6 ms·
No mention of any cultural shifts or changing attitudes, as if young people having casual sex was just the natural state of civilization and not something that
by ceilingcorner 6y ago
No mention of any cultural shifts or changing attitudes, as if young people having casual sex was just the natural state of civilization and not something that became celebrated and artificially encouraged via the media in the last half-century.
Tinder and other online dating options are pretty bleak and inherently extractive in nature, so I find it equally plausible that many young people are simply turned off from the whole thing.
- bpodgursky 6y agoYoung people having casual sex is the natural state of not just civilization, but the entire human species.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoNo, not really. The modern western form of treating sex primarily as an entertainment activity is very much a new thing. Previously we had marriage and other cultural practices that aimed to channel these forces in productive directions. Now we just have PornHub and Tinder.
- metalliqaz 6y agoAnd certainly there was no such thing as backroom abortions, bastard sons, and the world's oldest profession, right?
- ceilingcorner 6y agoAll of those things occurred at much smaller percentages than they do today. Abortions especially. They also weren’t seen as the primary purpose of sex. Today, if you say something like “Sex is important and should only be done between people that are getting married, since it correlates with lower divorce rates”, most people will think you’re strange.
- metalliqaz 6y agocitation needed
- whaaswijk 6y agoI’m not a historian but aren’t those tightly controlled cultural practices a relatively modern invention? Certainly the ancients were known to have orgies (presumably for fun). People have observed how the 20th century was for many people a return to their “true” nature (eg free love, drugs, rave parties). Maybe it’s just always been true that, when their wealth/resources allow for it, people like to have sex for fun.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoThe ancients had orgies as a part of religious mystery cults. Those weren’t widespread to the level that Tinder is today. The birth control pill also enabled many of these attitudes, so it almost by definition wasn’t a return to their “true nature.” But yes of course people like having sex. What’s new is that this pleasure-focused view of it has become the dominant one, to the exclusion of all others.
- whaaswijk 6y agoI was pushing back to your assertion that viewing sex as entertainment is primarily a modern and western viewpoint. Certainly the west’s view of sex has changed in the past 100 years. However I would not be surprised if the current view is actually more in line with historical attitudes toward sex, not less.
- watwut 6y agoAfaik, no. Before contraception, sex meant babies. Babies meant someone to feed and work for. Kids were always an expense for years, it takes at least 7-8 years till they sorta kinda can earn for themselves. Traditional cultures would do a lot to control the sex of their unmarried daughters, because that would mean babies to care for and that means a lot of additional troubles.
- imbnwa 6y agoUrban human cultures are another story however, because of the near-ubiquitous practice of slavery for most of urban human history.
- metalliqaz 6y agoIt amuses me when people wax poetic about a time long past, when people were chaste and pure. Ha! Hormones be hormones, and young people have been doing what they do for as long as there have been young people.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoDo you think that social media, smart phones, and the Internet have had zero effect on behavior?
- justaman 6y agoI think there is an argument that civilization as we have come to know it was not based on casual sex, rather pair-bonding.