EWR :: 17. Discomfort with touch, sexual & platonic

Embodied Writing : Relating, Relationships, & Trauma series

Exploring sexual intimacy can be incredibly uncomfortable. We are all raised with a lot of stigma around sex, if not within our families of origin, then at the least within our culture. Sex is dirty. Sex is sinful. Sex is only for procreation. Anything outside of vanilla, heterosexual, missionary position is weird and wrong and gross.

If we dare express our interest in something outside the "acceptable," if we share with another what actually feels good to us, what we want to play with, what our kinks are and what our boundaries are within those kinks... well, don't even get me started with the level of slut shaming that can then commence.

This is especially true for those of us who were raised as female.

This doesn't only happen in regard to sexual touch either.  Even platonic, loving, intimate touch between friends or family is often frowned upon and ridiculed.  

This is especially true for those who were raised as male. 

Letting go of the stigma of intimate touch, be it sexual or platonic, isn't only about sex though.