I'm a little irritated with myself, disappointed, even, at thinking that, at anytime in history before 'now' (being something like 1980 - present day), sex was not a prevalent or even common past time among people. Now, I know that sounds ridiculous, and of course without sex there would be no more human beings, as it is required in order to propagate the species. I'm not talking about that, so much as just discussions or excursions into the sexual nature of man in general. Whenever I think of the past, I think of Victorian era men and women in fancy clothes, sipping tea; or bloodthirsty soldiers charging into battle or some other cliche depiction of any historical event that comes to mind.

One thing that never occurs to me is the sexual practices of these societies, or how things of that nature were viewed by these people. I always imagine it being even more of a social faux pas than it is now, and just never being talked about by anybody; but I have to realize/understand that most of the literature and history of these eras is being written/documented/created by the upper classes, the educated, and the elite of that time period. Certainly they are not going to harbor the same views as those held by the masses (or, if they do, will certainly not admit to it openly and show that they, too, are human just like everybody else).

I recently purchased two books which definitely seem to help me correct this false notion that sex, or talking about sex and considering it a natural thing, is relatively new. Fanny Hill and My Secret Life, and though I have only just gotten started reading the latter, already I am starting to see that sexual development and curiosity has pervaded throughout mankind far more prominently than I would have previously imagined.
Perhaps I should add that I am somewhat aware that sexuality was pretty open and celebrated amongst people back in ancient times, I suppose I'm referring specifically to the past 1000 years or so.

It's fascinating to learn about these practices and how they were viewed throughout history; to know how people thought about sex during these times or how important it might have been throughout individuals' lives, what they knew about STDs and other sorts of dangers related to sexual promiscuity and all of that. It's also a bit of a shock to see the word 'fuck' printed in a book published in the 1800s, as I normally have a hard time imagining anybody using profanity back then (though I know this is another fault of mine).