Sex and the Torah

I was lucky enough to receive a free copy of Aqdamot 16, with Zvi Zohar's "earth shattering" and "revolutionary" article. The entire internet has already been filled with nonsense over the pros and cons of Zohars "heter" (which, as anyone who studied the first five blatt of bQid knows, is nothing but the opinion of most mediaeval auhorities) for having premarital sex.

I have no intention of repeating the banter. Zohar's paper is good enough (if the Rosh weren't). My point is that the comments to Zohar in the press (Maariv published a seven page piece in the shabbat magazine, most of it untrue) conveyed a certain attitude towards marriage and sex which completely disregards the halakhic system and preferred, instead, a sort of extrahalakhic code.

Judaism has sex laws. They are essentialy unchanged since the bible, with the rare exception of Rabbenu Gershom, the particulars of which we know nothing about. Some of these sex laws we are comfortable with, like incest. Others, like the lenient rape statue, make us want to ignore them and forget they ever existed. But that is Halakha, and when prevalent practice could, in some way, coincide with Halakha, what is our victorian sentiment against both of them?