Speaking of Sex

Nowadays we talk about sex incessantly -- yet we still lack a comfortable language in which to do so. The ''polite'' vocabularies of religion, medicine, law and sociology are too formal, value-laden and often simply boring, whilst the vernacular Anglo-Saxon words are regarded by some as ''obscene'', and are frequently used by others in an aggressively negative, sex-hating way. Antony Grey criticizes the various rhetorics of sexual discussion, and points at the ways in which language often becomes a stumbling-block to mutual understanding and happiness. He calls for a thorough overhaul of sexual discourse, to pave the way for greater realism.