By Del Carmen
Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Cleis Press
Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel has collected 24 informative, disturbing and provocative articles and personal essays about sex. But these are not works of fiction or fantasy; these are real stories – about politics, religion, death, survival, and yes, about sex.Before we start reading this volume, we need to take Bussel’s advice to heart and “[check] our own inner censors and making sure we don’t turn around and make unwarranted judgments about other people’s sex lives, especially where we don’t have all the facts.”
There were several articles that struck a cord with me in this collection, but the one I kept returning to was Greta Christina’s “Atheists Do It Better: Why Leaving Religion Leads to Better Sex.” In it Christina reviews the findings of the report – “Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Region” –, a 46-page report available on the internet.
The report finds that Believers and Atheists are both having sex. They are having the same kind of sex, the same amount of sex, and, they start having sex at the same age. Believers just feel guilty about it.
Atheists fuck better, or at least, they have a better time fucking, states Christina, because they feel much less guilt about their sex lives and their sexuality.
It’s the guilt issue that gets me. Religion and guilt have no place in the bedroom. I would think that as adults, Believers and Atheists would know that.
I am a woman, a Latina and a Catholic. I guess that means I was born with triple amounts of guilt. But I shed that sexual guilt, like I shed my baby teeth, as I grew older. Or maybe I’m just not as good a Catholic woman as I should be.
Neither religion nor guilt stops me from enjoying sex, or exploring my sexuality, or discussing my likes and dislikes with my partners. And if guilt does kick in, then that will be my guilty pleasure.♥
To learn more about the BEST SEX WRITING 2012 anthology, click here.
To buy a copy of the book on Amazon, click here.
Del Carmen writes erotica and romance. Her story, "Ride A Cowboy" was published in the WOMEN IN LUST anthology (Cleis Press 2011) and Penthouse magazine (February 2012). Visit her at www.mydelcarmen.com.
To buy a copy of the book on Amazon, click here.
Del Carmen writes erotica and romance. Her story, "Ride A Cowboy" was published in the WOMEN IN LUST anthology (Cleis Press 2011) and Penthouse magazine (February 2012). Visit her at www.mydelcarmen.com.
I have to check this one out. Religion has no place in the bedroom but spirituality certainly does. That connection between two people makes the physical act better. I don't think that past generations, no matter their devotions to a god or gods, ever view sex as just an act of reproduction. The body gets too much pleasure from it.
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