It is a question with rigorous debate. We have a nation of people trying to define the erotic. Some want to narrow the parameters so that it only includes heterosexual post-marital coitus. No passion, no variety. Just procreation. At least this is what they want us to think. The other extreme is a group that wants us to accept any form of passion as erotic. The definition is blown wide open to include any inclination or diviation. “As long as your not hurting anyone and it feels good to you,go ahead and do it,”Dr.Ruth would say.
Both sides have their points. As a matter of fact, both are right. The problem is that both are only focusing on the politics of what they demand and not the philosophy. And because they don’t focus on the philosophy, they both miss the point. This is why I have not joined they various groups and have devoted more time and doubt to finding my own meaning.
The erotic has some simple rules with deep consequences. Rule one: the erotic displaces time and space. It relieves us of our sense of discontinuity – the sense that the day is broken and the self is defined by pieces, chapters; rather than the one life distinguished only by birth and death. This is a matter of physics and psychology. When we become enraptured by an event or task, we lose sense time and place. We can care less about hunger, discomfort, surroundings. The things that divide our days shed away so that for a brief time we are only aware of the self and the task. This is one level of continuity. The other level of continuity is the relief from the awareness of the finite time and space that we occupy. We gain a sense that we have a soul and that the existence of that soul will outlive us in the works and artifacts we bring into this world.
The other rule is the transgression of taboos. Any perceived or declared rule of society is a taboo. A taboo will provide a punishment for an act without properly clarifying why the act is wrong. “Because, I say so,” is the common retort of those set to enforce the taboos. To transgress a taboo is to discover what lies beyond it and see if the rational of the enforcers holds true. Transgression sets the individual outside of the group. No longer committed to the timeline or ethics of others, the transgressor is now free to explore the world and see what taboos actually do apply to life in a community and which ones can be left behind. The individual is now set to create his or her own moral/ethical code.My research is still ongoing. I am certain that there are other rules. Sex is only one example of what is erotic.