Are we an over-sexed society?

I do and I don't. I think sex is seriously overused commercially, but that open and honest education and discussion of sex are scarily rare.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Sex is still kind of a taboo subject. We can use it to sell alcohol, cars, and so on but we can't teach young people to use condoms or communicate with their sexual partners

 

I think we are. Sex is taboo in our society, but at the same time it is EVERYWHERE. I also think there is a lot of pressure to be a certain way sexually. I don't just mean sexual orientation or gender identity, etc. I mean everyone is told "this is how sex works, this is what is sexy, this is how you should be sexually, if you are any other way you should strive to be like this by doing this and this and this". If that makes sense... There is a lot of pressure on people to live their lives a certain way and our society doesn't leave a lot of room for variance without identifying someone as being different or on the fringe. I agree, there is a lot more to life than 'sex', but sex sells so that is what our society mainly focuses on.

 

I pretty much agree with the others. We see sex everywhere we look, but we can't talk about it.

 

I've noticed that so far, everyone who responded is from the USA.

This country has been ruled with the puritanical beliefs that the pilgrims brought to this country. For centuries, as others have pointed out, sex has been a taboo subject. Things have lightened up in the last few decades and now it's everywhere.

It's just like the kid whose parents don't allow them to have candy. When they finally get to the point where they can choose to have candy....a lot of times they become candy junkies. (I have a friend who was denied candy...and that's exactly what happened with her.)

Another example is people's 21st birthday and the freedom to drink alcohol. A lot of people overdo it.

At some point things will even out.

Just my two cents though.

 

It's complicated for me. On one hand, I don't understand how people can get much joy out of sex with someone they don't really know/only like physically. For me it's more of an emotional experience, sure I'm human, I can imagine being aroused by the thought of casual sex, but it's not something I'd ever do. Without an actual connection to the person it would be meaningless to me.

However, that's just my own standpoint, I really don't have any prejudice against the more sexually active people. I simply just don't feel as sexual as them, I guess. I'm more into the romantic stuff, snuggling, holding hands and stuff ^_^

 

Yes, and no. I think we use sexualisation to sell things far too much, and the porn industry is far too large, though the actual important basics of sex and sexuality is not discussed at all really. It's still a taboo in many places or families, and sex education is still very poor. I think education is the key to everything, in fact it's proven that people who are educated very well about all the facts of sex etc. Tend not to have teenage pregnancies or develop as many STI's..

 

I actually had this discussion in one of my classes today. Pretty much everyone agreed (including me) that sex is really everywhere in our society. And a lot of that sex is focused on teenagers and early twenty-year olds. They are the epitome of beauty and lust to pretty much everyone. Too many people see sex as a purely pleasurable act. They don't see the deeper effects it can have. (To me, sex is too special to waste on a first date. It's something that takes a LOT of time to get to.) I'm not saying it isn't pleasurable, but that's what society focuses on. "If you do this or buy that, you will have more sex! More pleasure!"

In the LGBT community, we hear a lot of the stereotypes and sometimes when a someone finds out that they're gay, they go right to the stereotypes because that's what they know of the gay community. It's almost forced on them. And that needs to change. The world needs to see that the gay community isn't all about sex. That there are people that are just ordinary people who are looking for love in the same gender.

 

The US is actually puritanical. The mindsets cause sexuality to be kept in the closet even beyond LGBTQ people. Sex is seen by way more than half the population as dirty even disgusting. With this attitude permeating the society how can sex not be a big flashing light before someones eyes. If sex were treated as a normal act between people it would have less of an allure.
Example: Soon as an adult tells a child not to do something they want to do it more than ever. This is America telling us all sex is bad and needs to be hidden, It sucks but that is how sexual obsession begins.

 

I don't think we are. IMO, we should be more open about it, and at the same time, treat it with a bit more respect. The Romans had open prostitution, pornographic graffiti, and freaking holidays where people ran mostly naked in the streets* Lupercalia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Their civilization lasted for over a thousand years.

We are not OVER-sexed, per se, just immaturely sexed. Less prudishness, more communication and knowledge.

 

I'm speaking purely from a American perspective. I would change a lot about our society if I could. Sex would be one of those things. If we can use it to make profit and sell product we should be able to have mature and serious conversations about sex, yet we cannot. Even today it is so heteronormative which really hinders us to move forward. Heterosexuality is constantly being reinforced in popular culture to the extent that we do not even recognize it, let alone question or challenge it.

I was thinking the other day how hard it is to question your sexuality. I absolutely hate how everything is based off the normative and most widely accepted practice. However the truth of the matter is not everyone's ideals fit within the mainstream. I think it's sad that to find support I had to turn to an online forum. Whereas, when I look around there are so many of us struggling with the same thing. I wish as a society we could learn to be more accepting and less judgmental. Even if there are people whose sexuality is different in the world what does it matter in the big picture?

If we could just love whoever we love without judgement, fear or ridicule then this world would be a better place. We should take the time to break boundaries get to know one another by experiencing and interacting rather than relying on stereotypes and assumptions. I suppose this thought rings true for other -isms such as race, class, religion... anything, really.

Sorry kind of went off on a rant...

 

I agree with one of the above posters. More people need to open up about sex and talk about it freely.

 

It's very interesting how sex is considered a really amazing thing that everyone should be doing, but talking about it is taboo. I wish it weren't taboo, there are a lot of interesting topics that could be covered in conversations.

 

I think we are currently oversexed as a society.

One of the biggest reasons in my opinion, is because of the internet today.

Any young enough child intelligent enough to search parts of the body or anything innocent seemingly enough, can be bombarded with porn, sexual images, sexual stories, sexual ad-banners, etc.

And there really isn't much of a warning or build up to it. Naked pictures on twitter, facebook, tumblr, etc. It's very common place now, and simultaneously shunned. Which is confusing!


As for the gay community, I think we're oversexed by the media and ourselves.

Once out of the closet, with that taste of freedom, I think we realize just how repressed and oppressed we were holding everything in.

Naturally, the media plays into this, to make a profit, And some people prey on this to get laid.

I think as a community, we're always struggling to find a balance.

 

I don't necessarily think that too much sex is the problem; rather, how we view sex is flawed. I think our society presents sex as an end in itself, rather as an important and part of healthy relationships. This often leads to people using others merely as a means to satisfying their own desires. Sex is a part of life and it's something we should be able to talk about openly, but we should be a little more thoughtful about how we go about it.

 

Nicely worded.