Ursinus Intro Ethics Blog - Section B

Taoism's view on sexual intercourse and how it should be used seems interesting at first, but it eventually turns on its head and becomes sexist rather quickly. I'm a little cautious here, because I'm well aware that polygamy is something that I can't seem to find acceptable without some fierce arguments for it, so I feel as though my views might be a little tainted. It is mentioned that sexual intercourse should be used to increase the health of people, but it seems to be misapplied when the health-increasing nature of the act ceases to be in favor of both involved parties and begins to take a one-sided approach. The idea eventually warped into a man gaining health by taking a woman's yin essence, keep himself from ejaculating so the retained semen could increase his own health (by flowing to the brain, of course), and then moving on to the next woman since the first woman was now no longer of use.
This illustrates a large problem that we would have with Taoism, since we are unable to grasp with the idea that people should be unequal to other people based on something like gender. There could be some larger work at play here, which is why I said this is perhaps a misapplication. The idea that the health of both parties would increase during intercourse is acceptable, but the idea that the benefit should be twisted to be one-sided, or that several people should be used to benefit one person (thus degrading the value of several people to all a mere fraction of the worth of the one person) is the result of a conclusion that was reached using a premise which I take to be false. However, perhaps it is the state of China itself that allows this theory to get blown out of proportion. Perhaps it is the idea of male-dominance built into the culture that is at fault, and not the philosophy. It is possible that if a surge in Taoism occurred in America, then it is probable that the Taoist following in America would seek to increase the health of both parties involved, and to attempt to promote an equality of some sort between the complementary opposites which are coming together here.

# posted by Anonymous @ 10:16 PM