We can easily observe that, especially in the past five to ten years, radical conservatism has been very strongly on the rise. It happens literally everywhere, on a global level in many nations, and it typically expresses itself as an integrated form of political neo-conservatism, social conservatism, and religious conservatism, with strong puritanical, authoritarian, far-right, and “peace through strength” elements that actualize, strengthen, and unite the movement.
eBook | Click for details
With respect to massage and bodywork it means that notably religious and social conservatism pose a threat to the free practice of certain therapeutic treatment modalities. We need to keep in mind here that social conservatism stands for so-called “traditional values,” such as traditional family structures, gender roles, and sexual relations, and is usually skeptical or openly against social change.
Social conservatism has quite some overlap with religious conservatism, the latter applying religious teachings to social structures, for instance meaning that it advocates for upholding traditional family structures and social values, while opposing phenomena as abortion, LGBTQ+ behavior, and sexual activity outside of marriage.
Hence — to make a long story short — if a bodywork or massage modality is “too sexual, sleezy, or sensual” it tends to become forbidden in those communities, cities, provinces, states, or countries that have a predominant conservative population or where conservatism has come to political power. You should think here of treatment modalities such as Nuru Massage, Tantra Massage, Full Body Sensual Massage, Sexual De-Armouring, and such. In fact, in the eyes of conservative populations these type of treatments are more or less seen as a form of prostitution, immoral, and breaching “the appropriate traditional values.”
eBook | Click for details
In addition, it also means that for conservative folks LGBTQ+ friendly massage and bodywork practices are basically out of the question, because “LGBTQ+ behavior” is considered morally bad, which then likewise means that massage therapists who acknowledge or practice LGBTQ+ oriented bodywork row in the same “immoral” boat.
Now, part of our work here on TraditionalBodywork.com is to list massage and bodywork treatment and training providers from around the world, which includes listings for non-sexual modalities and offerings, but also a whole lot of sexual and genital treatment or trainings offerings. Hence, to us it’s very clear that there are restrictions depending on the country or even on province or state level, which means that you won’t find certain offerings in certain places, regions, or countries simply because they’re outlawed.
To give an example. In the USA, there are certain states that don’t have Tantra Massage or Nuru Massage offerings, while there are other states where you’ll find those particular treatment offerings in abundance. In fact, there’s a strong movement nowadays in an increasingly growing number of US States that tries or has actually banned sexual, sensual, or LGBTQ+ oriented bodywork or advertising for it, or at least aims at placing these types of offerings behind paywalls and such. There are also signs of conservative states that try to ban i.e. outlaw certain types of websites altogether. Well, maybe our website is next on the list.
eBook | Click for details
The problem here is that there’s a genuine demand for sensual, sexual, genital, and/or sexual trauma informed massage and bodywork. These types of treatments are very much needed because there’s so much stress and trauma around within so many people, and it simply needs an outlet, that is, issues need to be resolved to support people in staying or becoming healthy. Moreover, simple sexual relief to get rid of pent-up tensions is as much therapeutically needed as deep sexual de-armoring and trauma release work.
Yet, when a society outlaws or criminalizes the abovementioned types of treatments, they will not disappear. As history has proven in many other domains, they will simply go underground, making things indeed “sleezy.” Additionally, many people will have no access to certain treatments any longer, for instance, because they will not be offered by therapists out of fear to be prosecuted or because people cannot pay the exorbitant prices of underground offerings in the illegal sphere. Consequently, many people will have no other choice than to suppress or repress their urges or needs.
Now, in the realm of psychotherapy it’s a well-known fact that suppression and/or repression in the long run make for emotionally, physically, and/or mentally ill people. And in the end, no person can go on keeping their needs under a cover without “exploding” and therefore will naturally (consciously or subconsciously) seek some kind of vent hole with — on the whole in society — phenomena like rape, hate, crime, and murder only rising.
In conclusion, I can only say that I foresee difficult times for givers and receivers of stuff like “sexy massages,” Sexological Bodywork, Somatic Sex Coaching, Body De-Armoring, Tantric Sex and Sacred Sexuality retreats, and so on. What’s worse is that I see a world that was actually in a progressive streak (with of course it’s own problems of handling change) which is now rapidly regressing and polarizing, while creating more mentally ill people both on the side of the persecutors and the persecuted.
Receive occasional news about our new eBook and Video Workshop publications.
