Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Sex Trade—Why it Survives & Thrives!

It’s a Sacred Cow!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

The sex trade is one of the world’s largest and most enduring industries, even though it continuously inflicts immeasurable suffering on millions of young girls, women, and children.

Not surprisingly, the business of sex has long been fodder for the news media, which periodically covers it like any other news category but never gets down to the nitty-gritty of why the industry continues to flourish on such a massive scale.

Selling and buying sex also periodically gets the attention of politicians and religious leaders who routinely decry its presence, but they too ignore the underlying reasons for its existence. And as is well known, many of them participate in the action themselves, although they try to keep it secret.

You might think that there is some kind of conspiracy going on—a worldwide conspiracy that both allows and protects the sex industry from serious interference by anyone or any organization. And you would be right.

The conspiracy is as ancient as the industry itself, and is an outgrowth of the natural sexual instincts of males to have sexual relations with females (or boys or animals when human females are not available) on a regular basis—and to have sexual access to more than one female whenever possible.

This predatory sexual nature of males is a built-in characteristic that is a fundamental part of the survival instinct of all organic life forms. Males are driven to have sex with females. In males this drive can be so powerful it prevents them from thinking and behaving rationally, and when it is denied and/or repressed bad things can happen.

The human male sex-drive kicks in at puberty and remains strong for several decades—in some men in good health it is still strong when they are in their 60s and 70s. In young males sexual energy builds up—like a battery being charged—in a matter of a few days. In older males the build-up takes from several days to a number of weeks.

When the energy in the “sex battery” of males is not dispelled by having intercourse (or masturbating) it begins to have a negative impact on them. Their thinking and their behavior changes, and those with more powerful sex drives often resort to some kind and degree of violence to obtain sexual release. [Masturbation only partially relieves the sex energy buildup.]

Females are also genetically imbued with a survival instinct and are driven to attract males to impregnate them, but from the first days of the human species they were under the control of males who were superior in size and strength, and subject to being severely punished, if not killed, if they did not accommodate males who approached them. This situation still exists in some present-day societies.

The sexual behavior of males and females is, of course, inherent in the species. In simple terms, men are driven to have sex every time their “battery” is fully charged, and in many cases any available female will do. Females on the other hand, are programmed to be more selective in their sex partners. When they have a choice they will select or submit to males who appear to offer an advantage to them—whatever that advantage might be.

As the human species advanced intellectually and began to form larger and larger groups it gradually became customary in most societies for the male rulers and their male-priest allies to establish rules that limited most men to one wife at a time, or prescribed the maximum number of wives they could have—a movement that totally ignored the sexual nature of both males and females.

As is also well known, in many societies these limitations did not apply to the rulers and top officials, resulting in concubine and mistress-keeping become common among the ruling elite and the wealthy minority (who were invariable aligned with the political and religious leaders).

But whatever the society and whatever social system it had, a large number of men always ended up without the opportunity for regular sexual release. And, of course, many who had wives simply gave in to the urge to have extra-marital sex. These factors, combined with the material and security needs of many females and their families, led to the early development of sex as a trade.

In some societies religious leaders recognized and accepted the true nature of men, and created a system in which men—married or single—could have sex with female priests and acolytes. [Interestingly, Hawaiians had separate “sex houses” for royalty and for commoners that featured a variety of sex games. One game for commoners consisted of bowling for sex—rolling a wobbly coconut across a floor toward a lineup of females to select a partner for the night...surely hoping it would go to one that was attractive.]

Obviously, political, social and religious leaders have never resolved the sexual nature of males or females, which explains why the sex trade has survived into modern times. In short, it serves the purpose and needs of many men, and, in a perverse way, some women.

As is well known, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. periodically attempt to keep the sex trade behind closed doors, typically targeting females instead of males, even though the trade caters almost exclusively to males.

As the cultural restraints against extra-marital sex and consensual sex among singles weaken, the need for commercial sex will no doubt diminish, but it will not go away in
the foreseeable future…not as long as so many men need—or think they need—the services the trade provides.

The only way that the sex trade could be dramatically and quickly reduced in size would be the mandatory state-enforced use of chemicals to block the natural sex drive of men. I don’t see that happening as long as males are in control.

The “natural solution” that seems to be developing is a simple sexual free-for-all situation that is culturally approved as long as it is consensual.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 60 books on the business etiquette and ethics, social behavior in general and languages of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico. For a list and descriptions of his books, see his personal website at: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/, or type his full name into Google’s Books search box.
For a definitive scenario on the problems caused by the misunderstanding and abuse of human sexuality, and one possible result, see his ebook, Brave New World of American Sex! on http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/, or Amazon’s http://www.mobipocket.com/.