The negative side of being ‘sex positive’

‘Let’s talk about sex, baby,’ sang female rap duo Salt-N-Pepa back in 1990. More than 30-years later, it can seem as if we talk about little else. Today, we are not just expected to talk frankly about all matters carnal but to be ‘sex positive’. Emma Sayle, the founder of ‘Killing Kittens’ – which organises posh orgies for bored bankers – is the latest to urge us to speak up about sex.

‘Being sex positive is just being open about sexuality and being able to talk comfortably about sex without any shame or guilt or judgment,’ she said in an interview with the Times this week. Her words were revealing, but perhaps not in the way Sayle intended.

Sayle’s comments are emblematic of the way that sexuality has moved from being concerned with private tastes and preferences to becoming a far more fundamental matter of identity.