Since the dawn of time, mankind has been obsessed with sex, real and depicted. Culture and society have been sexually active since Biblical times when Adam and Eve discovered the joys of lovemaking until they were cursed with birthing the human race.
With the early Indian cultures we were given the Kama Sutra or series of scripts on the entire ordeal behind courtship, relationships and sex, complete with an entire ten sections dedicated to the 64 different sexual acts used to entice, seduce and persuade a woman to a man’s bed and heart. The Kama Sutra governs practices of sexual ritual all the way from courting and making advances to dealing with the duties of the wife once marriage is established. The book’s thirty-six chapters also delve into sexual practices governing coitus, oral sex, biting, scratching and moaning by the woman in order to be mated to the male.
Sexuality permeates society in all that we have done. Not just the written word, but storytelling of bawdy limericks and tales not fit for proper society’s ears came from man’s exploits. Sculptures of the various positions and combinations have been found in ancient ruins ranging from India to the Greek and Italian islands in the Mediterranean. African cultures sculpted phallic objects as symbols of potency. The ruins of Pompeii were painted with erotic artwork giving humankind some of the earliest images of gay behavior often associated with the Greek and Roman cultures. As society grew, others painted, sculpted or wrote erotic artwork, much of which is famous today and on display in many prominent museums. Erotica was produced during the Renaissance period for the amusement of the aristocracy. By the twentieth century, erotic photography became the main and most interesting media for erotic art.
The large debate has rolled on as to whether the works of art are erotic or pornographic such to the point that the Supreme Court became involved in an attempt to explain the difference, but even that venerable institution couldn’t define it properly/ Justice Potter Stewart wrote one of the most famous lines in history concerning the great debate over obscenity; I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced; but I know it when I see it.
