Friday, April 15, 2011

On society's love and sex

Yesterday morning while driving into town, I got caught up in a radio program in which a DJ was discussing the lackadaisical use of the words “I love you” in today’s society. He explained that he never says it to his girlfriend, but it makes him feel good when she tells him. He reported that he might use some form of the words, for example, “Love ya,” but never “I love you.” His reasoning was that “I love you” should mean something, and if you use these words too much, they lose this meaning, leaving them trite and common. The station then started a conversation about saying “I love you” after a year and if this was too soon. This made me chuckle a bit.
I will begin by saying that I do not necessarily think the words “I love you” should be handed out to every person with whom one encounters, I do believe in expressing love to those who matter. In my house, the words “I love you” are used more times in one day than I can possibly count. This did not begin in my family of procreation, but rather my family of orientation. My mom told us everyday how much she loved us. When we woke up, before we left for school, at the close of every call, and before bed every night, “I love you”s were exchanged. Now, in my home of procreation, my husband and I exchange the words even more often. Each time I feel more loved and appreciated than before the exchange. These words, and of course actions that support these words, help me remember throughout times that are not perfect that I am loved and everything else is secondary.
Conversely, I was listening to a conversation once I got to class about how religion oppresses women, especially concerning our “sexual liberation.” Women, in the opinion of my peers, should be as sexually free and confident as our male counterparts. I had to ponder this a moment. I thought about the law of chastity and remembered that there is no stipulation of being female to follow the law of chastity, it simply says we should only be sexual with those to whom we are lawfully married. I began to think that perhaps it is not that religion is oppressing women, but trying to rein everyone, women and men alike, back to being modest and chaste.
Here is my lesson from society today: Women should be more sexually awakened and free with our bodies, and we should all be careful not to use “I love you” too often with our spouse or significant other. Does something feel wrong here?

1 comment:

Kerri said...

Something definitely does feel wrong there! That statement totally seems to support and condone casual sex and the whims of lust, while taking love, the whole point of it (well, aside from also making babies of course), out of the question. I think being "sexually awakened" in some terms, is a lot more dangerous and harmful than a large portion of society realizes. Also, you're right about it trying to rein everyone in, not just women. I'll try and keep my comments about "overeducation" to myself ;)

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