1. We feel simple acceptance of ourselves as embodied beings. We are therefore without bodily shame, without discomfort when other persons witness our bodies, their natural functions, or any activity natural or appropriate to our bodies.
2. We feel simple acceptance of others as embodied beings. We are therefore without prudishness, without discomfort when we witness the bodies of other persons, the natural functions of those bodies, or any activity natural and appropriate to those bodies.
3. We take a natural instinctual interest in each other's bodies, their parts, and their functions. Honoring the boundaries of others, we freely satisfy that interest, rather than opposing or suppressing it; but when we have satisfied that interest, we move on to other things. We are therefore without prurience, without that chronic shame-laden preoccupation which develops when what is naturally interesting is shamed and concealed.
4. Within our own community of belief, then, we feel no need to conceal from each other our bodies, their natural functions, or any activity natural or appropriate to them. But outside our own community, in the presence of those who would be offended by witnessing our bodies, their functions, or their activities, we act with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
5. We believe that our sexuality is an integral and acceptable part of our embodiment, and that concealment or suppression of our sexuality, or feelings of shame with respect to our sexuality, alienate us from a fundamental aspect of our nature. Therefore within our own community of belief we enjoy our own sexuality without shame, and we witness the sexuality of others without embarrassment. But outside our own community, in the presence of those who would be offended by witnessing such activity, we act with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
6. We believe that sexual attraction to others is a natural and innocent state, and we behave responsibly and appropriately when we feel sexually attracted to someone, or when someone feels sexually attracted to us. Therefore within our own community of belief, we admit to such feelings frankly and openly, but in a way which assumes no obligation by the other to reciprocate or to act upon our feelings; and we accept others' expressions of sexual desire toward ourselves without offense or embarrassment, but without any feeling of obligation to reciprocate or to act upon such desire. But outside our own community, in the presence of others to whom such open expression or admission of desire would be offensive, we act with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
7. We believe that sexual arousal is a natural and innocent state. Therefore within our own community of belief, we feel no need to hide our states of sexual arousal, and we witness others' states of sexual arousal without embarrassment. But outside our own community, in the presence of others to whom such open display or expression of arousal would be offensive, we act with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
8. Because we accept the natural innocence of human beings in all aspects of their embodiment, including their sexuality, we accept and enjoy explicit representations of human beings engaged in sexual activity. Because we believe that sexual arousal is a natural and innocent state of the human mind and body, we accept and enjoy such representations even when they are deliberately intended to bring about sexual arousal in the observer. Within our own community of belief, we freely display such sexually explicit representations, and we freely enjoy the states of sexual arousal which such representations may sometimes evoke. But outside our own community, in the presence of others to whom such display and enjoyment would be offensive, we exercise appropriate consideration and restraint.
9. We believe that any sexual activity and any form of sexual relationship is moral if it is initiated in mutual honesty, participated in voluntarily and consensually, and physically and psychologically harmless in its consequences for persons and for existing viable intimate relationships. We believe that sexual activity always occurs in relationship, and that, other things being equal, such a relationship may with equal legitimacy be monogamous or polyamorous, heterosexual or homosexual, profound or superficial, transient or stable. But other things are not always equal. We believe that the rearing and loving nurturance of children is a matter of extreme importance, and that a stable family is the most reliable and effective environment for the rearing and loving nurturance of children. We therefore believe that it is especially harmful and irresponsible to undertake any sexual relationship which threatens or interferes with the stability of an existing viable family grouping in which children are present. Within our own community of belief, we participate freely in honest, consensual, harmless sexual activities and relationships, consistent with our insistence upon the primacy of the family. But outside our own community, in the presence of others to whom the open practice of such freedom would be offensive, we act with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
10. We believe that children normally and naturally take an interest in their own and others' bodies, and that such interest normally and naturally gives rise to exploratory behavior. We believe further that puberty marks the natural onset of sexual maturity, although not of emotional, intellectual, or social maturity. Therefore within our own community of belief we accept our pre-pubescent children's normal sexual interest and the exploratory behavior which it evokes. But we seek always to insure that their curiosity is satisfied in an honest and accurate way, commensurate with their capacity for understanding, and that their exploratory behavior is consensual and harmless. And we lovingly seek to guide our children through adolescence, sanctioning that degree of sexual freedom which is commensurate with their demonstrated capacity for sexual responsibility. But we teach our children to behave outside our community, in the presence of others to whom their freedom of conduct may be offensive, with consideration and restraint appropriate to the situation.
11. We do not attempt to impose our perspective of freedom, openness, and candor upon those who find it abhorrent; but we adamantly oppose any attempt by anyone to restrict private, consensual, and harmless sexual conduct within our own community, or to suppress explicit representations of sexual activity within our community, or in any way to compel us to behave within our own community in accordance with their contrary perspective.
12. We seek to establish an ever-widening community of men and women who share with us this acceptance of the natural innocence of human males and females as embodied beings, and who act and speak in their personal sexual lives with responsible freedom and with consideration for the sensibilities of others. We work for the establishment of a humane culture which teaches and celebrates such responsibility, innocence, consideration, and freedom.
Bert Clanton bert@sonic.net
Copyright 1996 by Bert Clanton. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to republish in printed or electronic form, provided that the full Manifesto is published without editing or omission, and that the by-line and this copyright notice are included in full as an integral part of the republished Manifesto.
"For what we are beginning to wake up to today ...is that we have for millennia structured our social institutions and our systems of values precisely in ways that serve to block, distort, and pervert our enormous human yearning for loving connections."---Riane Eisler, "Sacred Pleasure", p. 383