Deepa Bhookhun claims that Mauritians are a ?sexually repressed? lot ? ?hopeless puritans?, in fact ? riddled with hypocrisy on such matters because senior personnel at the Road Development Authority have seen fit to ban the latest United Colours of Benetton ad which portrays a young woman straddling her partner in a sexually explicit position even though both are fully clothed. Ms Bhookun goes on: ?Sex still remains taboo, officially if not in actual fact.?

Actually sex remains taboo in virtually every known historical and contemporary society although the pattern of prohibition will obviously vary between and, particularly, within cultures ? especially, for example, according to the age of participants. It is one of the reasons why in many societies sex is formally prohibited until marriage (or cohabitation) ? and even the most liberal, contemporary societies still maintain an age of consent ? even if we acknowledge that practice often departs from the ideal. It is one of the reasons why sex education is necessary to prevent unwanted pregnancies and other social problems (including domestic violence which, to be fair, Ms Bhookun touches upon in her article).

But what is evident is that one of the functions of putting a taboo on sex ? even for consenting adults ? is to protect children. This seems to me to be entirely rational ? in other words, the taboo is not gratuitous but serves an extremely useful social purpose.

Benetton, on the other hand, are interested in playing with the boundaries surrounding life, sex and death ? witness some of their other ads ? not because of any academic or existential interest in such matters, but because they know they can sell more of their products by creating striking and novel advertising campaigns.

It would seem that Ms Bhookun has fallen wholeheartedly for Benetton?s agenda.

Dr Sean CAREY (St Albans ? England)