Questioning Sex #5: Is Our Sexual Shame to Blame for How We Can Be Manipulated for Political Gain?

Can we be politically free if we’re not sexually free?

5 min readJun 7, 2023

by I. J. Weinstock, author of OUR SECRET SEX LIFE: The Key to Humanity’s Destiny and THE SECRET SEX LIFE OF ANGELS series.

(Author’s Note: Beyond procreation and pleasure, sex is also the “source code” for society. How we conceive of, feel about, and engage in sex shapes relations between men and women, dictates the dynamics of family, and ultimately influences the values and structures of society. Since the “story” we tell ourselves about sex determines the kind of civilization in which we live, it’s essential that we ask questions about that “story,” especially about sex and society.)

My recently published book, OUR SECRET SEX LIFE: The Key to Humanity’s Destiny, reveals the many secrets we carry between our legs and warns that our SEX OS — the “source code” for society — has been hacked by thousands of years of religious and patriarchal sexual oppression with disastrous consequences for individuals, society, and the planet.

One of those consequences is that we’ve been collectively traumatized by sexual shame, which makes us vulnerable to manipulation for economic and political gain.

There are important questions hiding beneath our sheets…and this is one of them.

“Sex Sells”

We’ve discovered the importance of “emotional intelligence” in navigating our lives. But how many of us can claim to have “erotic intelligence” to alert us when we’re being sexually manipulated for economic or political gain?

The adage “Sex Sells!” is a truism in advertising and illustrates how fundamental sex is in society.

Despite millennia of patriarchal and religious sexual oppression, people intuit the fundamental importance of sex when they say, “prostitution is the world’s oldest profession” or that “sex makes the world go around.”

Indeed, if death is evolution’s “stick,” sex is evolution’s “carrot.”

Last century, Freud told a Victorian Age that sex was at the center of everything because civilization was built by repressed erotic energy. More recently, singer Debbie Harry of Blondie offered this less abstract take on why sex is the first cause. “Sex is what makes everything happen. Sex is why people dress nice, comb their hair, brush their teeth, and take showers.”

So that’s why “sex sells.” And not only products but also politics.

An obvious and extreme example of sexual-political manipulation is the reward promised to Islamic suicide bombers of a sexual paradise in the Afterlife provided by 72 virgin maidens. What else but sex could motivate a man to kill himself?

Sexualized Culture Wars & Erotic Conspiracy Theories

Though the Church’s grip on our genitals has loosened, the State’s hasn’t. To cite one example, the politically weaponized “culture wars” over women’s reproductive rights, for all its sanctimony, ultimately boils down to controlling women’s sexuality. And by doing so, maintaining the patriarchal status quo.

If you look beneath the surface of right-wing, conservative politics, you’ll see that it’s fueled not only by anti-abortion fervor but also by the weaponization and manipulation of sexual shame and fear. It used to be same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ issues. Now those seeking power want the voting public to think that the real problems in the world are pronouns, drag shows, transgender access to bathrooms and athletic teams, Sex Ed, “grooming,” banned books, etc.

Is it conceivable that the predominantly male members of the NRA who claim they are defending the 2nd Amendment by opposing any gun control reform are fueled subliminally by the erotic associations between masculinity, men, and their guns? As Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, put it, “War is misplaced sexual energy.”

Witness how the political culture wars will sexualize anything they can because it’s such a potent weapon. Recently, a school principal in Tallahassee, Florida, was fired because students in a sixth-grade art history class were taught about Michelangelo’s famed Renaissance sculpture of a nude “David.”

Notice how conspiracy theories like QAnon employ sexual manipulation by falsely claiming that their political enemies are engaged in sex trafficking and pedophilia. Tragically, our inherited sexual shame makes us susceptible to this kind of sexual manipulation.

Beware how our sexual shame is being weaponized for political gain.

Sex Scandals, “Honey Traps,” and “Sextortion” — The “Official” View from 30,000 Feet

There are many kinds of “official” sexual-political manipulations: sex scandals, spy-craft compromise known in the intelligence community as “honey traps,” as well as “sextortion,” like those notorious blackmail files that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime FBI Director, kept on prominent cultural and political figures.

One has to wonder how the hidden strings of this sprawling web of secrecy and “sextortion” have been manipulated? What sexual levers of our political ship-of-state have been pulled behind-the-scenes to influence our politics, laws, and foreign affairs, ultimately changing the course of history?

These levers of sexual manipulation would not work if we weren’t collectively traumatized by our inherited culture of Original Sin-sourced sexual shame. Having been “sexually abused” in this way, we can be sexually manipulated for political gain.

Bottom Line: We can’t be truly free until we are sexually free.

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I. J. Weinstock is the author of THE SECRET SEX LIFE OF ANGELS series — an epic quest exploring the mystery we call “sex.” His recent nonfiction book, OUR SECRET SEX LIFE: The Key to Humanity’s Destiny, reveals the hidden connections between sex, socety, and survival.