Who's repressed?(Modest Extremes: Why an Observant Jew Understands Sexuality Better than Hugh Hefner)(Brief article)(Book review)

Wendy Shalit, "Modest Extremes: Why an Observant Jew Understands Sexuality Better than Hugh Hefner," In Character, Winter 2006 (incharacter.org)

Wendy Shalit here presents an argument for less explicit presentations of human sexuality. She tells the story of a therapist who had clients who were no longer attracted to their wives after seeing them give birth. Such problems, she notes, were anticipated by Orthodox Jewish culture, which encourages men to attend the delivery of their children, but to remain at the head or side of the bed rather than viewing the birth itself. The modest attitudes toward sexuality traditionally followed by Jews and other religious traditionalists are normal and healthy, she argues, whereas the sexuality of today's commercial culture is extreme and harmful.

Shalit discusses nakedness, for example. ...