Sexual Morality

Although I do not necessarily support Goldman’s views regarding sex and morality, I think that overall, his beliefs are supported by generally sound arguments. However, I have one major objection to the piece which I think have caused me to have an overall dislike of his idea that sex is independent of moral implications. My objection involves the authors attempt to distinguish sexual relationships from love based relationships using unfounded opinions to assign value to each relation. The author asserts that there is a higher value on love than sexual relationships. On page 234, the author says “although intense, the pleasures of sex are brief and repetitive rather than cumulative. They give value to the specific acts which generate them, but not the lasting kind of value which enhances one’s life…by contrast, love typically develops over a long term relation; while its pleasure may be less intense and physical, they are more cumulative in value”. I disagree with this statement because the author fails to recognize the many positive physical and biochemical benefits that sex has on both men and woman. For example, sex is scientifically proven to reduce blood pressure, stress, and the risk of prostate cancer in men. Thus, someone having “brief and repetitive” sex (independent of romantic love) will have cumulative health benefits. I would argue that these health benefits are valuable because all are obviously related to overall health and longevity which are unarguably connected to overall happiness. The authors support is purely opinionated for this particular argument.