among the taboo-haunted unswingers of the Western world...
...were the first serious attempts to analyze quantitatively the variety and nature of "orgasmic encounters." Kinsey's data were flawed by the narrow range of his interviewed sampling and by his determinedly mechanistic approach to the subject of sex. Nonetheless, his research legitimized the study of a hitherto taboo subject. Says Masters: "He opened the door. We wanted to kick it all the way open...
...pornography and obscenity, under which 5,000 copies of the February Playboy were impounded for three weeks before being released for sale in opaque plastic wrappers. Political censorship is somewhat more subtle. By telephone or personal visits, Brazilian army officers tell publishers and broadcast executives which subjects are taboo. The latest taboo is any mention of the torture methods that are blatantly used by police and military against political prisoners. In Paraguay, Panama, Haiti and Cuba, the rules are simpler still. No opposition newspaper is allowed, and all papers are subject to seizure...
...What homosexuality is: Nature leaves undefined the object of sexual desire. The gender of that object is imposed socially. Humans originally made homosexuality taboo because they needed every bit of energy to produce and raise children: survival of species was a priority. With overpopulation and technological change, that taboo continues only to exploit us and enslave...