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Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds

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Emotional Confusion in “Sex Without Love”
In the poem “Sex Without Love” by Sharon Olds, two contradicting ideals are discussed. This poem is a comparison between the traditional belief of sex only within the parameters of love and marriage versus the belief that love is purely an act of pleasure and can be taken up independently, without emotional strings attached, except Sharon Olds, she cannot understand how others do not become attached with the acts of pleasure. Olds portrays via her imagery, analogies, and philosophical explorations. You find out which is the side she truly understands.
The opening line begins with the question at hand, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?”(1) Olds’ is asking, ‘How do people manage to be physically intimate, without emotional intimacy?’ Our bodies are our temples. People have been taught that their bodies should not be disrespected in an act like sex without love. Sex is an act that has been deemed only appropriate within the confines of marriage. Religions like Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, etc. have taught their believers that sex before marriage, a partnership based on love, fidelity, and monogamy, is sinful. The Bible seems to portray the man and the woman as two puzzle pieces that are meant to fit together as one unit. This is essentially what marriage is. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall

Ugalde 2 become one flesh” Obviously, sex is between two people, and for a large percent of the population, for this act to be selfish, for oneself, is unfathomable. The soul, believed to be tied to our heart, our mind, and the rest of our body, would be unstable should we disrespect the guidelines of sex that religion/tradition has given people.
Pornography is a highly controversial example of sex without love. Olds’ touches on this as she

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