What To Do When an Entire Political Party Needs the Help of a Sex Therapist
By Karen L. Rancourt, Ph.D.
I have been a relationship advice columnist for the past 13 years. If someone displayed the behaviors I describe below and I was asked for my opinion, I know exactly what advice I would give: “This person seems to be unhealthfully obsessed with sex, sexuality, reproductive organs, and intimate behavior between consenting adults.
“So, at the very least, I hope I can raise some awareness, and ideally, some reflection, resulting in a recognition that the obsession with sex and sexuality…”
“Most likely, this person could benefit from seeing a sex therapist. I am making this recommendation because a licensed sex therapist is trained to help someone with repeated thoughts, urges, or mental anxiety.”
However, it is a different story when an entire political party collectively behaves in ways suggesting sexual obsession and dysfunction. The areas of focus that get them all hot, bothered, and excited, include:
- Women’s reproductive organs and their sexual activities, overriding decisions that should be between a woman and her doctor
- Concern with who is using which single-person bathroom or bathrooms with stalls that lock
- Regulating who marries whom
- Requiring documentation of young female athlete’s menstrual cycles; providing such information is currently optional
- Banning books that discuss various family constellations, claiming that these books are promoting sexual indoctrination
- Denial of gender-affirming care for trans youth
- Banning drag shows
- Prohibiting any conversations by girls who experience their menstrual cycle in grades lower than the 6thgrade about their period or other topics about human sexuality (Bill passed by Florida House)
Although the following two observations are not part of an attempt to legislate, as is the case with the preceding points, they might well be considered in the context of (1) having a former president accusing a possible future presidential candidate of grooming high school girls, and (2) knowing that certain politicians questioned why posted photos of a president’s troubled son’s genitalia were taken down.
“…if someone is not voicing their opposition and putting pressure on those who are promoting objectionable positions to cease and desist, then their silence is in fact showing acceptance.”
It is glaring hypocrisy for a political party to position itself as being all about personal choices and individual freedom on the one hand, and then on the other hand, to be so fixated as to want to legislate when it comes to personal choices regarding one’s sexual orientation and preferences and reproductive health.
There is a group of politicians who are diligently (perhaps breathlessly?) working under the guise of showing moral leadership. They want their constituents to appreciate that it is a hard job being the self-appointed moral gatekeepers for others’ bodies and sexual behaviors, but they are more than up to the task.
Editor’s Note:
Florida bill would ban elementary schools from teaching about menstruation
According to the Cleveland Clinic, girls in the U.S. typically get their first period between ages 11 and 14, but can get them as early as age 9 and as late as age 15. Children in third and fourth grades are typically 8 to 10 years old.
Obviously, it is not realistic to think an entire political party will seek the services of a professional sex therapist. For openers, one seeks the services of a professional helper only when there is a recognition that help is needed. Help is not required when one’s choices are based on feeling morally correct and superior, not to mention what will appeal to like-minded voters.
“I can anticipate that there are those who will say they don’t personally subscribe to their party’s excessive focus on sex and sexuality issues…”
With this reality in mind, I guess the best outcome is to draw attention to the fact that an entire political party, either directly or indirectly, is obsessed in detrimental ways with the choices others are making regarding their own sex, sexuality, sexual identity, and how they choose to be intimate.
I can anticipate that there are those who will say they don’t personally subscribe to their party’s excessive focus on sex and sexuality issues, but they hasten to add in their own defense, they do support other agendas this party has. Okay, but if someone is not voicing their opposition and putting pressure on those who are promoting objectionable positions to cease and desist, then their silence is in fact showing acceptance.
So, at the very least, I hope I can raise some awareness, and ideally, some reflection, resulting in a recognition that the obsession with sex and sexuality I have described is unhealthy and needs to change. Perhaps, over time, enough pressure can be put on those legislators to stay out of people’s anatomy, doctors’ offices, bedrooms, and bathrooms.
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