Perversion

Initiated by:
• Ceit

Details

This is a word that gets flung around as an insult and a diagnosis, with long tales of degradation and rehabilitation behind it. Normally, there's a connection with sex or sexuality, but perversion can simply be the corruption or bending of rules that are commonly followed in society. Like other facets of our morals and ethics, things considered perverse have changed over time, although maybe the amount of perversions remains the same. The window of acceptance shifts but is always the same size. In some respects, we don't like to think about things being perversions, especially sexually, because we imagine we are forming an open and tolerant society. There's no need to be judgmental about the majority of things people like to do in their private lives. We feel justified in looking down on the moralists of the past - Victorians, religious nuts, Ancient Spartans to name a few - because they held opinions and performed acts that we might consider unnecessarily cruel. We still have our hang-ups of course, but we have science to back us up, or at least that's what we tell ourselves. How should we look at "perversions" of the past? How should we judge the perversions of our current lives? Should we be ashamed of our personal perversions, or proud of them?