The Most Sexually Conservative Society in the World

  Not everybody's experience is the same, and if somebody's experience is not the same as your own, that does not make you right and them wrong.  This may seem obvious, but sometimes diversity can be quite extreme.  On one end of the spectrum is Inis Beag, which anthropologists consider the most sexually repressed society in the world.  I call it Inis Beag because that it the name that researchers gave it to protect the cultures' anonymity.  To give you some geographical context, Inis Beag is a small island off the coast of southern Ireland.  Cultural anthropologist John C. Messenger researched this community for many years and observed most notably how taboo sexuality was there.  Taboo: Adj, prohibited or restricted by social custom.
  Before I describe in detail what this entails, I want to explain the use of past tense.  Messenger's research, while extensive, was completed in the 1950s and 60s.  A lot of things can change in 50 years, especially with the advent of the Internet.  In these days, circa 1966, was a rural community of 350 people, primarily a farming lifestyle.  Their beliefs around sex were that it was dangerous and unhealthy.  Many people wished to not participate in sex at all, but marriage, arranged by parents, named it a duty.  Dutiful sex happened between married adults and some relationships strictly for procreation.  They used the "man on top" position, during which participants wore smocks to cover as much skin as possible while trying to finish as soon as possible.  Foreplay was limited to light kissing and mild groping of the buttocks.  No heavy petting, no oral sex.  They probably did have anal sex, but unintentionally as a result of anatomical ignorance.  Masturbation was taboo.  Exploration of bodies, their own or others was taboo.  Sex talk was taboo. If people were sexually expressive in public, they were severely punished. Dogs licking their genitals were beaten.
  The people of Inis Beag grew up without education, language, or permission to understand their natural experiences of sexuality, and as a result, experiences like menstruation, childbirth, and menopause were terrifying.  Imagine you are bleeding.  You don't know why you are bleeding, but blood is coming from a place that you don't know about because you don't touch it and you don't discuss it.  Imagine pregnancy and childbirth.  Imagine parenting an infant that needs affection, which you are unaccustomed to giving because being intimate is discouraged.  Typical menopause symptoms: hot flashes, night terrors, hair loss, weight loss, cramps, and the end of menstruation were equated with disease.  This meant that some Inis Beag women climbed into bed at 40 and didn't leave until their death.  I am not saying that this is the same way of life as people who are living there now.  I would love to visit and report back on their present sexuality.