Almost no one will get through life without experiencing unwanted sexual advances. Even as a male, I’ve experienced a few. Woman experience even more. This is because men have been hard-wired in their brains, (as a result of male hormones irreversibly rewiring their brains), to go after sex as hard and as often as possible. They therefore have a particular responsibility to manage their sexuality well. Testosterone (produced by the male XY chromosomes) is particularly influential. It is first produced when the foetus is six weeks old, and it deluges the brain again (unless interfered with), at adolescence. As a result, the hypothalamus is a different shape in males than women, and the cerebral cortex is thicker.[1] Crucially, the cross over link (the corpus callosum) between left and right brain has fewer connections and is thinner than in women, which makes men less skilled in multi-tasking and verbal articulation.
To be an asexual being is (with one or two rare medical exceptions) neither possible nor desirable. Imagine the outcry if we were not allowed to dress in a way that advertised our masculinity or femininity. The Communists tried it for a while when they attempted to declare families obsolete, but quickly gave it up, although their severe unisex dress code took a while longer to relax.
Men particularly, are visually driven when it comes to sex. This makes them “sitting ducks” when it comes to pornography (the subject of my next blog), and it means they have to work harder at controlling their sexuality when they see a woman who looks alluring. But manage it they can… and should. There is never, never, never, an excuse for a man to behave in sexually inappropriate way to women, because of her dress. Her dress does not say “yes”.
As someone who has studied biology, I’ve had to attend lectures on animal behaviour, which, if it teaches you nothing else, makes it clear that different species have been signalling their sexuality to each other for a very long time. The fact that humans have made it to the top of the food chain means we have been particularly good at it. It has also been the case that males can be overzealous in this exercise. But is the human male just a helpless victim of biology? Can they shrug their shoulders when they are sexually abusive and simply say, “My genes made me do it”?
No, no, no! To say that is to say that you are no different from an animal, and whilst this may be true biologically (you share 96% of the same genes as a chimpanzee) it is NOT true of the essential ‘you’. Humans are unique in that they can choose behaviour in violation of their genes. Some do it every morning: they shave! (I know it is much more inconsequential, but you get the idea.)
The thing is, if you are locked in to atheistic thinking (which is being encouraged by society today), women will be at increasing risk of sexual abuse. This is because the Judean/Christian ethic of honouring the other, of civility, of there being moral boundaries within which we operate best––are being trashed. Society (quite irrationally) is swallowing the lie that we have no more significance beyond being a chance collection of atoms. As such, it is rather easier to blame your genes for your behaviour, because you had little say in it. It’s just the way your atoms are configured.
However, if you are an authentic Christian (stress “authentic”), i.e. someone who has made Jesus the leader of your life, you will know that you have been created in God’s image. And as God is THE moral being, it means that you are a moral being. As such, you can manage your hormones, and are obliged to. It is what love does. So, if you are anti-moral in your behaviour and abuse a woman, you are being less than human, and have sunk back to being a mere animal.
With the trashing of God’s best will for us, sex has become (particularly for males) simply a recreational activity that has the added bonus of flattering the ego. As such, it had been cut adrift from commitment, responsibility and authentic love. It is, “Tonight, we will fake love.” Such promiscuity is poor preparation for marriage, in which the woman hopes her partner will be faithful, and will make her the highest priority in life. Failure in this is devastating for the stability of families––and children become the main casualties.
I fear society is paying a high price for discarding the historical Jesus. It is desperately trying to legislate on what we must do on the outside, but has nothing to say about reforming the inside. The best it can do is throw some ‘education’ at it––but education without the ‘why’ has no foundation and therefore not much power.
Men… please don’t be subhuman.
[1] Anne Moir & David Jessel, Brain sex: the real difference between men and women(London: Mandarin, 1989), pp. 21-28
