So, I'm kind of disturbed at how many people consider sex to be a loss of innocence. It's everywhere, pervasive comments implying sex is morally dirty or a sudden jump into maturity. I don't find innocence to be lost with sex in the slightest. You can be innocent and naïve even with a dozen sexual partners. I don't see an actual relation between the two; sex doesn't really change people much at all, but does generally come at the same time people grow up emotionally. It also leads me to question what we define as innocence. Obviously it has several related meanings, but which is being applied worries me. Is it the gaining of guilt, or the cessation of naïveté, or do people mean both when they say sex isn't innocent? Do you think sex is a forfeiture of innocence? Or do you think it's an unrealistic concept, the loss of innocence?
Sex is considered as a loss of innocence ever since the medieval times when sex is only reserved for married couples and if you do pre-marital sex, you get executed. I think that sex is a natural thing that should be liberalized to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies (I know, ironic). Switzerland is able to do that by having kindergarten sex ed and the rate of STD infection is much lower than the "slutty" United States.
It's funny people say that, because even if it existed, you can lose your sexual 'innocence' way before you becoming sexually active. Seeing porn for the first time will affect your sexual knowledge, and even masturbation can sometimes give you more sexual experience than actual sex. But for some reason people only apply this logic to not just sex, but specifically penis in vagina sex. Some girls who have 100+ anal experiences with men can be seen as "pure" and "innocent", while a girl who has PIV once with a long term boyfriend is now "not naive", "impure" or more "defiled" which is fucking bullshit. I've never had sex and I'm no where near innocent, I know a lot about sex despite not having had it. And the idea of my parents and grandparents being less "pure" because they've had more sex doesn't sit right with me at all.
Yeah, it's a stupid concept for sure. I for one didn't receive my magic vial of wisdom and ruggedness after having sex, lol. Purity business has to end. What is society? Bunch of Puritans reading Tess of D'Ubervilles?
Innocence in this context is to my mind generally seen as naïveté, ignorance, inexperience, basically having a clean slate mentally; it's generally linked with childhood and the way virginity is perceived, as a rite of passage marking the transition into adulthood, means that losing your virginity = losing the properties of your childhood and losing your ignorance. Sex as a measure of maturity is a ludicrous idea in so many respects, as sexual knowledge and behaviour should be pretty far down the list in what we define as maturity, but it's there to some extent. I think this view of "losing your innocence" - the narrow definition which really conflates innocence with virginity- is the one for the majority of cases. As for the gaining of guilt, I think in the light of our liberalising moral attitudes to sex it's playing less of a part, but it's still there as sex is still a taboo subject and people are made to feel ashamed about masturbating, etc. That attitude's really a cultural remnant from the past if anything. The idea that sex is some sort of crime still holds some importance, especially in the case of sexual relationships deemed to be outside the norm, but I think this attitude is less universal than the idea of innocence as inexperience and childhood. But then there is some overlap between the two definitions. Innocence should be viewed as someone who is blame-free and carries no responsibility to something, and sex does not intrinsically have an impact on that (nor does age)- the morality depends entirely on the context. Someone can still be naïve after having sex 100 times, in fact naïveté could well be the reason for it. The whole of society's message on sex re virginity and innocence is a huge mess. Virginity is sacrosanct and pure, but if you haven't lost it you're a childish laughing stock. As you say, sex doesn't change people, so why loss of virginity is seen as such a major character-changing turning point in one's life baffles me. Virginity is viewed entirely differently for different genders, the whole "slut vs. player" double standard. It's just a load of bollocks and inconsistent messages which are given too much importance anyway. Did that make sense? I hope it did... I got carried away either way.
I've never had sex, but I'm far from innocent. I actually see sex, in its most loving form, as pure innocence. Wanting to e as close to someone and show ten as much love as possible. In a way, baring your soul, like a kid with no filter, is innocence. Society has it backwards.
"Innocent" is my middle name! No, really. It is! "Racquel" means innocent in Hebrew. I have to agree with everyone else here. If sexual desire makes someone lose their "innocence," then they lose it long before they start having sex.
I think sex is a loss of innocence. As a child if you have sex at 13 and become a sex addict, you are not going to be pre-occupied or as concerned with other activities you were before. You also have the POSSIBILITY of forming unhealthy relationships because your mind is not fully formed in regards to decision-making. Are all people who have sex at 13 unhealthy? No. Is the percentage higher for those having sex at 13 to have more unhealthy relationships? Yes, in my opinion.
That's an enormous reason why I don't masturbate. You can't even Google "masturbation" without reading comments where people refer to it as sex. While their arguements are about as logical as the "women who wear tampons are no longer virgins" arguements, it still makes me feel extremely guity. Plus, I don't want to do it to the point where sex with my future girlfriend won't be as intense.
Wow. The thought of people who refer to it as sex is alarming...? I'm not saying masturbation is sex, but It's at whole sexual, so saying that people who do one sexual act but not another is more "pure" is silly; because you can watch porn and be "impure" and have penis-to-vagina contact and be "pure". Technically, people of all ages masturbate so It's not really the same thing. The average female starts masturbating by the age of 2 or 3.
Haha, well I cherish the meaning of sex, & want it to be a symbol of love, but I've participated in sexual actions with people that didn't mean much anyways, just not intercourse, but still sexual actions. This is all a matter of opinion. If it's consensual then whatever mate.
Naw, I see innocence being something like a cat acting of its own natural instincts. We already aren't innocent because I feel that self conciseness and basically our idea of good and evil have taken that away.
I've read tons of erotic fiction, masturbate on a semi-regular basis but have never even dated. I've also had a myomectomy and a hysterectomy and undergone extensive gynecological procedures. I still consider myself to be "innocent" regarding sex. Innocence for me doesn't equal being a virgin or not having knowledge of reproduction or how to make yourself feel good. For me, sex is the "knowing" of another person and I've never done that.
For me sex is not such a big deal. I don't see sex as the ultimate act of intimacy that many people tend to say it is (Though my opinion in this matter would have been different some years ago). After having sex nothing changes in you, you do not become a sexual predator or loose the ability to be romantic. One can argue that it makes it less special when you have sex with your significant other, but I think that is not true at all. Sex is just people having fun together and giving pleasure to each other (and to be fair, if you don't care about the other person, whoever it is, enjoying it, you are basically a twat). Relationship-wise love is much more important than sex. Having sex with someone you love is always better since there is a connection, but that does't imply that the other option is bad. Also there are many ways of showing that you love someone that do not involve sex. So yeah, I do not agree with the loss of innocence and many times people are too judgmental about it. If you see sex as something really special that you don't want to have with anyone until Mr. perfect arrives its perfectly fine but there is no need to judge other people with different opinions. We should have learned at least that from the oppression of religion. Sorry this turned into a rant! If we are talking about innocence in a literal sense, I am with Fallingdown7.
when i think of innocence i think of children, when you put these 2 together the answer for me has always been... sorry just based on my experience but there is such thing as an innocent sexual experience
our son saw a bra strap the other day, or at least i did under a womans tanktop and am assuming he did to, so now he has been exposed to the FLTHY SEXUAL NATURE of our society i have decided to release him into the wilderness, goodbye david, six years old, tainted by NUDITY
