I like the opening of this essay:

The fact of the matter is that the world we are living in is pervasive with sexuality. Now, don’t get fooled into thinking in the past the world wasn’t pervasive with sexuality – it’s just that there seems to be a cycle in “civilized” societies – they start off at a norm and then simply degenerate into open corruption (classic example being the Roman empire). The societies which ironically don’t follow this pattern are the ones we think of as “uncivilized”, “barbaric”, etc. – the ones which are usually isolated from other communities or preserve a single way of life for long periods of time with very little change.

By Fatima Hye

[Photo: by Stuck in Customs, and the title of this photo is suitable for the essay; The Ruins of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius]