Introduction
The social behavior of an individual, even though impacted by the norms and outlook of the society, is solely dependent on his or her individual perceptions. Social interaction may include business meetings, meetings with parents, relatives and friends or even meeting a member of the opposite sex to which an individual may feel a special connection or bond. It needs to be highlighted that the kind of interactions and the depth of the relationships are dependent entirely on an individual’s sole perspective. Many a times, questions are asked as to what happens when individuals are not able to identify the thin line between physical attraction and emotional connection to one another? Along with many answers acquired, the influence of alcohol is observed to be an important factor in such cases . Also, in many cases the same factors often lead to the culmination of a situation where the aftermaths may be more severe than that of an absence of emotional attachment among individuals. It leads one to ask, does alcohol affect the morality of sex? This question is the primary aspect on which the results of a few studies have been highlighted in sections to follow.
Alcohol consumption has been observed to be one of the most common forms of leisure over dinner, in house parties, in night clubs, bars, pubs and many such platforms of social gathering. Even though it is banned in many religions and societies, in others it serves as a means of recreation and connecting with members of the society. It needs to be highlighted that the most consumption of alcohol in a human takes place between the ages of 20-45, which also happens to be the ages when the human body is expected to be sexually very active. Apart from the fact that alcohol consumption is associated with probable harm to health and increase in calorie intake, alcohol also causes intoxication which is known by its most common social term – high. Now how ‘high’ can people get before affecting his or her physical and mental health after a night of drinking is dependent on their consumption and alcohol intake capacity. Being high is associated with distorted vision, impaired speech and decision making abilities and many other factors. The most common factor that can be agreed upon as a consequence of consumption of alcohol is its impact on individual perspectives. As have been mentioned earlier, conjugal relationships involving coitus is dependent on this perspective.
The impact of alcohol on individual perspectives impacts decision making and rational thought process. One might consider being a little adventurous, others might drown in sorry while others may engage in merry making after consumption of alcohol. It has been proven in studies that alcohol consumption also has an impact on the central nervous system, which is responsible for one thinking rationally and making the correct decision, when sober. Hence, it is possible for an individual to maybe forget about, and disregard his own set of values and rationality after a few drinks . At this juncture, if the possibility of a sexual encounter is evident, chances are that it will lead to sexual intercourse between two partners. The question is when do they realize the morality of the encounter?
What is exactly meant by morality when it comes to sex? To some, it might be about their individual relationship out of bed. For others it may be a question of fidelity and for some, it may just be satisfaction of the physical needs without affecting the partner physically or mentally. Each of these aspects needs to be taken into consideration individually.
When relationship is introduced to the deadly cocktail of intoxication and lust, there may be a lot of factors that come into play. Consider the situation whereby high-school sweethearts meet each other at a bar after 15 years, rekindle their old passion and engage into a few moments of intimacy in private. When they come to their senses and realize that both of them are married with children and different spouses a strong sense of guilt might engulf them both. It is then that they would realize the immorality of the night before. Or even in the case of an office party where heavy drinking and fun leads two individuals to have sex with one another, only to realize later that they are boss and employee, with decades of gap in their respective ages. Western countries are specifically prone to a lot of divorces and marriages which have introduced the concept of the relationship ‘step-father’, ‘step-daughter’ and so on . It is best in all intentions to not even discuss the many instances of sexual intimacy taking place in such cases. What are the implications in cases where consumption of alcohol leads to illicit affairs and worse still, their discovery at later period of time?
A number of teenage and adolescent school going children have been found to disclose about engaging in binge drinking and sexual encounters. This is particularly a common situation in high schools where frat parties are considered to be the order of the day. Drinking and alcohol consumption leads to one thing from the other and sooner young students realize that they are waking up in bed with someone with whom they don’t have any emotional connections. This is an important factor to be taken into consideration as when the same people take on the role of responsible adults, they might still think it is okay to get drunk and sleep with a stranger. It eliminates the aspect of emotional connect in case of such instances. Sex, if considered from a moral outlook was meant to consummate marriages in olden days . Now in the Western countries it is considered alright to engage in sexual activity with one’s fiancé, even if they are not married. However, is it alright to gradually consider incidents of immoral sexual behavior to be justified as excusable, if it was influenced by alcohol?
Fidelity and morality have been discussed in the above sections, leaving out a major aspect of sex under the influence of alcohol – crime. It is not an unknown fact that instances such as date rape have become very common. It has become a grave possibility that out of two strangers on a first date, one would be raped after consumption of alcohol. In many instances, the intention of perpetrators in such crimes is to sexually abuse the victim after slipping drugs into her drinks or merely just making the victim consume so much alcohol that it is easy to sexually penetrate the victim by force. These cases are especially common in fast cities and metropolitan areas and even worse, instances are there were the victim had been filmed being abused by the perpetrators in an intoxicated state. While few victims are able to gather their wits after such an incident and take legal actions, most are likely to keep shut about it for fear of harassment and humiliation, bearing the scar for the rest of her life. Alarmingly, men are also falling victim to such instances, whereby the victim is brutalized by one or more members of the same sex after drinking. Hence, sex after consumption of alcohol often leads to physical and emotional trauma. Morality in such cases is obviously not the case .
Conclusion
It can be easily seen that alcohol is considered to be the common culprit in all of the cases where after consumption; humans may become subjected to emotional or physical trauma, inflicted through engagement in sexual activities. Alcohol may be blamed for immorality when it comes to engagement in sexual activities by two or even more members of different sexes. It is easy to refer to the situation as under the influence of alcohol and in most cases, where the offences do not lead to grave physical injury or mental trauma, do not involve severe penalties except for broken relationships. However, is it justified to blame only alcohol for promoting immoral behavior? It is true that alcohol may have a negative impact on one’s decision making and rational thought process. However, alcohol does not force itself down one’s throat so that it is able to influence the person. It is also known that alcohol-induced immoral behavior or violence has been an unfortunate part of society for quite some time (as parents warn), but we disregard the implications of a night of drinking, displaying our affinity to one particular factor that causes harm – lack of preventive measures.
References
Abbey, A. “Alcohol related sexual assault:A common problem among college students.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 14 (2002): 118-128.
Dixon, N. “Alcohol and Rape.” Public Affairs Quarterly 15.4 (2001): 341-354. Online. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40441305?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104813430671>.
