The Atlantic, November 13 2018:
"Both young people and adults are having less sex than ever before. In the space of a generation, sex has gone from something most high-school students have experienced to something most haven’t. The average adult used to have sex 62 times a year; now, that number is 54.
Research continues to show that a healthy sex life is linked to a happy life, and having a partner is a stronger predictor than ever of happiness. Why, then, in this modern era, is sex on the decline?"
"....Love and sexuality are the most exhilarating elements of life. But Fromm writes that to truly experience and exercise love, one must “begin by practicing discipline, concentration and patience throughout every phase of life.”
No wonder so many Americans find love boring."
"Both young people and adults are having less sex than ever before. In the space of a generation, sex has gone from something most high-school students have experienced to something most haven’t. The average adult used to have sex 62 times a year; now, that number is 54.
Research continues to show that a healthy sex life is linked to a happy life, and having a partner is a stronger predictor than ever of happiness. Why, then, in this modern era, is sex on the decline?"
"....Love and sexuality are the most exhilarating elements of life. But Fromm writes that to truly experience and exercise love, one must “begin by practicing discipline, concentration and patience throughout every phase of life.”
No wonder so many Americans find love boring."
LAWRENCE A. TRITLE, ‘A NEW HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR‘,
1946/2010:
“...In the spring of 411, and amid the struggles of the Four
Hundred and Five Thousand, Aristophanes produced one of the best - known
comedies ever written, Lysistrata. Often regarded as his third ‘peace’ play,
Lysistrata is dominated by women – in fact the women of Greece, who have come together
to demand that their men end the war and make peace. To accomplish this goal,
the women unite and swear to abstain from sex with their husbands until they
agree to stop the violence and bring peace to Greece. This comic vehicle
creates some hilarious scenes that were surely as amusing to Aristophanes’
audience as to modern readers...
...Aristophanes builds into it all kinds of jokes and
situations to entertain and make the audience laugh; he is, after all, writing
comedy and hoping to win the prize. So there are jokes about how women love to
drink and how sex - crazed they are, views that many men in the audience pretty
much shared. Early in the play, for example, Lysistrata raises the idea of a
sex strike to stop the war, and one of her Athenian friends responds, ‘I couldn’t.
No. Let the war go on’, a sentiment echoed quickly by another ( Lys . 129 –
30). Lampito’s support for the plan, however, overcomes initial resistance and
Lysistrata proceeds with her plan. In doing all this, Aristophanes also
mentions the long absences of the men fighting in various places and throws in
jokes about how women responded to this with sex toys and drink ( Lys . 102 –
10). It should not be thought that masturbation is a modern invention, and in
fact scenes on Greek pottery earlier in the fifth century depict women using
the dildos that Aristophanes jokes about...”
Louisa Peacock wrote on March 26 2014 in The Telegraph, UK:
“A group of Ukrainian women have set up a Facebook page –
currently with over 1,700 likes – and created T-shirts with the slogan 'не дай
русскому', meaning 'don't give it to a Russian', as a means of protest.
The sex boycott echoes a larger embargo against Russian
consumer goods, which encourages Ukrainians not to buy Russian products.
The concept of a sex strike is over 2,000 years old, when
Greeks first performed Lysistrata, a comedy about Greek women withholding sex
from their husbands and lovers unless they stopped the Peloponnesian War...”
A scene from Greek comedy Lysistrata, where the eponymous
character rallies her fellow women to go on a sex strike from their husbands,
until they agree to end the Peloponnesian War
But even if such a threat works today, it surely won't work tomorrow.
Clive Cookson wrote in FT on February 14 2016:
“...Scientists have warned that rapid strides in the
development of artificial intelligence and robotics threatens the prospect of
mass unemployment, affecting everyone from drivers to sex workers... Prof Vardi
said it would be hard to think of any jobs that would not be vulnerable to
robotics and AI — even sex workers. “Are you going to bet against sex robots?”
he asked. “I’m not.”...”
Steven Spielberg's 'Minority Report', 2002
courtesy: DreamWorks Picture