Comment by amanaplanacanal

In a society that gives you a lot of personal freedom, yes. But that is a very recent thing.

Most historic societies regulated relations between men and women tightly. Imagine that this was a caste-like prohibition. We know that caste prohibitions worked in India; until today, Indian population can be divided into many genetically distinct subpopulations determined by caste.

Same with medieval Europe and, say, sex and marriage between Christians and Jews. Close to unthinkable, regardless of whether you fancied beautiful Sara.

Non-free societies have a lot of clout when enforcing taboos against personal taste.