• wavebeam@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lots of people in here talking about how sex scenes suck, and they’re right. But I think we should also consider this: decades of focus on abstinence education and evolving parental and institutional surveillance has been successful at making young people have less sex. And now the olds, having achieved their mission, are confused about why the kids are having less sex and making less babies and the media they are creating and consuming is reflecting that.

    • Fungah@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I dont think the abstinence stuff is having sn effect, or is as prevalent as you think. Maybe in America, but the rest of the western world don’t really fuck with it I think>nk?

      • wavebeam@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is a good point! And in fairness, I didn’t actually read the article so I don’t know for sure it’s talking about the whole of western societies. It is the la times though, so that would lead me to believe it’s US-centric.

        Regardless, I think you’re totally right. In America we’re continually getting hammered with the idea that having sex before marriage is abhorrent and anyone who does it should be punished for it with STDs or babies.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Germany keeps good statistics on it, the tl;dr is early loss of virginity peaked around the turn of the millennium, and has been steadily going down since then. The sexual revolution never got questioned in Germany once it was through (sadly, you can’t annoy reverends by kissing in front of their church, any more), no “abstinence only” sex “education” to be found anywhere. The by far overwhelming reason kids cited is “didn’t yet find the right one”, only exception being girls with immigrant background, there it’s “am still too young”, though that number is falling towards “didn’t yet find the right one”.

          Not on that page but when being given a couple of choices saying “which of these things would be a calamity for you right now, and how bad” something like 99% of girls respond with “pregnancy would be the worst”. Teen abortion rates are still very low (at least for a country not caught up in Catholic morals) but that’s due to low pregnancy rates in the first place combined with extensive support thrown at teen couples.

      • wavebeam@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I certainly think that’s true! But things can also be complex and be both as well as other factors.

    • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That has nothing to do with less children. It’s a known thing in biology that animals are fully aware of critical mass and adjust their mating for the conditions.

      Every single industrialized country has reduced birth rates because of child mortality, financial stability, and many other reasons that go with it.

      There is no one that didn’t have a kid because of a movie. That’s just ludicrous.