“Catholic Church: The body is evil, you’re going to hell. Kama Sutra authors: The body is good, you’re in heaven.”
I pulled this quote from Seema Anand at the awesome airing of Masala Podcast live when I was at a podcasting event on Saturday.
Something I get all my clients to do and literally anybody who will listen to me, is think about the predominant messages you received about your body, your orgasms, your pleasure, your sexuality, sex, gender, everything growing up.
From your parents. Your family. Your school. Your friends. The media. Your culture. And your Faith community if you grew up in one OR the messages from the predominant Faith of the country you grew up in.
Replace the Catholic Church with any dominant and patriarchal religion.
Same product, different flavours of patriarchy.
Journal on it. Think about it. Write out the biggest and most predominant messages.
Now read them. How many of these messages were affirming, positive, and empowering? Especially if you are a woman or AFAB. And also if you are queer, trans, or have desires that fall outside of the norm.
Shame on you!
Be honest with yourself, I doubt many of them were.
You don’t need to have been brought up religious to be impacted by religious beliefs on sexuality, as this is our countries’ history– we as in the world “we”. These beliefs shaped cultures and laws that were made all over the world with a big splash of White European colonizer mentality too.
At the most fundamental, most religions and offshoots of them teach a disembodied theology that the body and everything that comes with the body or anything remotely carnal is BAD, SINFUL, DIRTY, leads you to hell, blah blah blah.
Name me your religion or sect, I’ll find a fire and brimstone preacher screaming about the dangers of sex and the flesh on YouTube or TikTok.
Now imagine that we have had centuries of these kinds of teachings. Laws that are made. Witches burned at the stake. Harlots stoned in public squares. Queers having all sorts of torture. Right into the fabric of how we understand modern medicine and scientific enquiry.
If you were brought up religious, you got this even harder.
Body, sex, pleasure, orgasm: BAD WRONG DANGEROUS DIRTY SINFUL
Do you honestly think that your own body doesn’t remember this on some level? Even if you cognitively don’t believe it?
What would happen if we could change that narrative and celebrate your body, your sexuality, your orgasms, pleasure, gender expression, the whole bloody lot, as beautiful, sacred, and life giving?
I hope you feel the tingles too.
If you’re ready to change your sexual narrative, click the link below to find all the ways we can work together or contact me if you want to work together 1:1.
Lucy Rowett, CSC – Pronouns: She/Her/Her