The Importance of Language and Metaphors in Expressing Sexuality: Between Subjective Experience and Intersubjective Limits
Language is a foundational tool for constructing meaning, and its metaphors not only reflect individual experiences but also delineate the cultural and historical frameworks that shape our understanding of the world. When discussing sex — one of the most profound dimensions of human experience — it becomes evident how our linguistic and symbolic choices reveal tensions between the immediacy of the body and the transcendent ideals of the spirit. This article explores how sexual metaphors in language have historically been used to downplay the carnal experience and exalt a supposed primacy of spiritual pleasures, creating intersubjective boundaries that culture has imposed on sexuality.
Metaphor: A Bridge and a Constraint
Epistemologically, metaphors are tools that allow us to articulate the ineffable, giving symbolic form to what cannot be directly captured by thought. However, while they enable articulation, they also constrain. In the context of sexuality, metaphorical language often represents sex as mechanical, animalistic, sinful, or, alternatively, as a form of transcendent spiritual union. These metaphors are not neutral — they carry the weight of centuries of scholastic thought and religious traditions that relegated carnal pleasure to the realm of the inferior.
For instance, metaphors like “falling into temptation” or “being a victim of carnal desires” imply a moral judgment that separates corporeality from a supposed purity of the spirit. Here, sex is not described as a complete experience in itself but as an obstacle or slip that prevents the attainment of transcendent ideals. Conversely, the metaphor of a “union of souls” — though seemingly more positive — may also embed a message that subordinates the physical, framing sexual acts as meaningful only insofar as they signify something loftier.
Scholastic Tradition: Body and Spirit in Tension
Medieval scholasticism, with its emphasis on synthesizing reason and faith, crystallized the dichotomy between body and spirit in Western thought. Influenced by Platonic philosophy and Cartesian dualism, this tradition perceived the body as a prison of the soul, a vessel of disordered appetites that needed to be controlled. For example, Saint Thomas Aquinas acknowledged the value of pleasure within marriage but always as subordinate to procreative purposes and guided by reason.
This dualistic vision not only shaped social and theological structures but also served as a framework for silencing dissenting voices — many of them female — that sought to elevate the body and physical experience as integral to the sacred. Figures such as Marguerite Porete, burned at the stake in 1310, embodied this resistance. In her work The Mirror of Simple Souls, Porete described a mystical union with the divine that could not be separated from the bodily and subjective experience of love. Her defiance of scholastic authority lay not only in her theological ideas but also in her insistence on the sanctity of lived experience.
Other figures, like Giovanna da Piacenza — a nun who claimed to experience erotic visions of Christ — and Angela of Foligno, whose mystical relationship with the body and suffering challenged traditional boundaries of medieval spirituality, faced similar scrutiny. These women were closely monitored, censored, and, in extreme cases, condemned. In a context where controlling the body also meant controlling the spirit, these feminine figures represented a profound threat to the established order.
The most emblematic example is the persecution of women accused of witchcraft during the 15th and 16th centuries. Many of these women celebrated rituals that connected the physical with the spiritual, whether through communion with nature or practices of healing and fertility. These women often claimed a spiritual and physical knowledge that evaded ecclesiastical control and were systematically eliminated, symbolizing a rejection of any worldview that integrated the body into the sacred.
The Miracle of the Physical: A Hermeneutic of Sexual Experience
From a hermeneutic perspective, sexual experience can be interpreted as an emergent phenomenon that unites multiple dimensions of humanity: physical, emotional, symbolic, and transcendent. To reduce sex to a mere biological function or an act conditioned by cultural norms ignores its complexity as an act of self-revelation and communion.
If we accept that the known universe is predominantly composed of inert matter and that subjective consciousness is an extraordinarily rare phenomenon, physical pleasure — and by extension, sexual pleasure — emerges as a miracle in its own right. It serves as a reminder of our embodied existence and our capacity to feel, connect, and create meaning in a vast, indifferent cosmos. Yet traditional language, imbued with value judgments and hierarchical dichotomies, has often minimized this aspect, relegating it to a secondary position behind spiritual ideals.
Reflecting on sex as a language in itself raises a critical question: Have we confined it to express only one phrase, I love you, within the narrow boundaries culture has imposed? Historically, these restrictions likely made sense in contexts where controlling uncontrolled birthrates, preventing incest, and ensuring communal survival were paramount. But have conditions evolved enough to allow us to explore more deeply this expressive dimension of the body and pleasure?
If we consider language as a means of conveying nuance, complex meanings, and varied emotions, why do we accept limiting the language of sex to a single narrative? Reducing it to an exclusive vehicle for romantic love not only restricts its potential but also denies our ability to use it to communicate broader emotional, spiritual, and existential states. Sex, understood as the body’s language, could be an instrument for expressing a rich spectrum of meanings: from joy to vulnerability, from playfulness to profound connection with oneself or another.
The Need for New Metaphors
To transcend these limitations, it is crucial to develop a language and symbolism that acknowledges the richness of sexual experience in its entirety. Metaphors like “cosmic dance,” “spiritual channeling,” or “meeting of worlds” begin to transcend traditional dualisms by celebrating both its physical dimension and its potential to connect individuals on a deeper level. These images seek neither to subordinate the body to the spirit nor vice versa but to integrate them into a holistic vision of human experience.
Additionally, adopting a hermeneutic approach that values the diversity of meanings individuals attribute to their sexuality is essential. Instead of imposing a single normative framework, we must open ourselves to a plurality of interpretations that recognize sex as an emergent and subjective phenomenon, rich with significance for both the individual and the community.
The language and metaphors we use to discuss sex are not mere descriptive tools; they reflect the cultural and philosophical structures that have shaped our views on the body, pleasure, and spirit. If we are to reclaim the miracle of subjective and physical experience in all its richness, we must revise and expand our linguistic repertoire, overcoming the intersubjective limits that tradition has constructed over millennia. In doing so, we not only affirm the value of carnal pleasure but also recognize the profound connection between the physical and the transcendent — a unity that defines our existence in the cosmos.
