What is sex?
We could define it as the irrational attraction between two beings of the same species, focused
through the genitals, for reproduction.
Sexual reproduction, and consequently sexual mating, first appeared around 1 billion years ago.
The reason it arises is to achieve genetic variation in offspring, propagating advantages and thus
discarding unfavorable traits.
Nature, to achieve this biological benefit, promotes attraction between beings of the same species.
The incentive it cleverly creates to motivate such attraction and physical and psychic excitement
causes mental effects that influence our behavior as individuals in our society or collective mind.
Two millennia or more ago, Taoist Chinese doctors were already writing truthful and explicit books
about love and sex.
Ancient China conceived of sex as a basic need of the human being and as a cosmic interaction with
nature. They used it to improve health and increase pleasure, creating sexual development
techniques recommended in the “nourishing life arts” or Yangsheng (Nurture-life).
Although Confucianism is the external adornment of the Chinese, Taoism constitutes their soul.
The Tao is a natural wisdom that began thousands of years ago; no one knows exactly when, but in
the 6th century B.C., Laozi compiled its basic precepts in a book he called the Tao Te-King.
It consists of only about 5000 words, making it probably the shortest and most important book in
the world.
It has been translated into all languages and variously interpreted, but basically, energy and
momentum constitute the sources of all life.
Man is insignificant.
We can only be great through that source.
Traditional Chinese Medicine was influenced by Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, the latter
being the most significant.
Taoists, interested in conserving energy and maintaining a harmonious relationship between man
and his environment, studied various ways to increase connection with the Tao, with sexuality being
one of them. It was considered a valuable method for obtaining health, longevity, and spiritual
fulfillment and was practiced with respect, as it was considered like a medicine. The reason for such
appreciation is that during sexual intercourse, one interacts with Sexual Energy (Ching Qi), a very
potent type of Qi stored in sperm and ovaries. Taoist sexual practice involves women reabsorbing
their sexual secretions and men avoiding ejaculation to preserve this Energy and obtain all the
aforementioned benefits.
They were neither lascivious nor repressed because they considered making love necessary for
physical and mental health, and for the well-being of both men and women.
They also emphasized sexual skills.
Greater skill in the act of love.
They believed that good health (mental and physical) and longevity were closely related to making
love.
Because of this, love and sex were considered an important branch of medicine.
The more satisfaction, the healthier.
Despite leaving many reflections out, such as the difference between love and sex, or not
mentioning reproduction as a biological purpose for the perpetuation of the species, this will be my
reflection in the work.
The term “Sex” derives from the Latin sexus, from sectus “Section, Separation.”
For this reason, in the painting, I have represented sex as a kind of board game, where there are
basically two participants differentiated by their sex, male and female.
The origin of the world:
In the central part appears what I consider to be the origin of the world, already represented by the
painting of the same name by Gustave Courbet, “The Origin of the World” 1866.
In both cases, an explicit female genital is shown, the place of origin and exit of every human being,
surrounded by legs in various positions of openness, thus showing different degrees of
predisposition, dedication, or relaxation in the sexual act.
As I mentioned earlier, the painting is a game of duality.
Man and woman and their eternal attraction.
Let’s focus on the females, or the female sex.
APHRODITE:
In the lower left, we have a Botticellian Venus with the current canons and attributes of beauty, with
surgically enhanced breasts and multiple nipples, with barely any head (brain); she is the one who
loads the trigger system of male sexuality.
Ejaculation is enjoyed because it represents an explosive relaxation of the tension accumulated
during arousal. (Genital cannon)
Aphrodite, according to Greek mythology, or Venus according to Roman mythology, is the goddess
of beauty, sensuality, and love.
This goddess was born when Cronus cut off the genitals of his father Uranus (God of the sky) and
threw them into the sea, from which Aphrodite emerged and arrived on land on a shell (The rays
describe Uranus’s anger).
FIRST VENUS:
In the lower right corner, we have “The Venus of Hohle Fels,” a small human sculpture found in an
excavation inside a cave in the Swabian Jura (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). The sculpture is
about 6 centimeters tall, carved from mammoth ivory, representing a female figure with very
marked sexual attributes. Specifically, the figure has very developed breasts, hips, and vulva.
According to radiocarbon measurements, the sculpture could be up to 40,000 years old. These dates
would place the find in the Aurignacian culture, making it the oldest known figurative human
sculpture.
And also the first discovered representation of a woman as a “sexual” or reproductive myth.
THE DANCE:
Man’s attraction to woman is not only manifested through the physical, but also through feminine
movements and her courtship or seduction. This dance or swaying flirtation appears in the woman
who parades in front of the males; we can also observe some suggestive silhouettes of women
melted into the painting.
Now let’s focus on the males or the male sex and their virility.
THE MACHO:
In the lower left, we have the price of wanting to be without being able to.
A man appears who, in an attempt to demonstrate his virility through a great erection in front of
Venus, ends up exhausted and dying.
Here the power of the woman over the man is shown, and her ability to humiliate a man whenever
she wants.
- She is always ready (Open)
- He is not always erect (Failed)
“Virility tires.”
THE LITTLE MACHOS:
In the lower right, we have the little machos on a chessboard exhibiting their virile attributes in a
competition for the favors of the willing damsels.
On the right side of the board, there are two males who, in their exaltation of virility, end up
succumbing to it, to the sex of their partner. (Homosexuality)
THE ALL-SEEING EYE:
Once again, the eye and the hand that sees everything appear as a recurring figure in the work,
unable to avoid excitement and succumbing to hedonism, superimposing sexuality over the
observation of the environment.
This symbolizes the capacity of nature’s mechanism to trigger irrational attraction through the
genitals, as we mentioned earlier.
THE OCTOPUS:
According to Taoist thought on sex, the origin of all evil starts from sexual or love deficiencies.
The perversions or degenerations of sex are represented by the central octopus.
Its head is a male genital organ with protruding eyes moving independently like a chameleon
toward the central female genital and toward Aphrodite.
Its legs obsessively coil around each and every woman appearing in the work, ending in an eye,
acquiring a life of their own.
MASTURBATION:
n the left side, next to Venus, there is a small figure oblivious to the game developing around
them, practicing a kind of sexual solipsism, the so-called masturbation where the individual pleases
themselves without needing to interact with anyone.
DISTRACTED CUPID:
Eros, according to Greek mythology, or Cupid, according to Roman mythology, is the god of sexual
attraction, the god of love, and fertility. He appears in the central right part. We observe that even
though he is the architect of attraction between human beings, he himself enters the game by
remaining oblivious and absorbed in his own relationship with Psyche (Butterfly) (The myth of
Cupid and Psyche tells of their journey to achieve the triumph of their love).
TIME:
At the cardinal points of the work appear the numbers of a clock, warning us of the temporal
guidelines that determine the sexual game.
Hormonal forces in adolescence and youth precipitate impulsiveness, influencing bodily
development; however, in maturity and old age, sexual potency declines, losing prominence and
interest in the individual.
In addition to the change in players, it is also important how, with time, the rules of the game
change, the taboos, the fashions, or the canons.
THE PUZZLE:
Once again, I use puzzle pieces to show those parts that could or should be replaced by more
appropriate ones.
THE VOYEUR:
In the upper right corner, there is a hand pulling back a kind of curtain, morbidly showing us, as if
we were privileged peepers, the intimate events of the sexual acts that take place in the game.
In conclusion, I consider that sex has been, is, and will be the driving force of the world and the
reason why everything moves.
