If you were to say that sex is bad, the reaction would be the same (replace the word "delicious" with "beautiful"). As with the many excuses presented when people confront veganism, we can see a similar response when people confront the idea of celibacy. Hence, the Celibate Sidekick page on Facebook, made similar to the famous Vegan Sidekick. Now don't get me wrong, I would consider the situation with animals a lot worse since trillions of animals are actually murdered every year for human consumption alone, but the parallels are quite interesting.
This reminds me of Dr. Melanie Joy's three Ns of justification. For those of you who do not know Dr. Melanie Joy, she is a Harvard-educated professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the author of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs & Wear Cows. A short Tedx version of her speech on carnism (psychology of eating meat and animal products) is on Youtube:
All that people say in order to highlight how great sex and meat are fall under these categories. It is "normal" because people have been doing it forever and it is accepted widely in society, it is "natural" because animals do it in nature and it is a "necessity" because we have to reproduce or in the case of meat-eating, it has to be done to "survive".
When you take each category of justifications, those have no substance to us rational, moralizing human beings living in civilization.
1. "Normal": Just because something is the dominant practice or ideology, it does not become right. An example of that would be human slavery which was legal and considered normal for thousands of years around the world. A couple of hundred years ago, no one would even have thought it could be abolished, and yet, it has been done and we recognize human rights now.
Similarly, carnism or malzoism, might be the dominant ideology and practice now, but just like human slavery, it is violent and unjust. It is against human values of kindness and goodness.
When it comes to lust, it is not violent by itself, but it is a source of corruption (brothels and prostitution which in turn cause massive problems such as sex trafficking, unwanted impoverished children and the porn industry), could lead to violence (250,000 reported rapes per year according to the UN when rape is also a severely under-reported crime, sex trafficking and murder), causes destruction (unwanted children, overpopulation, disease, abortions) and is overall, a threat to society and our advancement as humankind. Sex is an addiction, so much so that there is therapy for those addicted to it. Lust and sex undermine human values such as modesty and civilized behavior. Sex is in fact, impossible without compromising those values, which is why deep down, many know it is questionable, so that sex is a taboo subject in societies all around the world, and people are uncomfortable and feel guilty talking about it, and certainly do not want children to be exposed to it (we see a similar situation with meat-eating; many people do not want to expose children to the reality of killing animals for meat, and often know deep down, that meat-eating is questionable).
Yet, sex is normalized as a "must" for everyone.
2. "Natural": Since animals do it in nature, and humans are also animals and have been doing it throughout history, sex and lust, just like meat-eating, are considered acceptable. There are many acts in nature that would be unacceptable in our current society, such as walking around naked, cannibalism, killing disabled and weak young and more. It is true that humans are animals, but we have long since stopped living in the wild. We live in civilization and we can no longer use the behavior of wild animals and Neanderthals as a yardstick to measure our current choices and behavior. We do not live by instinct (we suppress instincts that may urge us to hit others or rape someone), but by morality and reason. Just because something is "natural", does not make it right or acceptable for modern humans.
3. "Necessity": With meat-eating, it is considered necessary for survival when that cannot be farther from the truth, what with millions of vegans living fine all over the world, including vegan athletes. With sex, it is considered necessary for procreation, when that is also nothing but a myth. People can very easily deposit sperm in a uterus without an animalistic act of rubbing private parts. This is in fact commonly done, though it is most often not even considered as an option for a couple unless one has a physical disability or chooses to be a single parent with donated sperm. In fact, billions of farm animals are made to reproduce through insemination. Just as "survival" is nothing but an excuse when the real reason people eat copious amounts of meat is sensual gratification, "procreation" is nothing but an excuse when the real reason people have so much sex is also sensual gratification. The world is already overpopulated and could actually do with less "procreation". The contraceptive industry is booming, making full use of this state of the world. Meat-eating is also done due to habit and tradition; the same goes for sex. Both meat-eating and sex are taken for granted as part of a "normal" life, and opting to not engage in either is seen as "extreme" or strange, and part of an "ideology" or religion. And just as meat is addictive and is causing so many problems in the world, so is sex, highly addictive, and causing a staggering number of problems in the world.
If people were to get over their addiction to meat and sex, the world would be a remarkably safe, productive, beautiful place.
