People shouldn’t engage in premarital intercourse, Dr. Robert Blood, associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, said Tuesday. Blood was the final speaker in the University YMCA series of seminars on Sexual Ethics and Maturity.
Basing his lecture on the relationship between sex and ethics, Blood defined ethics as being a concern for other people.
“The difference between an ethical person and a non-ethical person is that an ethical person thinks beyond himself and does not carry on in a completely egotistical way,” Blood said.
He went on to list three minimum limits of intimacy, starting with what he called the most “basic limits” and continuing to more sophisticated ones.
Blood said the first and most basic limit is the desirability of practicing contraception. “Premarital intercourse without contraceptives is the maximum result of unethical behavior,” he said.
“The more we emphasize this dividing line, the more we tend to stay married,” Blood said.
“Sexual intercourse is the symbol of the whole marriage and we prostitute it when we remove it from marriage,” he continued.
Blood often quoted from the Kinsey Report to substantiate his claims. From it he noted that premarital intercourse and premarital pregnancies are increasing. Statistics from the report indicate that 22 percent of all negro brides are pregnant at the time of their weddings.
Answering a question on this topic, Blood admitted the standards he advocates are inconsistent with today’s standards; but he said, “It seems to me there is no logical reason for suggestion that the highest ideal should be the lowest common denominator.”
In answer to another question, Blood attacked the idea that engaged couples should spend a weekend together to assure their compatibility.
Noting that contraceptives are not 100 percent effective even under the best conditions, and quoting the figures of the Kinsey Report, which indicate that 20 percent of all girls who ever engage in premarital intercourse become pregnant, Blood made his second recommendation: no intimacy without love.
Blood said intimacy motivated by purely sexual impulses is unethical behavior. He suggested this second limit rules out sexual relations with prostitutes, pick-ups and, usually, with people of a lower class than oneself.
His third limit is premarital chastity.
Blood suggested that there is a “bonus” for people who wait until marriage for intercourse. He compared marriage with the “Right of Passage” ceremonies, which primitive people perform to formally allow a child into adulthood. Noting that chastity before marriage sets up a definite dividing line between married and non-married people, Blood said this dividing line, when emphasized, promotes better marriages.
“The problem of sexual compatibility is not a problem that can be settled in a weekend,” Blood said. He said compatibility is affected by total circumstances and must be built up over a period of time. “The problem of sexual compatibility lies in responsiveness, concern and love,” Blood said.
