Sex & Death

This is the first in a short series where I have challenged myself to finish a first draft of an article on one page of A4. Hence, it hasn't been revised, and any arguments are probably incomplete.


It fascinates me, the way that our culture deals with these issues. The two most basic aspects of our existence as a carbon-based, sexually reproductive lifeform.

Perhaps that should read 'the ways'. We alternately hide and overexpose, and none of it in balance.

See, I don't agree with hiding these things from children. Without both sex and death, our world as we know it and us as a species wouldn't exist. Hiding this duet of irrefutable fact from children can do no good in the long run, and if anything it must ultimately do harm.

But what is interesting about the way things stand is that we avoid real dealing. We tend to hide children from these issues, in the process pretending that we are isolating them from harm. At the same time, much of popular music (and the media such as video-clips that goes with it is (are?) explicitly or implicitly sexual. Meanwhile, incredibly violent/gory scenes appear on our screens as widely accepted popular entertainment.

Now, don't get me wrong. I spent a lot of time and effort in my 20's becoming as good at sex and applied violence as possible. I like fucking, and I like fighting. But I was raised on a farm, and sex and death are things that children on farms can't really have hidden from them. We slaughtered sheep for meat (I took part as an active participant first when I was about 9, an age I judge as too late, really). We put the rams in with the ewes, when tuppin' time came around. Wouldn't have any sheep if we didn't.

But these things were just aspects of life. If you wanted to live, you had to do these things. You have to kill, and things have to fuck (including you, if you want the species to continue).

I guess the ultimate point is that if you don't educate and expose children to these ineluctible truths, they will never develop a sense of how their actions can result: If I cut your throat, you're dead. If we fuck, a child may well happen. Sex is fun (awesomely, when done right), but ultimately is aimed at making babies. Teach the children this. It's important.


As stated at the beginning of this article, it is a first draft, or rather a direct copy of a first draft. As such, no arguments are developed,and in all it needs a lot of work. I'll be posting more of these, though I'm not entirely sure why. Seemed like a good idea, something arrived at in the depths of drunkenness. I think the reasoning was something to do with exploring the writing process, with the expectation that I'll revisit various topics later.

Maybe it's just an excuse to post something, with a semi-plausible explanation, though. Make up your own mind.