Single men and women in the Netherlands are being advised to
organise a seksbuddy (sex buddy) after criticism of rules dictating
that home visitors maintain a 1.5-metre distance from their hosts during
the coronavirus lockdown.
In a typically open-minded
intervention, official guidance from the Dutch National Institute for
Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has been amended to suggest
those without a permanent sexual partner come to mutually satisfactory
agreements with like-minded individuals.
On the advice of
scientists at the RIVM, the Netherlands has been on what the government
describes as an “intelligent lockdown” since 23 March, allowing up to
three visitors into homes on the strict condition that they keep their
distance.
But the RIVM now concedes that “it makes sense that as a
single [person] you also want to have physical contact” while warning
that the risks of such intimacy should be managed.
“Discuss how
best to do this together,” the RIVM suggests. “For example, meet with
the same person to have physical or sexual contact (for example, a
cuddle buddy or ‘sex buddy’), provided you are free of illness. Make
good arrangements with this person about how many other people you both
see. The more people you see, the greater the chance of (spreading) the
coronavirus.”
The RIVM also has advice for those in a
relationship with someone infected by coronavirus or in quarantine with
suspected symptoms of the disease. “Don’t have sex with your partner if
they have been isolated because of (suspected) coronavirus infection,”
the RIVM says. “Sex with yourself or with others at a distance is
possible (think of telling erotic stories, masturbating together).”
In
the UK, the government warned at the start of its lockdown that couples
who do not cohabit must either not meet at all, or else rapidly move in
together. Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, told
reporters that dating couples “should test the strength of their
relationship and decide whether one wishes to be permanently resident in
another household”.
The Dutch institute’s change of mind on the
fate of singletons follows the expression of immense frustration in some
quarters at the rules for single people. In an opinion piece written in
the Het Parool newspaper, Linda Duits, a journalist specialising in
gender issues, squarely criticised the RIVM, arguing that sex was a
human right.
“Proximity and physical contact are not a luxury,
they are basic needs,” Duits wrote. “If we have learned anything from
the Aids epidemic, it is that not having sex is not an option.”
The
Dutch government has been easing its lockdown in recent weeks.
Hairdressers, nail salons and beauty parlours started work again on
Monday and restaurants, bars and cinemas are due to reopen on 1 June.
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