Countering Masters and Johnson

The article on Masters and Johnson’s new book on AIDS reminded me once again that our society too often addresses the symptoms of the problem rather than the problem itself.

When it is more acceptable, even with the risk of AIDS, to have sexual relationships with total strangers one meets at bars than to ask friends (of any gender) for hugs (let alone physical intimacy), we demonstrate our true attitude toward sex and touching.

People have promiscuous sex because they aren’t getting enough loving, physical or otherwise. People take drugs and wind up living on the streets because they live in a society which doesn’t love. In a country which uses tax dollars to finance political campaigns for candidates who talk about deficit spending, military aggression and foreign intervention instead of the needs of its citizens, is it any wonder we’ve got social problems?

Using condoms and saying “no” won’t stop AIDS any more than it would stop the nuclear arms race: learning new ways to be better friends with one another could end both.

LYNNE LOPATIN DUNN

Culver City