ABSTRACT
Many of us who study sexuality take a psychobiosocial approach to our subject. This allows us to think of any sexual activity, such as erotic kissing, as a tapestry tightly woven of three different kinds of yarn. The kiss lends itself to generous symbolic use. There are many nonsexual uses: of kissing such as social greeting and farewell, religious kisses of peace, kisses of respect for the Torah or another icon as it is carried into a house of worship, kissing the statue of a religious or secular leader to show loyalty, kissing dice for luck in a casino, kisses that symbolize sexual awakening as in fairy tales like "Sleeping Beauty" or kisses that symbolize protection as in legends like The Ring of the Nibelungs. In a society where kisses like Rodin's give offense and lead to censorship, commercial depictions of kissing will try to avoid offense by de-eroticizing and taming the kiss.
