One of the greatest culture shocks for those visiting Cabo Azure is the openness of the culture to sex. For a country where divorce isn't guaranteed and abortion is illegal, both Azureans as a whole and their government are very alright with what people do behind closed doors. Checking into an Azurean hotel, regardless of price point, location, or reputation, it is reasonable to expect a roll of unexpired condoms to be discreetly placed in the nightstand, and even family-oriented restaurants have baskets of them available in the men's and women's bathrooms.
To understand this practice and why it does not contribute to a wider liberal view of sex, it is important to understand its origin and limitations. Cabo Azure has always been a strong seafaring culture; mariners are often romanticized as the picture of masculinity, and other professions compared unfavorably to seafaring. In the early days of commercial seafaring, it was common for entire ships to come down with bouts of venereal disease, owing to indiscretions on the part of the sailors in port. Through contact with more technologically advanced cultures such as Quebec, seafarers gained access to prophylactic condoms and began distributing them to their sailors aboard ships, both to prevent the spread of disease and to reduce the number of children born out of wedlock at ports visited by Azurean sailors.
This widespread access to prophylaxis quickly expanded to the general population, and condom use became standard in intercourse not intended for procreation. This change, which came at the beginning of King Carlos III’s reign, had the effect of greatly reducing Cabo Azure’s birthrate at a time when the average family had more than three children. Children were taught the importance of using protection in the vein of harm reduction; while sex outside wedlock is still sin according to the Azurean Catholic Church, fathering a bastard is far worse. The Church took out ads in men’s magazines including, controversially, pornographic magazines, showing children sitting alone looking sad, with the simple caption “Bastardo.” The message was simple; bastard children go through life alone, don’t father them.
Health education is one of the few topics still taught by the Azurean Catholic Church in schools. The Ordem da Sagrada Família, Order of the Holy Family or OSF, is a small priestly order within the ACC whose members are trained as marriage counselors and health educators. Traditional health education in Cabo Azure takes the form of two OSM priests, one male and one female, coming into a primary school for a week or so and covering topics ranging from menstruation to pregnancy to sex and venereal disease. As with many places, parents have the right to opt their children out, but the children must complete health instruction via some other method; historically, this has been via correspondence, but more recently video instruction has been used.
Despite this relatively open posture toward sex, hormonal birth control has only recently become available thanks to the lobbying attempts of Princess Alexandra, King Manuel’s younger sister and a practicing gynecologist in Sao Simone. Abortion remains illegal in the country, though it is easier than ever to fly to Ceni or the Royal Kingdom of Quebec for the procedure, and law enforcement is instructed to turn a blind eye.
