Casual Sex Culture

In the world of today many things have changed. What was once considered sacred in the past is now considered normal. The world we live in today has exponentially progressed into a whole new lifestyle. Sex was once taboo and very few people talked about it but today it has become so normalized that the act itself no longer holds any significant meaning. The porn industry is valued at around $97 billion dollars and its still growing by the day. The industry has seeped into pop culture and its roots will never be extracted as the youth has grown up glorifying this sexual culture. Today the slogan stands that sex sells and this is what everyone around the world is taught.

This modern day sex culture is being practiced by millennials around the world further diminishing the true meaning of a sexual connection. This isn’t something new, many definitions of words have been altered over the years due to the constant change of society. The problem is how will this liberated culture affect humanity years down the road and even if it doesn’t have a direct implication, will this culture tarnish what is left of morality. To truly understand this growing culture, we must first understand the origins of sexual practice and how was it originally viewed by the general public.

Origins of Sex

Sex was originally intimate and shared between a married couple but obviously that has changed today. It was seen as an emotional bonding and a need to procreate. It was purely biological and the sole purpose was to reproduce and populate the world. Regardless this didn’t mean people went around sleeping with anybody instead it was the complete opposite. This was an exchange that in most cases only occurred between two people who shared a meaningful bond.

It wasn’t random but instead consistent as it held an emotional bond even tough the main premise was to reproduce, humans seemed to form a connection with another individual when performing this act. The 60’s sexual revolution was for free sex but even then there was still the need for an emotional connection. People who shared an intimate relationship at the time still had feelings of love towards one another whereas now it should be expected that intercourse holds no form of emotion.

The Sexual Revolution

The sexual revolution, also known as a time of sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and subsequently, the wider world, from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. This revolution today is perceived as a period of profound societal change as it allowed for a wider acceptance of sexuality and contraception. Many believe that the leader of this revolution was Hugh Hefner who at the time was a household name being the creator of Playboy Magazine. this revolution brought forward the term of being sexually liberated.

Sexual liberation means more intercourse outside marriage (pre-marital, extramarital), particularly for women” Sexual liberation means a market for the pharmaceutical industry, a scapegoat for religious fanatics, and a challenge to those who benefit from abstinence. This revolution was a chance to explore the body and mind without having to worry about moral constraints. The sexual revolution of the 1960’s grew from a conviction that the erotic should be celebrated as a normal part of life and not repressed by family, industrialized sexual morality, religion and the state.

This revolution was what brought forward the wave of casual sex culture and events such as the wet t-shirt contest in Panama City Beach, Florida. This revolution began to promote far more than some cheesy event, the youth began to engage in sexual activities, and began to preach a doctrine of “make love not war”. This was the birth of the hippie movement. The youth resented US involvement in Vietnam. This revolution had sparked a more modern understanding of contraception and had caused a shift in European fashion.

Co-ed rooms in dorms also became more widespread as people began to embrace this culture. This also caused the film industry to make more risks and produce erotica based films and this would go on to become an important piece in Hollywood even to this day. The revolution started out with good intentions but over time the true meaning started to slowly diminish. It would become obvious that the next sexual revolution would eliminate one of the most important aspects of intercourse which is emotion.

Loss of Emotion

Today college students suppress all forms of emotions and pretend not to care as it ultimately simplifies things. By essentially not giving a fuck there is no heartbreak at the end of the day, sex is more of a transaction than an emotional connection. Modern society has embraced this flawed culture with open arms and accepted it to be the new normal. It is no longer a surprise if someone has slept with 30/40 people in their past before getting married or starting a family. There is no love in any of those encounters purely pleasure and even then its not just lust, it can be pride or ego that ends up being the driving factor.

In theory casual sex is meant to be exciting and invigorating but that just isn’t the honest truth. Its very rare to have that sense of wonder or fantasy due to the way society today is shaped. Society has already set the need for people to throw emotion out the window and be mindless when engaging in sex which is a choice that most individuals make sober. Sex without meaning is just pleasure, there is no personality involved as its just physical at the end of the day. When stripped to its core, its all about having fun and not giving a fuck about anything else.

Living a day to day life is already filled with enough emotions. We have to deal with stress, anxiety and anger at the workplace or in school so trying to subtract as much emotion form other aspects of life does make sense in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes people just want to unwind and let loose, sex has been the method of choice for countless of years.

Being able to experience pleasure without having to deal with the aftermath is basically running away from responsibility or problems. Its like getting drunk without having to go through the hangover or gambling without ever going broke. We will always be able to experience the highs without ever having to face the lows. This concept of chasing net pleasure is known as hedonism and its a lifestyle that many hope to attain even if it holds many drawbacks.

Masculinity and Femininity

Masculinity has been defined by pop culture as the ability to shag as many girls as possible. Its all about the number at this point, guys no longer play into their emotions. Most boys grow up being peer pressured into losing their virginity at a young age so they don’t feel left out.This bro culture has definitely taken over locker rooms and sparked a constant need to prove themselves by sleeping with girls as soon as possible. A guy who turns down an offer from a girl is only laughed at and is immediately viewed as an outcast.

Pop culture has played a huge part in building up this image for guys to attain which is that masculinity is defined by the girl by your side.The guy with the fittest or hottest girl is considered to be leader of their friend group. Media outlets such as Playboy and rap culture has objectified women and set the self worth of a man by the amount of girls he can dominate. This should change as some guys may be more inclined to not engage in this culture but end up being sucked in just to fit in.

Femininity has been portrayed by media as the need to please others or receive validation by the public. Society has built itself based around validation. We need it to prove our existence in life and the easiest way to obtain such a validation is through sex. Girls grow up watching these ideal girls on covers of magazines and try to attain that same physique so they will someday be able to receive attention and make others jealous. It has been predetermined by society that girls have to look a a certain way in order to receive affection or be valued by others.

This is a fair valuation for those who do want to buy into this culture. There are guys who will only date girls based of their looks and that is just their taste so its fair play. this doesn’t mean girls have to cater towards this need but even if they did want too, it should be by choice and not because they feel pressured to do so. To individuals who want to live a life that is void of emotion, they should be free to do so as they aren’t directly hurting anyone.

The important thing to realize is that it is possible to live a life of passion and people shouldn’t give up on the idea of love just because the majority of people don’t believe in it. Masculinity and femininity are not defined by validation through sex but instead should be justified by individualistic characteristics. Everybody doesn’t have to cater towards the norm, people can break the boundaries and embrace their personal traits. Pop culture or porn shouldn’t be the benchmark or reference for self validation, we are worth more that what is portrayed in modern media.

Reconnecting

People today should learn to once again reconnect with each other and form emotional connections. We can’t just our emotions remained caged up and pretend that we are unaffected by a lack of intimacy. We should start facing our fear and break the norm by back tracking on what was once a monumental revolution as all its meaning has been lost over the years. The life we choose to live today is almost inhuman in the sense that have lost what was once considered the most beautiful biological ability which is to love and to be loved.