Understanding Human Ambivalence About
Sex:
The Effects of Stripping Sex of Meaning
continued from
Although we are left with some uncertainty regarding that issue, we do
not believe that the lack of a condition in which neuroticism moderates
these effects undermines the contribution of this research. Rather, the
present results extend our earlier findings beyond the exclusive realm of
high neurotics. This is a critical step if our theorizing is to provide a
general account of humankind's ambivalence and difficulties with sexuality.
However, because the current research drew its sample from a homogenous
population of college students (who were mostly white and Christian), this
is clearly only a first step in such a conclusion. It is unclear whether our
findings would generalize to older adults, and also whether these findings
would be relevant to other cultures with different religious influences. For
example, it is possible that older people, through greater experience, are
better able to come to terms with the creaturely aspects of sex. Clearly,
further research with a variety of samples and with other
operationalizations of the theoretically relevant variables is needed.
Cultural Variability
Although virtually all cultures restrict and disguise sexual behavior in
some ways, some seem more restrictive than others. Similarly, some cultures
seem to go to great lengths to distance humans from other animals, whereas
others do not. Often, however, cultures that do not engage in distancing
confer spiritual status--a soul--to all living creatures. This fits with the
terror management position because the connection between humans and other
animals is only threatening if animals are viewed as material mortal
creatures. Anthropological and cross-cultural evidence exploring whether
closer-to-nature cultures are less anxious about the physical aspects of sex
would help inform our position.
Implications Regarding Sexual Regulation
Although social scientists from Freud on have viewed ambivalence about
sex as a byproduct of cultural mores, the present research supports an
opposite causal sequence. The findings suggest rather that rules and
restrictions for sexual behavior protect individuals from confrontation with
their underlying animal nature that frightens us because of our knowledge
that all creatures must someday die. We do not mean to imply that cultures
regulate sex solely for this reason. Certain restrictions most definitely
serve other functions, as evolutionary and sociological perspectives
suggest, and these functions are even probably the primary reason for some
restrictions. A terror management perspective, however, provides unique
insight into just why cultural conceptions and regulations of sexuality so
often seem designed to deny the animal nature of sexuality and imbue it with
symbolic meaning.
Pornography
Although mainstream culture outwardly frowns on pornography, many
individuals privately enjoy erotic entertainment. At first blush this may
appear to contradict our perspective, since pornographic representations are
often explicitly physical in nature. Of course, we are not saying that sex
is not appealing, or that physical aspects of it don't contribute to that
appeal; they most certainly do. However, it is relevant that pornographic
images for the most part are not entirely creaturely, but rather seem
consistent with the hypothesized ambivalence associated with the body and
sex. The images are sexual, but at the same time the models, usually women,
are neutralized or objectified: their bodies are augmented, manicured,
shaved, and often airbrushed to perfection. It is the uncommon case that
images are outright creaturely, but as many researchers have noted, such
demeaning representations, again usually of women, can serve to make the
consumer, usually male, feel powerful (e.g., Dworkin, 1989). Our analysis
does not predict that people will avoid the physical aspects of sex, but
rather that there is the potential for threat associated with physical sex,
that the threat is associated with concerns about our creatureliness and our
own mortal nature, and that people implement strategies to make it less
threatening. No doubt, however, there is a very strong appeal of physical
sex, for many obvious reasons, but even in pornography there is evidence of
symbolic strategies (e.g., objectification and sexual prowess) that may help
deflect the threat.
Other Creaturely Behaviors
If our conceptual analysis is correct, sex should not be the only domain
of human behavior that is threatening because of its creaturely aspects.
Other behavior associated with the physical body should also be potentially
threatening when not cloaked in cultural meaning. Accordingly, research has
shown that the body and its functions and byproducts are considered the
primary objects of disgust across a wide range of cultures (Angyal, 1941;
Haidt et al., 1997; Rozin & Fallon, 1987; Rozin et al., 1993). And as
mentioned previously, when reminded of their mortality people report being
more disgusted by body products and animal reminders, suggesting that the
disgust response itself may serve as a defense against mortality concerns
(Goldenberg et al, 2001). Leon Kass' (1994) observation that eating is
refined and civilized by a host of customs that not only regulate what
people eat, but also where, when, with whom, and how, makes a similar point.
In a related vein, we have recently suggested that a diverse array of things
people do to try to attain bodily perfection (cf. Fredrickson & Roberts,
1997) may be another attempt to meet the same end (Goldenberg, McCoy, et
al., 2000; Goldenberg, Pyszczynski, et al., 2000).
Clinically Significant Sexual Problems
Clinical research suggests that anxiety often plays a leading role in
sexual dysfunction (Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny, 1982/1985). From a terror
management perspective, concerns about the psychological sources of meaning
and value that function to protect individuals from such anxiety may often
become so prominent as to interfere with healthy and pleasurable sexual
experience. For example, males with performance anxiety may be suffering
because they are over-invested in sexual behavior as a basis of self-worth (Chesler,
1978; Masters et al., 1982/1985). Similarly, women who have difficulty
deriving pleasure from sex or those more generally inhibited about sex may
be troubled with constant self-monitoring of their body's appearance or
"proper" demeanor during such experience (Masters et al., 1982/1985; Wolf,
1991). The finding of Goldenberg et al. (1999) that thoughts of love
eliminate the connection of thoughts of sex and thoughts of death among
neurotic individuals is consistent with this possibility. From a therapeutic
perspective, an awareness of the functions that such concerns serve could
lead to either more adaptive strategies for attaching meaning and value or
attempts to confront the source of one's anxiety (i.e., mortality and
physicality concerns) as worthy approaches to pursue in helping individuals
with such problems (see Yalom, 1980).
CONCLUSION
In sum, the research reported in the present article may help explain why
humans exhibit so much ambivalence toward sexuality. Although we have
focused on the threat associated with the physical aspects of sex, there is
no question that human being are inherently drawn to the physical aspects of
sex for many reasons, most notably reproduction and pleasure. Yet, there is
evidence that our attitude toward sex is not all approach but also
avoidance. In this work we have outlined some existential factors that
increase avoidance. Specifically, we demonstrated that when individuals were
likely to associate the physical aspects of sex with an animal act, thinking
about physical sex served to prime thoughts about death, and thinking about
death decreased the appeal of physical sex. From the perspective of TMT, the
association between sex and our animal nature interferes with our attempt to
elevate ourselves above the rest of the natural world and thus deny our
ultimate mortality. Recognizing the conflict between our animal and symbolic
natures in the domain of human sexuality may shed light on a myriad of
problems associated with this most pleasurable aspect of human existence.
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