The very painful separation of State and Sexuality

I assume you don’t go into your bedroom every night checking for potential state sponsored spying devices but yet it is still the case that what happens in our bedroom remains of interest to our governments. In Ireland, we think more of the church’s influence on our sexuality but we may be less inclined to see the state as having a direct influence on what we do in the bedroom. But of course, ultimately, it is the state, not the church, that changes the laws regarding reproductive and sexual health (who has access to contraception, medications for sexual dysfunctions, and who pays for it). In sexology, we concentrate on studying human sexuality for non-reproductive purposes. In other words, we look at human psycho-sexual development in terms of its potential fulfilment of individual desires. So why should we worry about what the state thinks? Well, in many ways what we know about sexuality is what we are allowed to know. A recent study ( funded by a sex toy company) on French people’s love making habit yielded interesting results but what was also interesting is that it was comparing its results with previous studies (state funded) dating back as far as 1970. If the state doesn’t put money in researching our sexuality and how our sexual habits are changing, who will? Believe it or not, sexuality studies outside of gender studies receive very little funding. In actual fact some researchers have argued that normal psycho-sexual development is rarely studied. It  is not a sexy subject and more importantly it is not a rewarding one for academics therefore it is very hard to secure funding for research in this area.

To be fair, many  governments would like nothing better than to keep clear from our bedrooms but they are often forced back into legislating for the ever changing sexual landscape.  Just from the top of my head and in the past few months or so I can think of two such examples:

-  Recently,  the European Union failed to agree on a standard consent-based definition of rape. Some countries wanted the phrasing of the new directive to protect women from violence to state  that “only yes means yes” whereas other countries argued that” no” needed to be expressly verbalised. This is in turns raises real questions regarding  how courts are supposed to adjudicate in rape cases.. 

- The French National Assembly recently approved a bill to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution. This was prompted by changes in abortion rights in other western democracies 

Lastly, it should also be noted that with natality rates  falling in most European countries and studies showing that young people are having less sex than in previous generations, it may not be long before our governments start taking a closer look at what is happening or not happening in your bedroom.