| Sense and Sensuality - Canada's Sex Positive Attitude - Spring 09 |
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| Written by Sarah Stefanson | |||||||
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Our country scores high in tolerance when it comes to sexual issues, but there is still work to be done. In general, Canada is remarkably permissive towards sex. We were the fourth nation to legally recognize homosexual marriage in 2005. We are one of very few countries to have no legal restrictions on abortion. In Canada, prostitution itself is not illegal provided you can exploit the loopholes left in the law. There is a prevailing attitude among experts that Canadian laws prohibiting polygamy are unconstitutional. Our open attitude towards sexuality was even demonstrated by a comment on the first season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada. American judge Dan Karaty noted after a particularly sexual dance number choreographed by Canadian Blake McGrath, "You must not have to worry about the censors in Canada. They'd never allow that in the States."  Photo: Osado, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2, November 2002 Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA How do our attitudes towards sex compare to those of different countries around the world? A study published in the Journal of Sex Research sought to compare the opinions of the citizens of 24 different countries. The participants were asked four questions: 1) "Do you think it is wrong or not wrong for a man and woman to have sexual relations before marriage?" 2) "What if they are in their early teens, say under 16 years old?" 3) "What about a married person having sexual relations with someone other than his or her husband or wife?" 4) "What about sexual relations between two adults of the same sex?" In response, participants chose between Always Wrong, Almost Always Wrong, Only Sometimes Wrong, and Not At All Wrong. Of the Canadians surveyed, 69% thought that sex before marriage was not at all wrong. Only Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Germany (West and East), Slovenia, and Sweden were more permissive on the issue. The United States ended up low on the permissiveness scale with only 41% believing premarital sex was Not At All Wrong. When it came to sex among those younger than 16, the results were much different. Only 9% of Canadians believed it was Not At All Wrong. Sweden (17% Not At All Wrong) and Germany (East 16%, West 13%) were the most accepting of young teen sex. Extramarital sex provoked a high percentage of Always Wrong answers from most of the countries surveyed. Of the Canadian participants, 68% believed premarital sex is Always Wrong, 19% think it's Almost Always Wrong, 10% say it's Only Sometimes Wrong, and a paltry 2% argue that it is Not At All Wrong. Among our closet neighbours, The United States, 80% thought sex with someone other than a person's spouse was Always Wrong, this percentage exceeded only by the inhabitants of Northern Ireland (81%) and the Philippines (88%). Russia (17% Not At All Wrong) and Bulgaria (16%) were the most accepting of the concept of extramarital sex. Finally, homosexual sex proved to be a dividing issue in many countries, including Canada where the majority believed that it was Not At All Wrong (46%), but a high percentage also believed it was Always Wrong (39%). Compared to Northern Ireland (80% Always Wrong), Bulgaria (81%), Hungary (83%), and the Philippines (84%), our country is still remarkably tolerant of homosexual relations. Of American respondents, 70% believe homosexuality is Always Wrong. There are many theories as to why certain countries are more permissive towards sex than others. Some think it has to do with the level of religious influence, a correlation that is quite obvious in the cases of countries like Northern Ireland and the United States where religion is considered to be very important while positions on sexuality are particularly intolerant. Conversely, in Sweden, religion is not a significant part of the average citizen's life, while sexual attitudes are much more liberal. Sex researcher Ira Reiss conducted an extensive comparison of sexual attitudes in the United States and Sweden in 1980. He argued that Sweden's more sex positive outlook was due to four characteristics: less importance placed on religiosity, a greater belief in the equality of the sexes, a more popular notion of the idea of sexuality as a natural concept, and legal and social policies that reflect a nonregulatory view of sexuality. In contrast, the United States is one of the most religious countries in the West, gender equality has not quite been achieved, many sexual acts are seen as unnatural, and the government has great influence over the sex lives of its citizens. We have work left to do in Canada to reach the tolerance level of the Swedes when it comes to sexual issues, but compared to America we are significantly progressive in our attitudes. Comments (0)
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