The Conquest of Self? Intimacy and the Overcoming of Boundaries

The present paper looks at the changes taking place at present in the realm of intimacy and human sexuality in Europe and North America. The paper presents the description of such changes as offered by Anthony Giddens, an engaging sociologist of our times, in his recent book. The Transformation of Intimacy. It questions some of the assumptions that are taken for granted in the dominant discourse on this subject today such as the celebration of boundaries in the exploration and practice of intimacy, the delinking of sexuality from reproduction, and the irrelevance of the question of purity of purpose and intention in the work of so-called “pure relationship” where every one is free to enter and free to exit. The paper presents ethnographic work on American culture today, mainly on anti-abortion and pro-life movements, to argue that even in contemporary American society there are women who question the delinking of sexuality from motherhood and see in this devaluation the eclipse of the self-sacrificing aspect of culture itself. The paper argues that sexuality can itself be a field of “renewal of spirituality:” and intimacy can overcome boundaries rather than helplessly reproduce these.