flexibeast.space - gemlog - 2023-06-08
Again on whether sex is a ‘need’
Sure, “sex is not a need” in the sense that food and shelter are a ‘need’.
But in that sense, only considering the biological requirements for mere survival, human connection is not a ‘need’.
There are raw biological needs, and there are psychological needs.
Saying “sex is not a need” has the same energy as queer-hostile people ‘accepting’ queerness as long as it's not acted upon, because “you don't need to have a same-gender partner”.
Making assertions about whether a given person ‘needs’ sex is not only inappropriate and invalidating of that person's experience of the world, it's the wrong issue.
Someone can genuinely have a psychological need for sex — and that doesn't imply that they're entitled to have that need met by anyone in general, or by someone else in particular. But they are entitled to express that need as a need, and to try to get that need met in a context of respect for bodily autonomy and informed consent.
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