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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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In the dissident circles I travel in, I've seen the phrase "sex positive traditionalist" as an alternative to both progressive sexual attitudes and to sex-negative conservative attitudes. The sex-positive-traditionalist would rather men and women not be promiscuous, we would rather see people only have sex in marriage and to have children. However, this view differs from the "purity culture" conservatives of the 00's. That culture -- especially the more wordly moderately conservative Christians and the more worldy Catholics -- told teens to wait until marriage but then put their kids on the college->grad school->career track at the expense of the marriage track. They would also encourage very long engagements. Following such a plan forced adherents to either be very sex negative, they would have to wait for a long time to get married and have sex, or, more likely, the kids would get tired of waiting and drop the religion. Whereas a "sex positive traditionalist" would prioritize early marriage over going to college.

Specifically in terms of Catholic pastoral care, "sex positive traditionalism" would mean giving long-dating or cohabitating couples a shotgun marriage and telling them to go forth and make babies, rather than telling them to move out of the same apartment and live chastely for a year as they go through a lengthy "pre-cana" process.

The sex-positive-traditionalist is also very pro sex within marriage, believing in that there is moral an obligation to perform the "marital act", even when one spouse perhaps has not been feeling it for a few days. Whereas the contemporary progressive is horrified at the idea that a married woman be pressured into sex or have some obligation to give sex.

I just want to point out that long engagements, and overly long periods of dating, are not seen positively within catholic moral doctrine. ‘Sex negative traditionalism’ wasn’t rooted in the religion.

So either it ended up being very sex negative, adherents would have to wait for a long time to get married and have sex, or, more likely, the kids would get tired of waiting and drop the religion

And, moreover, it meant that conservative Christians had to regard their sexuality (not just sex, but also masturbation, thinking about sex, being attracted to someone etc.) as dangerous for a large chunk of their lives - in the case of Catholic priests or monks/nuns, their whole lives. That naturally attracts people who tend to be frightened, ashamed, or otherwise maladjusted with their sexuality. They won't be all of the community, but they'll be a big chunk of it.

This reached an extreme in some cases (I have a gay ex-Catholic monk friend and he said that being in the Catholic clergy was a never-ending banquet of repressed or de facto open lovers for him; it was very hard for him to come across a straight monk) but it's an issue even in Christian youth groups, unless they go heavily down the early marriage route to provide an outlet for divinely approved sexual urges. The well-adjusted evangelicals/devout Catholics that I knew growing up were all married by the time that they left university at 22, even if they didn't have children until later.

it was very hard for him to come across a straight monk

I should hope so!

Glad to see that someone got the innuendo!

I laughed out loud on the train platform, thanks.

sex positive traditionalist

This is more or less how I hope to raise my own children. It'd be nice if there was a catchier name though.