Peter Espeut | Strengthen the family

In a two-part series titled ‘The unnatural primacy of sex’, family doctor Garth A. Rattray suggests that nowadays, there is just too much focus on sex and sexuality. In his first article (September 23, 2019), Rattray says: “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sex, per se. However, nowadays, everything seems to be all about sex, sex, and more sex. … Sex used to be in the background and, given the intimate, sensitive and private nature of the subject, unless there is some specific, important or educational reason for raising the topic, that is where it belongs.” I quite agree!

On August 28, 2019, while addressing a function in Montego Bay, Jamaica’s Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte stated that up to 80 per cent of Jamaican girls lose their virginity to rape or molestation! Four out of every five Jamaican girls! Look around you!

According to UNICEF, the average age of sexual initiation in Jamaica – where the legal age of consent for girls is 16 years old – is 14.5 years for males and 15.8 years for females; average means that some will be younger and some will be older when they are initiated into sex.

Sexual harassment in Jamaica – including catcalling in the streets – is common. Whether dancehall lyrics create or reflect culture (social scientists will say it does both), they glorify sex and violence – sometimes both at the same time. For many, sex is an act of violence – something you do to someone for gratification, not with someone out of love.

The human personality has many facets, and good mental health requires them to be in balance. After conducting research on a representative sample of 1,506 Jamaicans, psychiatrist Prof Frederick Hickling (and his colleague G. Walcott) determined that more than 40 per cent of us Jamaicans suffer from maladaptive personality disorder”. In their conclusions, they state, “The heritage of slavery and colonial oppression in Jamaica has resulted in maladaptive personality disorders that have led to extremely high rates of homicide, violence and transgressive behaviour.”

SEX DISORDER CRISIS

It is my view – and the view of others – that Jamaica suffers from a crisis of sexual disorder. Whatever the origin, this disorder is perpetuated today by several socialising factors, all of which can be addressed if we have the political will. But parliamentarians are not unaffected.

Hickling & Walcott: “Persons with personality disorder were significantly more likely to be single (63 per cent), male (60 per cent), between the ages 18 and 44 years (77 per cent) and of a lower socio-economic status (65 per cent)”.

Rattray (September 30, 2019) laments: “Some people use sex as currency. They trade it for affection, food, appliances, expenses, and even raw cash.” Sex, therefore, is devalued and debased, and with it, humanity.

Rattray: “This debasing of something so special as sex is facilitated and enhanced by the way our society cheapens it, reduces it to a commodity, an accessory to something else, and saturates everything with it.” The media, the advertising industry, and the music industry participate in and exacerbate this debasing of humanity, which leads to rape and incest and sexual abuse.

Rattray again: “There are very dangerous consequences to treating sex that way. Sexual relations run the risk of being, on the one hand, inconsequential, and on the other hand, the only thing that keeps a relationship together. Because it’s not special to some people, they become lascivious. Because sex has lost its special place, some become so bored with it that they involve themselves in threesomes and orgies or cross the gender barrier out of curiosity.”

It becomes pathological when those suffering sexual personality disorders seek to inflict them on society as normal behaviour. Their goal is to destroy those institutions – like the family and the Church – that promote healthy, balanced personalities.

We must not let them.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is dean of studies at St Michael’s Theological College. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.