The following is a guest post by Soror K:

I recently read an article about The Catholic University of America, a university that separates men and women into different dormitory buildings to keep them from engaging in sexual activities. There is a strong anti-sex and even anti-masturbation policy at this university. The result was that, upon the sexual assault of one girl by a group of freshmen boys, the school had to change the way they handled sexual assault. Gang rape and masturbation, it turns out, incurred equal punishments.

You can see the obvious problem here, when sexuality itself is so stigmatized that sexual assault doesn't receive the attention it deserves. Not only does sex-negativity in a society blur the line between sexual assault and sex, it creates an environment where people are not able to express their sexuality safely. It does so by putting sex and sexual assault in the same category, both being “bad activities,” and makes sources for accurate sexual information scarce, leaving kids to pornography and television to learn about sex.

Even in less radical institutions such as the public school systems in America, many kids and teens are provided sexual education that focuses on abstinence. When the emphasis of our education is on abstinence, the concept of consent becomes deemphasized.
READ MORE »

When a sex-positive activist hears the word “chastity,” it is usually followed by feelings of resentment or disgust. A shiver goes down the spine as one imagines the chastity belts worn by women during the Renaissance, the literal penis cages to keep men from masturbating, or sexual repression through the Puritan concept of purity through sexual abstinence. All of these connotations however, are abrogate in the religion Thelema.

The word chastity originates from the Latin word “castus” meaning "pure." In today's world, the word chastity is very often used interchangeably with the word virginity, though this was not always the case. The use of this language implies a relation between sexual repression and “purity,” which is ultimately false. This once oppressive word has a different meaning entirely in Thelema.

In Thelema, the word chastity denotes a complete dedication one's will or actions. It has no sexual connotations whatever. A musician who plays a violin piece beautifully is chaste to the distractions in their mind and free from the lust of result. An adequate musician does not rush through a performance to finally hear the applause from an audience, but dedicates themselves to the act of playing in that moment. It has the implication of freedom from contamination, as pure milk should not contain rBST. Such is the state of chastity in Thelema.
READ MORE »