How do the views of western European countries differ from the US in terms of sex and sexuality? I've heard that western Europe is much more progressive and likely does not care about what other people do in terms of sex and sexuality. I was wondering if I was idealizing western Europe or if it is true, in comparison to the US.
I believe that Western Europe, for the most part, has a more laid back view on matters of sexuality and what not. That's not to say there are not people who bash the ideals of the LGBT community.. There are still quite a few of those, but if you think about it, there will always be those who hate on something they don't agree with.
Yes, Western Europe is more progressive than the States. I'm not too sure about other countries though, so I'll stick to my own country in this post. We don't have as many religious nutheads as the US has, so that's a start. We were the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage in 2001 and at this moment, out of the 11 political parties seated in our House of Representatives only one (the conservative, orthodox Protestant party) is against gay marriage. And they hold 3 out of 150 seats, so they're no threat. In general, you get frowned upon when you say you're against LGBT people. It's kind of amazing. Still, there are some people who are against it. There aren't many of them though, and you won't ever hear someone take a rant against LGBT rights in the media. Yeah, when it's about sex and sexuality, the Netherlands is a good place to live.
I put a sex education video on here once from a British TV Channel by a Qualified Doctor, showing Men how to examine their Testicles properly & to check for lumps, as a way of detecting Testicular Cancer, even if just one life could be saved, this was a very important video, one of the American Guys posted on the thread, that he was shocked that a British TV Channel would show a Man examining his testicles on TV, the program was called Embarrassing Bodies, he said "American TV would never air such a clip on US TV, this made me quite sad, as this video could save lives
In the UK and Ireland (Since I have lived in both) discrimination against people is frowned upon. I have heard of people where I work being asked to leave after being caught ranting about homosexuals. There is very little public condemnation of it, people who do are generally criticised heavily by the press. We do have a far smaller movement of religious fundamentalism (UK) but they are not tolerated by much by the press. There is a slight problem with Islamist homophobia is parts of England but still everyone treats it with disdain. Also making a hate speech publicly about the LGBT is frowned upon and is a Criminal act
Ireland has legalised gay marriage now and yet abortion is still, shockingly, illegal in most circumstances. Italy is probably the least progressive country in Western Europe and perhaps on par with the average US state. As for actual social attitudes, I have no idea because I don't follow polls and whatnot. But France has legalised gay marriage despite it being fairly well opposed to amongst the public, so laws and attitudes can be out of kilter with each other.
Well... We're rather ok with it for most of us. But homophobia is still there. Homosexuality intrigues people, you know. I don't know how hard it is for you in USA, honestly, I've never been there. See, it varies from one country to another, once again... In Belgium (Tiny country up North France), we're really ok with it (Some exceptions, okay) but we do have legal marriage institutions and all. But as far as France is concerned, it's just only recently that it was allowed. And massive protests happened against the new law... I heard that in Spain, it's not very easy either, but, for having been in UK a year, I'd say it's pretty okay to be gay there (Now I haven't been all around the country either, so ...)
I found (does Scandinavia count here?) that rural Finland is very, very conservative, in general but that the cities have a more liberal attitude. The attitude of keeping quiet about sex is still very common all over the country, but I think it isn't as bad as in Australia, where we simultaneously obsess over and shame sex and sexuality.