Them Bones

We have come to know the Swedes as a nation with a somewhat larger capacity for strange perversions than most. Perhaps it is not that they are more perverse, but somehow their extra-curricular activities seem better publicised than those of other nations, Stieg Larson's Millenium trilogy being only a recent example of this. But few things can prepare one for the true story of a woman on trial for having sex with a skeleton.

Of all the existing perversions, necrophilia included, this must be the most absurd. For a dermaphile, such as myself, particularly a lover of live flesh, I find it utterly inconceivable that anyone could derive sexual pleasure from a skeleton. On the other hand, you don't get more naked than that.

What is interesting about the story, is that she is on trial and stands to be jailed for up to two years for disturbance of the dead. It never occurred to me that one could stand trial for such an act. My view on sexuality is that there is no wrongful practice of it, unless choice is taken away and hurt is inflicted without consent. In the case of a skeleton, one might argue that the ship has sailed. Hurt can no longer be inflicted on the victim. On the other hand, is it not good that there are such laws in place? Are people who have it off with skeletons necessarily welcome in society? Is a sentence of two years in prison enough?

Hanfred Rauch