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> There are considerably more open gay people today than 50 or 100 years ago. There are considerably more people having pre-marital sex, too. My pet theory is

> There are considerably more open gay people today than 50 or 100 years ago. There are considerably more people having pre-marital sex, too. My pet theory is that with the increase of wealth and progress in technology, medicine, we can afford more risk including tolerance of risky behaviour. With things like the antibiotics, condoms, hormonal contraception, abortion (that is not likely to kill you) and just generally low risk of destitution, people don't need to be as careful as they used to. Many religious taboos are guidelines for surviving in a harsh world, and the world just isn't that harsh any more. But those are real, material changes. It's not a matter of perception.

aestra 13y ago
>There are considerably more people having pre-marital sex, too. No there isn't. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16287113/ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16287113/ More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past. “This is reality-check research,” said the study’s author, Lawrence Finer. “Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades.” The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer’s analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
- philwelch 13y ago
  Women born in 1940 were 20 in 1960 and 30 in 1970, which is roughly when the sexual revolution happened.
- PeterisP 13y ago
  It could be argued that the 1960ies and the changes in contracteption would be the major turning point in that area, and "women born in the 1940s" would be sexually active in exactly the 1960ies - so to properly validate the thesis that it's "the same as always", you'd need to compare modern habits with those people who were born in 1920s or earlier.
rmc 13y ago
You think that abortion, access to contraception, and antibiotics has resulted in people feeling OK to come out? You think risk of disownment, murder, beating, being fired, being evicted, etc. didn't encourage people to stay in the closet?

aestra 13y ago

>There are considerably more people having pre-marital sex, too. No there isn't. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16287113/ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16287113/ More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past. “This is reality-check research,” said the study’s author, Lawrence Finer. “Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades.” The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer’s analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.

philwelch 13y ago
Women born in 1940 were 20 in 1960 and 30 in 1970, which is roughly when the sexual revolution happened.
PeterisP 13y ago
It could be argued that the 1960ies and the changes in contracteption would be the major turning point in that area, and "women born in the 1940s" would be sexually active in exactly the 1960ies - so to properly validate the thesis that it's "the same as always", you'd need to compare modern habits with those people who were born in 1920s or earlier.

rmc 13y ago

You think that abortion, access to contraception, and antibiotics has resulted in people feeling OK to come out? You think risk of disownment, murder, beating, being fired, being evicted, etc. didn't encourage people to stay in the closet?