One would agree that if married couples are engaging in a form similar to rape with the use of their partners as a sex object to fulfill their desires rather than see them as a human being, their behavior would be considered to be morally wrong. In his works, Alan Soble identifies this case as the Kantian sex problem:
“If sexual desire is, by its nature, directed toward another person as an object; if the experience of sexual desire itself challenges a person's rationality and autonomy; and if while engaging in sexual activity, people are essentially making use of each other as instruments of their own pleasure - then sexuality seems, on account of its own nature, morally suspicious or even, in the absence of special overriding excuses that yield justifiable exceptions, morally wrong” (Soble, 259).
Akin to this belief, if the partners are having intercourse and despite of his achievement of acquiring orgasm, the husband does not try to give pleasure to his wife and instead just starts sleeping, he would be seen as an insensitive person. This situation highlights immorality because the wife has been devalued as a human being, and has only been treated as an “object of their appetite, who after being “possessed and the appetite sated, they are thrown away” (Kant, 156). Instead, the husband should seek to fulfill his obligations to satisfy his wife and equally provide her with her share of orgasm; not doing so would only lead the woman to feel as though she was only used. Moreover, it is safe to say that if oppositions occur between a husband who wants sex and the wife who has no desire for it, and the man continues to force himself down on her, which would later lead the woman to become pregnant and the decision to abort of the child, such actions would also be judged immoral.
Now, let’s take prostitution for example, which serves as a basis for defiance of the Kantian Categorical Imperative, in which Kant discusses the duties of man to himself. To commence on this topic, it is important to define prostitution as the representation of the selling of one’s body to another. Imagine a man desiring sex meets with a prostitute in the streets and through a particular agreement performs sexual acts with her. In the Lecture of Ethics, Kant articulates that “man cannot dispose over himself, because he is not a thing” (Kant, 157), but the surrendering of oneself in the case of prostitution is the same as considering yourself to be nothing but a tool, and by being that tool, one relinquishes his worth of being a man. Kant claims that an individual’s body is not property, which can be easily discarded just because the person desires for it; rather, it is a part of a person that makes him whole and since he is invaluable, to sell his body would mean that he is surrendering his entire self (Kant, 157-158). I agree with Kant’s view in that choosing to act in a state of prostitution in order to acquire money is the same as the disposing of one’s body and per se freedom. Since an individual cannot fulfill his own duties, it is evident that prostitution has a negative effect on the other, as that particular individual will not be able to fulfill his sense of responsibility to others as well. Therefore, in accordance to Kant’s basis, I believe that relationships that engender from prostitution are exploitative and unethical because it suggests that the body is simply seen as a mere means to attain some certain sexual ambition.
We are all aware that there are thousands of exploiters who reside in this world, who determinedly believe that they will easily be able to promote their practices of sexual exploitation with whomever cross their path of interest. When we reason sexual exploitation, several issues arise. One of these is the understanding that an individual may not have his right to sexually touch a girl’s body even when love exists between the two. Particularly in countries like America, if an individual uses a girl for his sheer pleasure without using safety measures (i.e. condoms), severe punishments are ruled for the crime committed. The sentence handed down on the criminal is absolutely compulsory because there are people in this world who use a girl just to acquire their justice (i.e. from an old revenge), or just because they wish to use the body of a girl for the sake of seeking rest from their frustration (i.e. practices of objectification and prostitution); and, we can’t allow such dangerous individuals to roam about in our respected communities. However, the key here is to comprehend that this behavior is not called love because there are no feelings involved. It is only when the feelings originate mutually from both sides and the agreement of permissibility to have sex is thus made, that couples can find happiness and mutual sexual arousal in their relationships.
Works Cited
Kant, Immanuel, Peter Lauchlan Heath, and J. B. Schneewind. Lectures on Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Soble, Alan, Nicholas Power. The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings. Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.