I was young once. I was certainly a bit more ignorant. So I listened as another young man told me about his experience with sex. Since I had yet to experience sexual intercourse, I was curious. Since I had no wish to admit my inexperience, I was also silent.

What did he have to say? Well, young men have a tendency to brag about such things, but he did not. We were friends, and there was no one else to hear. His experience disappointed him. He had found sex unpleasantly messy.

We make jokes about bodily fluids, but during sex we share them. This sharing is quite contrary to our upbringing. In our modern, clean, antiseptic world, we sanitize our living spaces and confine bodily fluids to trash cans, toilets, and biomedical waste containers. We know sharing bodily fluids with another is just a way to spread disease. Yet my…