CARNAL NATION

The fuss over Meghan McCain's recent booby photo on Twitter (and I seriously wonder how much of it was manufactured) pissed me off to no end on a number of levels. However, I don't want to give her the satisfaction of writing about it. That being said, though, her picture and the subsequent column inches she devoted to it segued nicely with my new vision for this column: sex on both a personal and political level.

Sex is a personal and political act, and affects us on both these levels. Here, I'm using sex in the broad sense of the term, one that encompasses not just the physical act and all the positions, tastes and varieties it encompasses. My use here also includes the people we choose to have sex and/or relationships with, the gender(s) we choose to be, as well as nudity, reproduction, body image and other related issues.

I think many of us try to be cool and say that sex is not very personal, and dismiss it as no big deal—and most of the time, it isn't. I once read a story about a woman who had sex with the men she dated, instead of having deep conversations with them and revealing who she really was. On the other hand, though, sex can be deeply personal; it can get right to the core of who we are—man, woman, human—and affect us and define us on physical, mental, emotional and psychological levels. Opening yourself up physically, combined with revealing what's in your mind and heart, can be a very personal, very powerful experience that can change the way you view yourself and others.

The argument that sex is political makes me uncomfortable on many levels. I mean, just remembering the furor over Clinton's sex life and the idea that anyone except his wife and the women involved would give a shit still boggles my mind. As long as a politician isn't having sex with a child or raping people, who cares? In Europe, most people would be interested in the sex lives of their politicians only in a gossiping kind of way, not in any sense of actually caring about what they got up to. I mean, even in Catholic Ireland, the former prime minister lived for years with his mistress—and don't get me started on the French. Or the Italians. So it really bothers me when, in America, people make a big deal about the sex lives of politicians—and inevitably, in these kinds of discussions, just about every kind of sex frowned upon.

Even more so though, the idea that any aspect of my sex life and body and relationships is regulated legally bothers me. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, I think I should be able to have sex with whomever I want, marry whomever I want to, have access to all the birth control and abortions I want (and maybe get a few free whips while I'm at it) and politicians and their laws should have nothing to say about any of that. This is my body and my self and I should be able to do what I want with it.

I do wonder how all these non-political issues came to be the subject of legislation, the subject of discussion among rich white men atop the hill in Washington D.C. and throughout the state capitols. Weird... I always like to blame the Christians, but maybe the reasons are slightly more nuanced.

Whatever the reasons, and no matter how I think things should be, the world is the way it is, and sex can be extremely political. Take the fight for equal rights in marriage as an obvious example—relationships are regulated by the law, and we need to ensure that everyone is treated with equal respect under the law. Being political doesn't just apply to marriage, though—for many LGBT people in developing countries throughout the world, simply expressing who they are is in itself a huge political example.

On a broader level, is saying that sex is good and encouraging people to be educated, sexual and happy in themselves political statements?

For good or bad, sex is political, and it is also personal. So, these are the kind of issues I will be exploring and looking at—from a European perspective, or at least from the perspective of someone more familiar with European than American ways—as I acquaint myself with the amazing city that is San Francisco. And don't worry—I will still be writing about sexy, exciting things happening on the other side of the Atlantic. I hope you stay with me for what will no doubt be another fascinating, scintillating journey.