Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 44

On the one hand, we should affirm the enlightenment effect of sexology in the past century, and its strong impact on conservative sexual morality; More reasonable and looser space.

The emergence of sexology is undoubtedly of great significance. It has greatly advanced the human understanding of the status, causes, and results of sexual phenomena, and made people understand all kinds of sex-related things from ignorance, to vagueness, and finally to knowledge. It is better to know the realm of why.Of course, this advancement is still far from the goal of clearly describing and explaining all things related to sex, but it has made a good start after all.

The goal that sexology has set for itself since its appearance is to explore the true state of sex, which is quite similar to the exploration of the laws of the universe by natural science. The 19th and 20th centuries were the centuries of physics and biology, and it can also be said that they were the centuries of science. Scientific truth was regarded by people at that time as a kind of essence lurking inside things, waiting for smart people to discover it and make it public .This view of natural science is also impregnated with social science research, and sexology is no exception.The ambition of sexology is not only to discover, describe and analyze the hidden natural laws behind sexual phenomena, but because human sexual behavior is a social behavior, sexology also wants to discover the social laws behind sexual phenomena.Therefore, it can be said that sexology has an essentialist color from the very beginning. In its efforts to discover the "truth" hidden behind sexual phenomena, it invented a large number of classifications, rules and concepts of sex. One of the most typical The best example is that sexology invented the concept of "homosexuality" in the 19th century.

The craze for scientific classification has gained authority in sexology, and it has also formed a new angle of attention—human sexual instinct and its variation, or ordinary and abnormal, normal and abnormal. Nineteenth-century sexologists entered the new scientific virgin territory of human sexuality with gusto, full of the sense of establishing a new knowledge of human nature.They tirelessly classify all kinds of "abnormal" sexual behaviors, make various plausible pathological explanations for them, and "treat" these abnormal behaviors with psychological and physiological methods. Serious enthusiasm.All this is done in the name of science - at least in the subjective will.However, in the view of future generations of scholars such as Foucault, these efforts are not the discovery of the "truth" hidden behind sexual phenomena, but the invention of a new set of sexual discourse. Although this set of discourse has positive effects, it brings There came a certain liberation of human sexuality from the atmosphere of Puritan asceticism, but it also had the negative effect of forming a new discourse of control that suppressed all deviant or so-called "perverted" sexual expressions Way.From this point of view, Freud is not only not the representative of sexual liberation in the eyes of the Chinese, but more like a representative of conservatives.His statement that the loss of happiness is the price one must pay for civilization is clear evidence of his conservatism.

The predecessors of sexology have played a double role in the eyes of contemporary people: the positive role of their work is to break the silent and aphasic state of sex, advocate a scientific attitude towards human sexual behavior, and bring about sexual enlightenment.Most of the sexologists of the younger generation also have the breath of humanism and liberalism in the enlightenment period.They try to change the relationship with sex
For example, most sexologists in western countries advocate the repeal of laws that make homosexuality illegal and support the gay liberation movement.

The negative effect of the work of sexologists is the discipline, control and new suppression of human sexual activities by this new set of sexual discourse constructed through classification and naming.This negative effect has spawned various criticisms, questions and challenges to sexology.Historians challenge its modernity; scientists and philosophers question its scientificity; feminists attack its patriarchal values; homosexuals strongly oppose its medical and pathological tendencies.

To sum up, on the one hand, we should affirm the enlightenment effect of sexology in the past century, and its strong impact on conservative sexual morality; Strive for a more reasonable and relaxed space for sexual activities.

(End of this chapter)