From: cortese@netcom.com (Janis Maria C. C. Cortese)
Subject: Sex is neither good nor bad.
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:20:07 GMT

This is going to be a bit short since I'm a little behind, but I am
sort of amused at how people are reacting to this nudity thang.  Every
time this subject comes up, I can guarantee that people will react to
the woman who says, "I feel insulted when someone ogles me," with,
"Oh, but sex is good and beautiful!  Are you carrying repressed
baggage?"

Can I vomit now or should I wait until later?

Sex is NOT good OR beautiful, nor is it a great evil.  Sex is.
Period.  Full stop.  Not all expressions of sexual interest are good
and beautiful according to what many Pagans would like to kid
themselves into thinking, any more than all expression of sex are evil
and sinful -- like most xtians want to kid themselves into believing.

Sex IS.  Whether it's good or bad depends entirely on the people
involved and their attitudes, and I'm sorry if this insults someone,
but when someone ogles me like an immature groping 12 year old weenie
THAT IS NEITHER GOOD NOR BEAUTIFUL.  If this annoys you, too damned
bad.  A man or woman looking at me because they are pleased at my
exterior is just fine -- when they know that I am not THERE expressly
for them to get horny off of and when they are prepared to acknowledge
that:

1) I am a person and I exist even when they aren't looking at me.
2) I am not being a "bitch" if I am not interested in them; I am
   simply exercising my free choice by picking and choosing on my own.

However, anyone who attempts to collapse this mature and respectful
sexual interest with, "Ooooh, oooh, titties!" is being deliberately
obtuse.  Any such person is thinking that just because two thoughts
result in an erection that they are socially equivalent, which is
bull.  All expressions of sexual interest are not equivalent, nor are
they all equally meritorious.

I just think it's interesting that we seem to have inherited the same
typical xtian view of sex as a monolithic entity, only we've scratched
out where they wrote "bad" and put "good."  I have news for all of you
-- sex is neither good nor bad.  Like any other human endeavor, it
cannot be evaluated apart from the context in which it's embedded.
And when it comes to MY body being ogles, *I* decide what's good and
bad.

Context, context, context!

Blessings,
Janis 
===

From: russell@apple.com (Russell Williams)
Subject: Re: Sex is neither good nor bad.
Date: 20 Sep 1993 08:16:45 -0700

cortese@netcom.com (Janis Maria C. C. Cortese) writes:

> Sex is NOT good OR beautiful, nor is it a great evil. Sex is.
> Period.

I disagree... somewhat. 
"Life is good". Agree? How about when a person is suffering in agony
from terminal cancer. Might not death be better then? How about the
critters that cause various diseases? Taking the fundamental position
that life is good doesn't mean that all life is better than all
non-life all the time. The situation is more complex than that.

Similarly, taking the fundamental position that sex is good does not
imply the condoning of sexual exploitation or coercion. If we are
unwilling to assign a positive value judgment to sex because it can be
used to harm, to what can we assign positive intrinsic worth?  What
aspect of the natural or spiritual world is without capacity for doing
or being used for harm?

-- 
Russell Williams                               russell@apple.com
Not speaking for Apple Computer