Sexophobia

Sexophobia is the fear of sexual organs or sexual activities and, in a larger sense, the fear of sexuality. As such, it can be applied to the attitude of a person based on his or her educational background, personal experience and psyche, or to the general position of collective entities like religious groups, institutions or states.

Sexophobia and religion

Sexuality is regulated in the three main monotheistic religions through the concept of sin. For instance, in Islam there is a series of designated haraam (forbidden) acts, of which zina condemn specifically many kinds of sexual relationships that are viewed as impure. Other religions such as Buddhism predicate a renunciation of sex that may eventually lead to sexophobia.

Catholic Church

See also: Catholic doctrine regarding the Ten Commandments § Sixth Commandment, and Catholic teachings on sexual morality

Sexophobia as the fear of sex and sexuality has a long and complex history related to the Roman Catholic Church, since its very beginning. It condemned practices such as masturbation and the general enjoyment of the body in favor of chastity and self-mortification. French philosopher Michel Foucault, in his book The History of Sexuality, analyses how the Church developed a discourse on sexuality through the ritual of confession. Indeed, Catholic priests had to confess whether they had committed any sexual sins. In the High Middle Ages, confession was reserved to priests, but the Church decided later to impose it also to common parishioners in order to generalize the confessions of the flesh among them.

Sexophobia and the State

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union is often cited in studies about State sexophobia, where it was used as a repressive mean to control the population, and more specifically the youth. This attitude dates back to the writings and politics of Lenin and Stalin, and was used by the Soviet Communist Party from the 1930s on to censor and destroy all kinds of art works related to sexuality.

Sexophobia and homophobia

Sexophobia as fear of sex may be linked to homophobic attitudes and behaviors, as doctors such as Martin Kantor describe many homophobes as being basically sexophobes, who fear and loathe sexual relationships both between partners of the same sex and between heterosexual partners.

See also

• Homophobia