Taking Reproduction Out of Sex Western
society has a preoccupation with
intercourse that no longer benefits our society, specifically female sexuality. Intercourse is great for
reproduction, having babies, but it does not necessarily benefit a woman seeking sexual pleasure and sexual fulfillment. This is partly because all other forms of sexuality and sexual activity have been defined as something other than "sex," not "the real thing." If everything other than intercourse is not "real" it cannot or does not exist.
By this definition of sex, female sexual pleasure is almost precluded from existence. The role the clitoris plays in female sexual pleasure is not taken into account, which is equivalent to ignoring the role of the penis in male sexual pleasure. Sex is and must be more than penile-vaginal intercourse if it is to benefit women. Another problem with this preoccupation with intercourse is the resulting unwanted pregnancies and the children that result from them.
We as a society do not view reproduction as favorably as we once did yet we still place an emphasis on an activity whose primary and evolutionary purpose is conception. We ignore the facts that no form of birth control is one hundred percent effective, many forms of birth control have adverse side effects, that abortion, when it is an option, is not free, and that we make social outcasts of teens who have babies. In addition, a "modern woman" is defined as a businesswoman, not as a mother, appropriately or not. While many have tried to separate female sexuality from reproduction, they have done so by trying to take the reproduction out of women versus taking reproduction out of sex. If we want to give women the option of not having babies we need to allow them not to engage in a reproductive act.
If a woman does not want to have a baby her first option should be not to have intercourse, not rely on unreliable birth control that may be too expensive for her to buy, unavailable to her, or adversely affects her well being. A woman should not have to forgo sexual pleasure or put her health at risk because she does not want to reproduce. A lesbian made a comment to me that sums things up concerning women and intercourse. One of the reasons she benefited by being a lesbian was that she could choose whether or not to engage in vaginal penetration because it was not required of her, if anything, the opposite was true.
If she were heterosexual she would not be given that choice. The idea that if you are a woman with a male partner that you must absolutely without a doubt take his penis into your vagina is ridiculous. It certainly does not benefit women, which in the end does not benefit men.