Tuesday, March 18, 2008

FAITHFULNESS: FANTASY, OR OCCASIONAL FACT?

Today the NY Times ran an article on faithfulness (or lack of it). While researching for 'pairing for life' animals, the first site to appear on Google was 1500 animal species practice homosexuality. At first it surprised me but the reality quickly came to me that I know many homosexual couples who have paired for life faithfully. So heterosexuality or homosexuality is not a determinant of faithfulness.

From Wikipedia:

Animal sexual behaviour

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For human sexual practices, see Human sexual behavior

Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species. Researchers have observed monogamy, promiscuity, sex between species, sexual arousal from objects or places, sex apparently via duress or coercion, copulation with dead animals, homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual sexual behaviour, and situational sexual behaviour and a range of other practices among animals other than humans. Related studies have noted diversity in sexed bodies and gendered behaviour, such as intersex and transgender animals.

The study of animal sexuality (and primate sexuality especially) is a rapidly developing field. It used to be believed that only humans and a handful of species performed sexual acts other than for procreation, and that animals' sexuality was instinctive and a simple response to the "right" stimulation (sight, scent). Current understanding is that many species that were formerly believed monogamous have now been proven to be promiscuous or opportunistic in nature; a wide range of species appear both to masturbate and to use objects as tools to help them do so; in many species animals try to give and get sexual stimulation with others where procreation is not the aim; and homosexual behavior has now been observed among 1,500 species and in 500 of those it is well documented.

Searching for more truth, it appears that neither men nor women (other than those relatively few who are guided by morality preached to them as words directly from God) instinctively adhere to faithfulness. Many would not publicly admit to a violation of that fact, though the practice is quite prevalent.

Thus, I offer that sexuality in marriage should be a private issue between the two people involved and should not be the business of others as it has become for Presidents Jack Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, William Clinton and many others. It should not become an issue of law other than sex that is coercive, incestuous, or against minor children (have I left anything out here?). If couples find that unfaithfulness is more than they can stand, they have a right to divorce. If a couple decides, despite the occasional straying, that the marriage is important enough to tolerate the roaming in favor for the other value in the marriage, it should be the couples own business and there should not be a public saying they can't vote for Hillary Clinton because she didn't leave her cheating husband. Some have found that they are sexually incompatible because they didn't know premaritally in their abstinence. Others find a frigid or impotent partner while their libido soars. I've seen a spouse happy to allow the partner to get what cannot be obtained within the marriage. Having treated couples for many decades, I know there is little that doesn't happen in marriages that doesn't survive some of them and destroy others.

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