Virginity Rituals

[Sunset]

Sex in Orina Anoris is very liberated: there is no risk of disease or unwanted pregnancy, and sexuality is open and freely expressed.  Something I have often wondered about, though, is how sex education and sexual initiation are handled?

There has been passing mention to the siblings when they were younger spying on sexual activity: in the Belams and watching older brothers, but at what age do they start to become sexually active themselves?  At puberty/randomly/whenever they start to feel horny?  Or do the Gods and tradition insist on an initiation at a particular age?  Although sex is free and beautiful in Orina Anoris, sex is also highly valued, and governed by rules of good conduct.   It would seem likely that the society would place some significance on the "first time"?

What do you guys think?

[CourtneyLee]

I don't know that they would place so much significance on one's "first time" that it would become ritualized. As liberated as their sexual culture is, one's sexual choices are very personal and private. Also, virginity is hard to define. Does penetration have to occur? If so, fingers would have to count because otherwise a woman who doesn't take a male lover would have a hard time "losing her virginity", which is a phrase that I don't think any Anorian would agree with. What about oral sex? Frottage (rubbing)? If no penetration occurs but mutual orgasm does, is that still sex? What constitutes "sex" and"virginity"? 

As far as the age at which sexual activity commences, I'm positive that Anorian parents encourage their children to do what feels right when it feels right. Maybe it's just fantasizing and masturbating alone until one is seventeen. Maybe one is ready for the whole shebang earlier. I do think that if a boy or girl is underage (18 or 20, I guess), having partners of a similar age is probably encouraged. I can see access to professional sex workers (at belams and inatunins) starting at 16, but I also think that parents have a say when it comes to that. Maturity and readiness for sex do not all occur at the same time for everyone. What probably happens is that adolescents experiment with themselves and their peers for a while, going gradually from kissing to petting to rubbing to naked to all the wonderful things you can do when clothes come off.

In other countries, like in Jacacea, safety and birth control are a concern. Xio Voe said reproductive anatomy was taught with the same detatchment and dryness of every other anatomical system, then he was handed sheaths. I hope the rest of Jacacea goes into a little more detail and I was glad when he spoke with Xio Kei a little more.

I wonder what role the priests of Ilanosa play, too. They probably counsel people, both parents and adolescents, on when a person is ready for sexual activity. I can definitely see them working in conjunction with Itanoka's priests (teachers) to arrange days where a priest of Ilanosa visits a school to talk about sexuality. That's in addition to what young people have been hearing and seeing all their lives, too, because this particular conversation is probably pretty frequent in Anorian households. I highly doubt that the school system is the only one kids here from in Orina Anoris.

[LilacMajesty]

I don't know why, but the first part of that really cracked me up Courtney.

[vicxn]

It just really makes me wish i was Anorian  xx

[SilverMoon28]

One would first need to define what 'sex' is.

Oral sex is still sex, make no mistake about that (people in today's culture mistaken that more often than is good for them).

Now, for a woman, I always understood the term 'losing one's virginity' to be the loss of one's hymen, which can occur with any type of penetration.  Even if a woman doesn't take a male lover, fingers or toys would take care of that.

For a male, well... one can suppose that a male could lose his virginity twice.  *Flashback to 'Living'*  The first time when he penetrates, and the second time when he's penetrated.

With that said, I'm sure that Ilanosa's priests counsel many people on the subject of sex, especially, as Courtney said, parents and their children.  Granted, they may not do so together, because, as free as sex is in Orina Anoris, I don't really see parents discussing the term in detail with their kids... or maybe they do specifially because sex *is* so free there.

*shudder* Now I'm remembering the time my parents tried to have 'the talk' with me (when I was sixteen).

I wonder what Remin's first time was like...

Vani

[Rebel]

Wasnt there a discussion somwhere that Rini found a book (one of Remins I think??) full of sexual positions and his parents thought he was "too young" for that knoweledge? I seem to remmy he was like fourteen or fifteen,  but I could be fabricating this whole thing, lol.