Woman solutions

[webofevil]

Beyond the Veil, Fatima Mernissi:

[For hardliners] the sexual act is considered polluting, and is surrounded by ceremonials and incantations whose goal is to create an emotional distance between the spouses and reduce their embrace to its most elementary function, that of a purely reproductive act. During coitus, the male is actually embracing a woman, symbol of unreason and disorder, anti-divine force of nature and disciple of the devil. Hence a dread of erection, which is experienced as a loss of control and, according to Ghazali [11th century], referred to as darkness in verse 3 of sura 113:

Say: I seek refuge in the lord of daybreak
From the evil of that which he created
From the evil of darkness when it is intense.

In an attempt to prevent a complete merging with the woman, the coital embrace is surrounded by a ceremony which grants Allah a substantial presence in the man’s mind during intercourse. The coital space is religiously oriented: the couple should have their heads turned away from Mecca. “They should not face the ‘holy shrine’ in respect for it” [Ghazali]. This symbolism of spatial orientation expresses the antagonism between Allah and the woman. Mecca is the direction of God. During intercourse, the man is reminded that he is not in Allah’s territory, whence the necessity to invoke his presence.

It is advisable for the husband to start by invoking God’s name and reciting “Say God is one” first of all and then reciting the takbir “God is most great” and the tahlil “There is no god but God” and then say, “In the name of God, the high and powerful, make it a good posterity if you decide to make any come from my kidney”. [Ghazali]

At the crucial moment of ejaculation, when the physical and spiritual boundaries of the lover threaten to melt in a total identification with the woman, the Muslim lover is reminded:

It is suitable to pronounce, without moving the lips, the following words: “Praise be to God who created man from a drop of water”. [Ghazali again]

(Other reports on the words a Muslim is supposed to pronounce during coitus are in Imam Bukhari, al-Jami’ al-Salih, and Imam Tarmidi, Sunan al-Tarmidi.)

They’re not just any old sacred recitations he’s muttering to himself as he ploughs away—they’re incantations specially chosen to protect him because he believes you’re the embodiment of evil! That’s got to make any girl feel special.

Comments

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Dude. That stuff actually makes me feel sick and frightened.

Not in the good way.

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell. And I thought Catholics had a f*cked up attitude to sex. I find this sort of thing just mind boggling. I mean, I know we all occasionally feel a bit guilty about sexual desire - it's a bit naughty, an indulgence etc. But at what stage did people allow it to become seen like this? And we're all used - sadly - to a bit of misogyny. Women can't read maps, get too emotional, blah blah - but how did it come to them being the utter embodiment of Satan laid out here?

Sex is good isn't it? It's necessary for procreation, it's part of our bodily design, which, if you're a theist, is all part of God's Plan. How f*cked up do you have to be to start organising your own life, and others' lives, according to principles like this? Would an omnipotent, omniscient being really be offended by two people getting it on for a little while?

Mind you, it might go some way to explaining al Qaeda, suicide bombers, Hizbullah, Ahmadinejad and the rest - what they really need is some decent sex.

[monkeyssk8.livejournal.com]

Ditto, there is seriously something wrong with that, I am sorry, but there is. Every since the begining, women have been second class to men. Why? Well Plato gives the reason that they ONLY exist to have babies, you know, that easy task of CONTINUING THE SPECICES. Jerk faces.

[(Anonymous)]

It is difficult to know how to react to this, except to feel terribly glum. We are a long time dead, so we should be embracing AND ENJOYING all aspects of our physicality while we can.

Mind you, it's a wonder they can ejaculate at all, what with having to be master ventriloquists while they're on the job (all that 'pronouncing without moving the lips' would put me right off my stroke).

Also, why can't I get the scene from 'The Singing Detective' out of my head, the one where nurse Joanne Whalley is greasing up patient Michael Gambon's *ahem* tackle which is particularly badly affected by his psoriasis, and in an attempt to not get aroused, he lies there thinking of boring things like John Noakes and Shep the Blue Peter dog?