When did this fixation upon the sex or intimacy begin? One certainly cannot find Scriptural basis for such fixation.
The fixation began when Protestants began insisting that Peter’s having been married was a big deal. You’re the one fixated on sex because you get your knickers in a knot when anyone claims that sex can be abstained from without being weird.
Ancient peoples knew that. Greek Philosophers abstained from marriage and sex for the love of wisdom. Every religion recognizes that sex is not the be-all and end-all, so they have various kinds of abstinence and selfcontrol.
The fixation began with Martin Luther who was obsessed with it. He declared that marriage was not as sacrament, was purely natural phenomenon, should not be abstained from, that abstinence was unnatural and a lot of people agreed with him.
They are the ones who were obsessed with sex. The rest of us have a nuanced, controlled, disciplined approach to it, even in marriage because marriage is NOT JUST ABOUT SEX. And life is NOT JUST ABOUT SEX. Pity that Martin Luther didn’t understand that.