Olga Manganelli

Forbidden Intercourses
Olga Manganelli

Olga Manganelli is a sociologist in Italy conducting freelance research on the impact of culture, society, and the mass media on sexual behavior. Her presentation is titled "'Forbidden Intercourses': Cognitive research on culturally 'hidden' aspects of sexual behavior in Perugia, Italy."

“The article I am going to present enquires into the typology of frequent visitors to sex shops and the statistical frequency of the ‘perversions’ present in the sample.

Specifically I have studied the frequency of “soft” and “hard” perversion according to the distinction suggested by some Italian authors. This research was included in an Italian book on ‘new’ sexual behavior.

This study reveals a social uneasiness with certain aspects of sexual behavior. Although I presumed that I was going to get results relating to a freely expressed sexuality, the sex shops’ customers were in fact furtive and secretive as regards their sexual behavior or preferences, and unwilling to share information, even within a relationship.

In this study and in the preliminary test I did in another sex shop in my city in the south of Italy, it was shown the importance of our genetic memory and our genetic inheritance, the difference between men and women.

There are still not very many women who feel themselves socially free in their choices, not lacking either in sexual fantasies, desires or perverted behaviours The sin, the sense of guilt, the ‘lawful’ pleasure and ‘the forbidden’ pleasure are ‘the cultural’ elements that limit the expression of one free and shared sexuality. Our culture has not allowed and still does not allow us to recognize women (feminine) as they really are. In this way this study has offered me new input for other research, in process, to go deeper into some aspects of my society that appears open minded regarding sex and where masculinity is not so evident as in the case of sex shop customers.”