Readers in Council,
The Japan Times,
5-4, Shibaura 4-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
I am always surprised to read how cultures like those in India and China have a “deep-seated conservatism about sex” (“Sex driving China’s next cultural revolution,” June 26, 2009) in reports of current urban trends, public health, sex education, population control, birth rates, female emancipation, literacy, family planning, and other feminine-oriented issues in those countries. Descriptions like “conservative about sex” don’t just ring false, they bellow falsehood because, considering that Chinaand Indiahost the largest national populations in the world, I would say that sex is one of their least conservative activities. They breed like - well, like humans, which are proudly (or perhaps coyly) the most sexually busy species on the planet despite the legendary promiscuity of rabbits and other rodents.
I understand the argument that social conservatism can be said to feature or at least promote female submission, illiteracy, poverty, forced marital and extra-marital sex and dangerously frequent pregnancies, high birth rates, reduced longevity, and compromised economic vitality because of it; and that social liberalism, on the other hand, features female empowerment, fewer pregnancies and births, healthier and longer life and greater liberty, greater personal fulfillment in life, and boosted economic stimuli because of it. Still, I would not describe Chinaor Indiaas sexually conservative. Just the opposite, in fact.
But I could be wrong.