Harmonious Sex Life and Marital Quality: Exploring the Evolution of Sexual Culture and Men's Health

With societal development, the role of sexual activity in marriage and family is receiving increasing attention. Experts believe that sexual activity is closely related to marital quality, and harmonious sexual relations are an important criterion for a happy marriage. The role of sex in marriage is also growing. This role is mainly manifested in the following aspects:

① Inharmonious sexual relations often easily trigger marital conflicts, causing emotional rifts that manifest in various aspects of life. These emotional abnormalities further exacerbate the imbalance in the sexual relationship, creating a vicious cycle that ultimately leads to marital breakdown.

② Appropriate sexual activity can alleviate marital conflicts. Many couples often argue and bicker over trivial matters during the day, but at night, sharing a bed, a few sweet words of apology, and a few gentle kisses can often resolve misunderstandings and dispel annoyances. This buffering effect of sex is a way to mend emotional rifts through physical and mental connection; it is a positive and unique function of sex, helping to eliminate misunderstandings and effectively control conflicts between couples.

③ Harmonious sexual life enhances marital affection, as physical intimacy inevitably promotes spiritual harmony.

Human sexual activity has been ongoing alongside the development of human society. However, the understanding of human sexual activity has undergone a tortuous journey: affirmation (primitive people's worship of sex), negation (feudal society's suppression of sex), and then reaffirmation. Human understanding of sex has deepened and progressed with the development of social productivity. Due to low productivity in primitive societies, people had to adopt a communal lifestyle and group marriage to adapt to the natural environment, defend against wild animal attacks, and hunt for enough food to sustain life. Sexual activity could occur between any two sexes regardless of age; incest is an undeniable part of human sexual history. However, with social development and the accumulation of life experience, people gradually discovered that offspring born from incest between siblings were often weak and sickly, hindering the development of tribal productivity. They concluded that close relatives should not marry and procreate, gradually leading to the emergence of consanguineous families and monogamous families.

As social productivity further developed and improved, there was a surplus of necessities for survival, leading some to desire possession of them. This resulted in the emergence of private ownership, with women becoming the private property of men. This illustrates that human understanding of sex gradually accumulated and improved over a long period of social life and activities. Primitive people exhibited many forms of natural worship, with sexual worship being a common one. Primitive people's sexual worship primarily manifested as the worship of male and female reproductive organs. Generally, a phallic idol or model was erected, unconnected to the human body, to signify its independent existence and superiority over humans. People devoutly worshipped these phallic idols, not only holding solemn ceremonies of worship, prayer, and thanksgiving, but also offering the most precious things. Historians have extensive research on this: ancient Syrian women wore wooden male phalluses as amulets. Ancient Jews, when taking oaths, held one hand to the sky and the other hand holding a phallus to signify solemnity. Ancient Jews also practiced circumcision, often performing it alongside rituals to worship God. Typically, the foreskin removed after circumcision was used in the offering, demonstrating the sacredness of the genitals in their minds. In ancient India, there was a custom of worshipping the goddess Garan, with a naked woman representing the goddess. Her genitals received the worship of the priests, who would openly kiss them. Offerings were only shared after contact with her genitals, believed to ward off disease and evil. Syria had a festival called "Womb Festival," with similar sacrificial rites performed on this day. In Mexico, farmers often planted wooden poles shaped like male genitalia in their fields as sacred objects, praying for fertile land and abundant crops. In my country, there are also many remnants of primitive sexual worship. It is believed that the right side of the Chinese character for "ancestor" (祖) is a pictograph of the male genitalia. In Xuancheng, Nanling County, southern Anhui Province, a stone statue of a monk stands in a field, its genitals unusually large. Locals passing by always touch and worship it, hoping for good fortune and protection.

Throughout the long history of human sexual worship, whether it was phallic worship, sexual intercourse worship, or fertility worship, it was all based on gender equality. Because women bore a greater responsibility in reproduction, they were given greater respect. With the advent of private ownership, the situation changed drastically. Patriarchal society replaced matriarchal society, and men regarded their wives and children as their private property. Furthermore, to ensure the inheritance of their property to children truly of their own blood, the requirements for their wives' chastity were extremely strict. At this point, sexual intercourse was no longer a public act, but a private matter within the family, absolutely forbidden to be disclosed to others, let alone with others. Thus, sexual worship shifted towards sexual repression. At the same time, to avoid interference from others in marital sexual activity, sexual behavior was described as obscene, dirty, and vulgar (except between husband and wife). Thus, historical development led sex worship to its opposite.

In medieval Europe, Christian doctrine explicitly equated sex with "sin" and "animalistic desires," calling on all believers to avoid sexual activity as if it were a plague. St. Paul emphasized that married men and unmarried men should live the same lives. However, if no one engages in sexual activity, how can there be offspring? Therefore, it was stipulated that sexual intercourse was prohibited on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while other days were permissible, considered a "necessary sin," thus minimizing sexual activity. Until the Victorian era in England, sexual repression remained very strict. Women had to completely cover their bodies from the neck down to the ankles. Women could only be virtuous wives and mothers; if they showed even the slightest interest in sexual matters, they were considered "adulteresses." At that time, certain sexual terms were taboo. For example, thighs were referred to as "lower limbs," underwear as "something that cannot be mentioned," prostitutes were called "fallen women," and "pregnancy" was used as a euphemism for "an interesting state," and so on.