Young US Men Having a Lot Less Sex In the 21st Century, Study Shows (reuters.com) 307
Sexual activity among young American men has declined sharply since 2000, with nearly a third reporting no sex with a partner in the prior year, according to a survey study published on Friday that suggests social media and electronic gaming might be filling the void. Reuters reports: The survey found that from 2000 to 2018, nearly one in three U.S. men aged 18 to 24 reported no sexual activity in the past year. Lack of sexual activity, or sexual inactivity, was also on the rise among men and women aged 25 to 34 years during the survey period, the report in the journal JAMA Network Open found. Possible reasons for the decline in sexual frequency may also include stress of juggling work and intimate relationships, as well as the prevalence of other forms of solo entertainment.
"There are now many more choices of things to do in the late evening than there once were and fewer opportunities to initiate sexual activity if both partners are engrossed in social media, electronic gaming, or binge watching," Jean Twenge, from the department of psychology in San Diego State University said in an editorial accompanying the report.
"There are now many more choices of things to do in the late evening than there once were and fewer opportunities to initiate sexual activity if both partners are engrossed in social media, electronic gaming, or binge watching," Jean Twenge, from the department of psychology in San Diego State University said in an editorial accompanying the report.
amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say it's one-third of guys now watching porn and jacking off. That has to be making a dent in a bunch of human behavior stats not to mention birth rate.
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Yeah cause women wouldn't participate in that.
#metoo
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some women do but for most women their "porn" is romance novels (including the harlequin bodice rippers) and soap operas.
Re: amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Insightful)
Nonsense. Lots and lots od women watch porn. And what data we have shows they're more likely to be into the violent stuff.
https://www.vox.com/conversati... [vox.com]
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That article doesn't mention percent of women watching porn, stats show it's less for women and less frequent. One third of women watched porn in last week one or more times, for instance. They like other sexual stuff than just porn, those soaps and romance literature are also their sexual stuff.
Re: amusing they missed the big one (Score:3)
Yes 30% of women reporting that they watch porn on a regular basis is more than the "some" which you originally reported. That number is large enough on its own, but the real number is probably somewhat higher. Theres still stigma associated with it in some societies, meaning women are more likely to lie about their porn habits than men are.
Who wants to risk catching an STD? (Score:5, Informative)
Who wants to catch HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, UTI, or COVID-19? Just stay at home and jack off, instant gratification without any risk of sexually transmitted disease. Not to mention all the downsides of accidently getting her knocked up, having to pay child support for 18 years, losing your house and half of your stuff, etc. And that's if you're LUCKY! If you're not so lucky, you have to endure listening to all her whining, bitching, and irritating TV shows for the rest of your life, beside covering her living expenses.
Re:Who wants to risk catching an STD? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Interesting)
She has no interest in sex, I keep telling my self that she just hasn't met the right person. She insists that it is simply a case of not having, and never have had, an interest in sex. That said, she does have a medical condition that would make any pregnancy extremely high risk. She is constantly reading "those books."
I remember when she was in high school, her cousin was going to be staying with us for a few months. My daughter asked, "dad, what can I do with my books?" I told her that I didn't see a problem, her cousin was old enough that she wasn't going to chew on them or anything. Her response was, "No dad, my books."
Finally, it sunk in. "Oh, your porn collection, just put it in a box and put it in my closet." But, yes, she is constantly devouring "those books."
there are times I love that this forum is anonymous
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I think at least some of it is that the result of broken relationships are highly visible now. I have photo timelines where I can see before and after pictures of relatives who were literally starving themselves during a failing marriage.
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There may be something to this. With the Internet, people may be far more aware what they are getting into with a relationship and a family than before and that the chances of this working are generally only so-so. Also, if I remember correctly, the younger generations are the first ones to do worse than their parents with regards to economic factors.
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The marketing for marriage has collapsed and when it comes to sex. Well, what is sex beyond an expressed intention to actually procreate, it is simply shared masturbation between individuals of mature age (underage is illegal in all combination), in any combination of gender and numbers, with or without various devices and accoutrements. Perhaps the marketing is failing on sex as well as marriage. A simple hormonal adjustment or procreation or you are a loser if you don't or play time between consenting adu
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Informative)
IMO sex with somebody you barely know is basically just masturbating with (or in, from my perspective) another person. Somebody you know well feels quite a bit different as there's also that emotional element that isn't there otherwise.
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It gets worse in many Western nations. Here in Finland, we have an "open/unregistered marriage" (avoliitto, basically people officially cohabitating) as opposed to "normal marriage" (avioliitto). Until recently, entering into the latter meant the man was basically fucked for life if woman decided to file for divorce and be a bitch about it.
So marriage rates crashed and open/unregistered marriage rates spiked. Feminist organisations who fought hard for women's right to destroy a lives of men that women divor
Re: amusing they missed the big one (Score:4, Interesting)
That's just to simplify things. You have a more complicated situation to worry about.
- The world we have today where kids are curled and driven everywhere, they can't always just walk or bicycle on their own to their friends and socialize.
- The amount of stuff on the internet and all communication that goes via the net has depleted the need for physical contact.
- The moralization that all sex before 18 is damaging and then *kaboom* after 18 you are expected to have kids. Essentially swapping from being curled to be the curler overnight.
I think that today it's hard to become really bored. It's when you are bored you start to investigate other things around you. Maybe a major power outage during the winter is what's needed forcing people to be creative and start to achieve physical closeness.
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or - lets see the effects of lockdown on the world's population around about Christmas time.
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Funny)
The fact that the Slashdot summary had to specify "sex with a partner" says a lot about the readership here.
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Yes, your realdoll doesn't count.
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At least they kindly avoided making most of the readers feel too bad by limiting it to “a partner”.
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:4, Informative)
Several hypotheses for why individuals engage in less sexual activity have been proposed. Although theories regarding the use of pornography and longer working hours were not supported by our analyses, plausible reasons include changes in sexual norms that may affect actual and reported sexual activity; the stress and busyness of modern life in which leisure, work, and intimate relationships need to be juggled; and the supply of online entertainment that may compete with sexual activity. Although these hypotheses could explain the decrease in frequency among partnered individuals, additional mechanisms may be associated with the increases in sexual inactivity observed in our study. For example, rates of depression and anxiety have increased among young US adults; US adolescents are increasingly postponing the start of adult activities, including sex and dating; and it has been hypothesized that the introduction of smartphones has resulted in less opportunity for and skills in real-world human interactions. For women, sexual inactivity may also be associated with a greater prevalence of “hooking up” (which has generally been reported to be less pleasurable for women) or potential increases in sexual aggression directed toward women.
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Insightful)
Now let me explain something to you. There are two types of guys in these times. Those that jack off to porn and those that lie about it. Whether they admitted it to the people doing the study does not change reality.
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The article said unmarried women's sex lives have been unaffected. Every theory the article puts forth breaks down because they forgot their own study says young women are having the same amount of sex as they always have. SMH at the article saying smartphones have resulted in less opportunity. Go watch the video of the guy who created a fake tinder profile of his GF and got over 1500 likes within 2 hours. Ask yourself if a normal guy would get that.
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How about changes in housing situations?
Houses and flats are getting smaller, walls are getting thinner, young people are sharing with friends more often. That means less privacy and less opportunity to be intimate.
Japan has love hotels to help with that, but they probably wouldn't work in the west.
Re:amusing they missed the big one (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you mean "big one" or "big ones"?
I believe the reduction in sex with human partners is heavily correlated with
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Fear of being #metoo'd (Score:4, Insightful)
The Perfect Storm (Score:4, Interesting)
A grade school education insisting on the terrifying dangers of STD's and unwanted pregnancy. ( many are terrifying).
Social isolation due to the prevalence of personal consumer electronics. ( they don't even like to talk on the phone)
Free internet porn. (just about anything you can conceive)
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Free internet porn. (just about anything you can conceive)
IDK, there's still a persuasive argument to be made that midget squirrel step porn is underrepresented in the porn market.
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You'll find that here:
https://genki-genki.com/ [genki-genki.com]
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Free internet porn. (just about anything you can conceive)
IDK, there's still a persuasive argument to be made that midget squirrel step porn is underrepresented in the porn market.
If you search it it will come
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> Free internet porn. (just about anything you can conceive)
And still.... still... the elusive "dick inside a dick" has NEVER materialized.
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(just about anything you can conceive)
I find the use of the word "conceive" humorously ironic, given the context.
Re:The Perfect Storm (Score:5, Funny)
No, the real reason young men have less sex is because us old men attract all the women.
There might be something to that :) (Score:4, Interesting)
> No, the real reason young men have less sex is because us old men attract all the women
Funny. :)
Also, it might be right. I've had more interest from women since I got older. I'm married now, so not looking, but ladies have expressed interest.
Studies show that women rate men as more attractive when they are pictured with props that suggest financial stability and strength than they rate the exact same guy without those hints in the photo. Men over 30-40 tend to have more financial stability.
Women tend to be attracted to guys with social standing - the boss, the captain of the team, the president of whatever. Guys tend to attain these positions over time, as they get older.
Women are put off by guys who are nervous trying to talk to them. Confidence is sexy. Even - what's the word - a guy who isn't scared of a "no" (because he's already heard it before, no biggie) is more likely to get a yes.
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You forgot the "and then everyone clapped" at the end.
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Man, I don't know what world you grew up in but even with the liberal education of sex ed here in Canada guys aren't really having sex. The drop off also happened as hypergamy became more pronounced especially with a variety of other factors heavily influencing it.
It also doesn't help that since the 2000's that your life can be ruined by any false allegation - even if the accuser recants stating that they lied you're still screwed, or that sexual harassment is rife with discrimination only affecting men.
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There's simply no way to de
It Begs The Question (Score:3)
What about US females?
Are they still at the same levels of sexual activity?
Are there some that are scooping up insane amounts of "neglect"?
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Wait, women are having sex with gay men now? Otherwise this makes no sense.
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Awwww yeah!!!! So, how do I get that ball rolling? ;)
Re:It Begs The Question (Score:5, Funny)
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bathing and dental hygiene, exercising, grooming, having a job and dressing decently also might be good tips for many of the slashdot membership.
Re:It Begs The Question (Score:5, Funny)
> I would recommend starting by having conversations with women.
not worth it.
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Or other women their age.
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Most likely women are having sex with older men.
Very true in my case. I am "older", and I am getting a lot more nookie now than I did in my 20s.
Re:It Begs The Question (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you know, dividing by zero is not valid math.
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Well, you know, dividing by zero is not valid math.
When I was a twentysomething the zero was the numerator.
Re:It Begs The Question (Score:4, Insightful)
More likely they're having sex with the 10 or 20% of men who are successful at Tinder-type dating. Ie. the good looking ones who nail everything in sight.
And then the ladies get to 40 and wonder why they never got married or had kids.,
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Most likely women are having sex with older men.
This is true, as a 39 year old, I make six figures, having a savings account, nice toys (sports car and boat) and its easier for me to sweep a girl off her feet. Who ever said money can't buy happiness clearly didn't have any.
Re:It Begs The Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course money can't buy happiness. It's only available rental.
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It makes sense. There are a shrinking number of straight men who are getting way more 'tang than they can handle. They're picking up the slack for all the 4chan incels and MGTOWs.
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They didn't say whether the lack of change was in total activity or just in the number of people who are inactive. Depending on which of those is the case, there are at least four possibilities:
There are probably other possibilities that I'm not thinking about. But you're right that a
If you're stupid (Score:2)
If you're stupid.
People of different ages can have sex and a single person can have sex with multiple partners in one year. I don't know why I should have to tell an adult this.
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People of different ages can have sex and a single person can have sex with multiple partners in one year. I don't know why I should have to tell an adult this.
Imma go ahead and guess that you're the fun at parties and are the guy that's pulling all the leg these days. You ole dog you.
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I'm specializing in the moms of Slashdot users, especially those with UIDs in the >6000000 range, and those with user names made up entirely of binary digits.
prospects for a future? (Score:2, Interesting)
In my lifetime I've seen most people's prospects for a decent future evaporate. Why would anyone chance a pregnancy they cannot support? Or a marriage? or debt?
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Pretty much. Also, overpopulation becomes more and more pressing. While the west is not a the core of the problem, its presence may play a role as well.
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Sex and pregnancy don't really go hand in hand anymore. The reduction in child births is long established at this point. The part where people re also not having sex as much is a little more surprising to me, but I do think a combination of work demands and other forms of entertainment that are compatible with work demands is likely responsible.
People are a commitment, games, iFap and whatever are often poor substitutes, but require no commitment.
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...one to go into debt, marry, or have progeny.
In theory. But somehow I ended up with all three.
It's the economy stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a bad thing. Men without women and with no prospects for getting women have a tendency to get violent. The the "civilized" parts of society demand a crack down and you get a nice steady authoritarian spiral...
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The biggest pool of men with poor prospects for women is in China due to birth-sex selection. The "empty branches", poor rural young men who can easily be swept into an army to improve their prospects.
As for how men can have less sex while women are unchanged, please consider (likely undercounted) sex workers, most of whom are women as providing a statistical disconnect.
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That's incel theory but it's not true. Lots of men with poor prospects have wives and girlfriends. It's just an excuse.
Incels love excuses. Women are whores who prefer dogs to men, my forehead is the wrong shape so I can never get laid... It's never the fact that they have no respect for most other human beings and suffer from multiple crippling personality defects.
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Indeed.
It's amazing to me that so many people can't look objectively at themselves, admit that there's shit wrong, and work on fixing it. Instead they ball up that anger and lash out at others. They blame others for their failings.
Fixing your personal problems is hard, and it takes a lot of work. It's just a lot easier to project your self-hared onto others, and blame them for not liking you.
When I see the incel whining on the internet, (which is like 1/4 of this thread, of course) I see lazy, emotionally s
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If you're not getting laid, there's some shit that's wrong with you.
When there's something wrong with enough people, it becomes something wrong with everybody. That's what Libertarians don't understand about poverty and what Feminists don't understand about lonely men.
Re: It's the economy stupid (Score:2)
Of course he didn't; he wanted to get his same tired old talking points out there ASAP.
Re: The only hard numbers in the article (Score:2)
It's funny how you first don't read the article ... and then when someone calls you on it, you go and misrepresent the content.
If I ever saw you say anything factual about the economy, I'd probably have an aneurism.
Re: You know you're right (Score:2)
Great, and then we have other studies which show that newer generations aren't just less likely to have sex, they start having sex much later:
https://link.springer.com/arti... [springer.com]
"Among those aged 20â"24, more than twice as many Millennials born in the 1990s (15 %) had no sexual partners since age 18 compared to GenXâ(TM)ers born in the 1960s (6 %)."
Given that part-time/full-time jobs don't tend to be much of an issue when you're still in high-school and/or college, this isn't particularly well explai
Reporting (Score:2)
These people that reported, MUST be reporting lies then, because:
Happn
Tinder
Feeld
Bumble
Grinder
Coffee Meets Bagel
Blender
Ashley Madison.com
meet2cheat.com
discreet-cheaters-dating-site.com
ihookup.com
affairsclub.com
en.gleeden.com
sweetdicreet.com
lonelycheatingwives.com
discreetadventures.com
doccool.com
Shall I continue?
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What? You're not a member of any of those sites? Exactly!
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Good point. Since I'm not, surely no one is. Those "sites" are funded by...?
DON'T DATE ROBOTS!!! (Score:3, Funny)
New communication medium (Score:2)
Re:New communication medium (Score:4, Interesting)
What I see a lot of in under-30 people is using various apps for casual sex. I'm not sure if that's increasing the proportion of one-night stands, or just moving them into a new medium.
My guess is that it's changing the landscape in more subtle ways, though. If casual hookups require less investment, but maybe feel slightly less gross than hiring a prostitute, maybe less of them lead to anything deeper. That would certainly jive with the "nobody's getting married" stats. It would also mirror the more general cheapening of the human experience by social media.
I haven't done any formal studies, but I definitely get the feeling that as the use of these apps has increased, so has the proportion of gay activity. People might feel less judged, or maybe it's just easier to find other participants in niche interests. I'm 31 years old, and my position on the Kinsey scale has definitely swung that direction since I got fed up with the "normal" dating rituals. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Males and females both just kind of piss me off to be honest. People are people. Maybe the most basic analysis is the best one... the human experience is being cheapened.
Well, I guess Mr. Musk might be happy there'll be people lining up to be brainfucked via Neuralink. You don't even have to get in the car and meet up anywhere - have your Tinder experience beamed right into your cerebellum. Things seem to be going cyberpunk real quick.
Re: New communication medium (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm older and married, so finding a woman isn't really a problem... I've got one right here, she's ten feet away on her own device, probably doing social media things or shopping, while I'm on Slashdot. We are so stimulated by media we are sitting here instead of fucking like we should be.
I remember back in our old neighborhood, our internet used to go out randomly for a few hours, and we didn't have 4g data back then. After an hour or two of no internet, no streaming video, and no online gaming, and no ability to work, we usually ended up fucking. I may or may not have engineered a wifi outage or two in order to you know, help us focus on us.
Smartphones, WiFi, social media, it's all making us think we are social and probing our little dopamine receptors without and need to actually "probe our dopamine receptors" if you know what I mean. Distraction.
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TFA speculates that the popularity of casual sex apps with men is actually resulting in them getting less sex because women don't like them. Men think they are more efficient but in fact they are having the opposite to the desired effect.
Say waht? (Score:2)
LOL (Score:3)
Other forms of solo entertainment [pornhub.com]
So close, yet so far... (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is, TRP and PUAs aren't wrong. Misogynistic though they may be, if you apply what they say to society and not the individual, it becomes frighteningly accurate.
Go talk to young men and you'll hear a lot of the same thing; they saw a relative or a friend go through a traumatic divorce, and it taught them well; relationships aren't worth it anymore. Mix into that limited resources, and bam; there's your reason.
Women don't have the same mating pressures, so of course their stats appear unchanged.
Well... (Score:2)
Uh, pr0n? (Score:2)
Top 10% of Tinder guys are getting all the girls (Score:5, Insightful)
This one is easy...
It is already statistically known that women tend to go for the top 10 or 20% of best looking men.
Tinder (and apps like it), have made this a very liquid market for women (and the top 20% of men). The women go for the top 20% of men and those top 20% are getting all the poontag every night.
As a result, the rest of the men don't get anything.., which is what the statistics are showing in the article above..
Its as simple as that..
Re: Top 10% of Tinder guys are getting all the gir (Score:3, Insightful)
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Sounds awful for those men. Different partner every night, barely know them, certainly can't trust them, and the first time is often kinda awkward as you both figure out what positions work for your particular combination of body shapes. Then they have to deal with her texting them the day after... Probably quite expensive too since presumably they need to rent a hotel room to avoid giving away their home address to some lunatic.
If they are really in such high demand it seems like they could easily just get
Re:Top 10% of Tinder guys are getting all the girl (Score:4, Insightful)
It is already statistically known that women tend to go for the top 10 or 20% of best looking men.
That's what incels with defective personalities tell themselves. It's also not true. Just look around you ad see what men out there are actually wandering around with partners.
Or, look at it another way. There are plenty of married slashdotters, these days. Either slashdot has a proliferation of lantern jawed musclemen or there's something up with your assumption.
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That's what incels with defective personalities tell themselves. It's also not true. Just look around you ad see what men out there are actually wandering around with partners. Or, look at it another way. There are plenty of married slashdotters, these days. Either slashdot has a proliferation of lantern jawed musclemen or there's something up with your assumption.
If it's all in people's heads why is there way more sexually inactive males 18-24 than before, without a similar increase in females of the same age group? It is well known that the average age of first child birth has been going up, for many their late teens and college years are casual hookup and FWB years and they don't start looking for a life partner until their late 20s so they can have children around 30ish. Obviously then they have to match up one-to-one so it becomes a run-off lottery, these men ar
Short sell (Score:2)
Spoiler alert [youtube.com]
What, No App For That? (Score:2)
What else is to be expected when you replace human interaction with apps?
Jean Twenge track record (Score:2)
I'm pretty skeptical about a report associated with Jean Twenge that reaches this conclusion. She's got a track record of claiming all things digital are a calamity, and making some pretty over-blown claims
Overall nerdification. (Score:2)
Ever since the internet for the regular people and the mobile internet in particular I've been observing an overall nerdification of society. It's a bit scary to see regular young people being more nerdy than me in my super-nerd days.
It's technology and actual social isolation.
Plus Porn and Videogames which is basically a subset of technology and social isolation.
And gynocentrism (Score:2)
Perhaps (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps having to negotiate a consent contract and get it notarized before each step kills the mood...
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Yeah, they likely wouldn't want anything to do with you.
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If my only choices were 3rd wave feminists, I expect I would have a lot less sex also.
Feminists make the best partners, "lady in the street , freak in the bed".
Married almost 10 years.
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Not so much. When it comes to consumer goods or women, billionaires don't make that much of an impact on the market. You are still allowed only one wife at a time. And multiple serial marriages tend to be more typical of lower income people. As far as goods, Jeff Bezos might earn 1000x what I do. But I seriously doubt he consumes 1000x the filet mignon that I do.
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I probably not a "real man" because I don't ... ... use paragaphs.