Feb 21 2012

Were you actively and frequently told to repress sexual thoughts? If so, what affect did that have on you?

astrotastic

ABSOLUTELY. 

  1. Masturbation is a sin in the Mormon church.  Period.  No exceptions, no loop-holes, nothing.  It is not allowed.  Of course, I did anyway.  I felt incredibly guilty and bad about doing so.
  2. No sexual action is allowed until marriage save for extremely vanilla kissing.  (Even french kissing is considered inappropriate.)  Of course, I didn’t follow this.  I felt incredibly guilty and bad about my actions.
  3. Sexual sins are supposed to be confessed to the bishop (like a local priest of a church.)  I did.  I confessed to fooling around with a boyfriend to my bishop.  It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. 
  4. I was taught to believe that watching porn was dirty, wrong, and unclean.  That if someone looked at porn, there was a good chance that they were “addicted” to watching porn.  Of course, I didn’t listen to this either.  I felt incredibly guilty and dirty about watching it.

The teachings of the church did damage my own thoughts on sexuality and it took years to become comfortable with normal sexual activity.

8 notes
  1. misterscarlet said: I often wonder what my life (and particularly, my sexual expression) would be like if I hadn’t grown up with the sexual repression of Mormonism.
  2. astrotastic said: Thanks for the answer. I live in a heavily mormon community and I wonder about these things, but always feel that it’s inappropriate to ask.
  3. muchtoocynical said: as a former catholic, i can vouch for these. they guilt-tripped us so hard
  4. helvetebrann posted this