My bad. I didn't mean to imply a limited, literal interpretation of sex. I meant the whole conceptual area of physical intimacy and relationships based on physical intimacy (actual, potential, fantasized, etc.).
The Whip is often read as sex because of the association with repetitive action, but, let's face it, for many of us, it carries connotations of a particular kind of sex. And those overtones are not applicable to every physical relationship (maybe not to most -- depends on what the specific people are into). By the same token, sex and romance are not necessarily linked, nor are sex and love, or even sex and friendship.
