Hush Hush

If there is one thing that fascinates me, it is how sex and sexuality is treated in the United States today. So how 'bout it? Let us talk about sex.

Hush Hush Playbill

What really sparked this post was Hush Hush, a short played performed by a class of senior New Trier theatre students during the Spring Plays Festival on Saturday, May 19th. Hush Hush is an original devised work, a "documentary-style" type of theatre, and is a compilation of stories and interviews all concerning sex and sexuality; the underlying question being: What does sex mean to you? 

Although this production contained powerful stories about first love, homosexuality, virginity, and even sexual assault, I found the title of the play the most interesting. "Hush Hush" connotes an unspoken quality about sex, and suggests that the action is too vulgar to openly address. In reality, sex is one of the most natural and instinctual things humans do, but for some reason, our society has seemingly pegged it as something inappropriate and indecent. The image presented on the poster and the playbill (right) depicts a woman with a finger over her mouth and, again, suggests the shushed attitude toward sex.
So why is sex almost always hushed? Why do we, as Americans, feel compelled to keep it secretive?

Some might argue sex is quieted because it is a private, personal, and intimate action done between two people, and although I agree with all of those things, talking about sex is still avoided even in necessary situations because it is so often thought of as "naughty".
In one of the stories incorporated in Hush Hush, a girl shared her story about sexual assault, but confessed that she did not tell anyone about the incident because she did not want to be labeled a "slut". She kept it a secret because she feared others would find her indecent, and silenced her pain because sex is something a young girl does not talk about, nonetheless do,  openly.

So when does it become okay to talk about sex? Why is it censored in the first place?