Western culture’s relationship with eroticism and sexuality is surprisingly two-faced: most people consume commercial sex services, such as adult entertainment videos, yet adult entertainment creators are still publicly condemned.
A few months ago in Finland, there was a controversy about a primary school teacher who had published erotic content on their OnlyFans channel. The teacher’s actions were condemned even in the main editorial of the largest media house, but the hypocrisy is shown by the fact that no one asked whether teachers who have watched adult entertainment should also resign.
After many years, I returned to philosopher Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality and was delighted to find relevant analyses of how the stigmas of shame attached to sexuality seem to have been inherited from ancient Greek times. Even then, a man who offered erotic services for payment lost his citizenship rights.
Our culture has pornography in abundance, such as war porn, violence porn, and of course erotic porn, but it is remarkable that we celebrate highly violent films heroically, while creators of erotic films are condemned.
I have worked as a professional in the sex and erotica industry for years, but I pondered for a long time whether I could bring erotic energy healing services to my Jazmine studio without my expertise being questioned in other areas as well. This may also bring practical problems, such as not being able to get payment processing services, a bank account, or a commercial lease, or not being able to use social media services.
Foucault also highlighted in his book that when shame and sin began to be attached to sexuality in the West, in many other cultures eroticism developed into an art form – Ars Erotica. As an artist, I have now decided to head in that direction.
Our culture needs a mature approach to eroticism, because if sexuality is suppressed and locked in the basement, at worst only its most sadistic forms emerge. Sexuality and eroticism are such an essential part of humanity that all its beautiful forms should be celebrated rather than shamed.