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By Luc Loranhe (2007)

In the current world, politics is firmly in the hands of those who are either outright anti-sexual, or who exclude sexual matters entirely from their political agenda, as they know it’s a topic they can easily burn their finger on, and then, their political careers are finished.

Unfortunately, the eigendynamics of a free media contributes to this situation. On the one hand, all consumers of media are highly interested in anything related to sexuality. On the other hand, sexuality is intrinsically private. Public direct association of anything sexual with any specific person has a great potential to shame that person, just as nakedness does.

I leave it to more radical activists to fight for a society in which politicians, just as anybody else, could appear in public fully undressed, and nobody were to think anything special about that. For me, such an agenda would be too futuristic. I, on the contrary, fight for changes in societies which have a realistic chance to happen within my lifetime. Banning the media from reporting anything sexual on private citizens and public figures would be one such change that has a realistic chance of becoming implemented. It would be one step on the route to societies with a more mature approach to sexual satisfaction. It would also make a career in politics more appealing to those who have a highly active sex life.

The above proposal does not mean that the topic of sexuality ought to be banned outright from the media. The media could provide sex education. Sexologist could discuss in the media anything from techniques most likely to result in the female orgasm to the physiological relevance of testosterone in men. Furthermore, political parties could publish their platforms relating to sexual topics.

What ought to be banned is primarily the kind of reporting that follows the this-man-did-that pattern because it always has a negative impact, not only on the person who is reported but also on a society as a whole, as it leads to a culture of finger-pointing.

In regulating the media, no advance censorship is necessary. Hefty fines against those who violate the regulations (writers, editors, and publishers) will do the job neatly.