Isn’t it someone’s job to inform me when something that stupid is going down? Because this article is the quintessence of End of Men hysteria.
How bad is it? It says, in all seriousness, this paragraph:
Something, it seems, is sucking the life out of guys quite literally. One-third of male college students say they’ve experienced erectile dysfunction. Leonard Sax, a family physician for nearly 20 years who authored the book Boys Adrift, saw more and more of them in his Maryland office, asking for Viagra and Cialis. Constant access to porn has desensitized them; they can’t get it up with live girls. “We’re seeing the replacement of penile sex with oral sex,” says Sax, “with the girl on her knees, servicing the boy. Boys and girls both end up losers.” One in five men ages 18 to 25 are now classified as “sub-fertile” because of low sperm count and quality, both of which have been dropping in the developed world for the past 50 years. Curiously, 50 years ago, around 64 percent of all college students were male.
I… I don’t even get what the point of that is. Huh? “Men can’t get it up, porn is evil, OMG BLOWJOBS THE WORLD IS ENDING, men have lower sperm count and this is related to the number of college students that are male probably!”
Like most End of Men articles, it makes a token gesture to the reality that most of the reason men are more likely to live at their parents’ home than women can be summed up in “the economy,” and then throws it away, all the better to complain about how men in this generation just aren’t manning up. Yes, men are more likely to live with their parents than women. The reasons? Women tend to get married younger than men do and men are more likely than women to move in with their parents for economic reasons, such as those caused by the fucking recession. Why that is is an interesting question, but somehow I imagine fulminating about video games will not provide an answer to it.
Also like most End of Men articles, it relies entirely on anecdotes, to the point that the only thing the article proves is that there are men who are slacker bloggers and women who work for Nickelodeon and are sad that they can’t find a boyfriend. Gee. That is completely against everything my “people of all genders are people and do lots of different things” theory would predict.
Sociologists cite five “markers” or “milestones” that have traditionally defined our notion of adulthood: finishing school, moving away from the parental home, becoming financially independent, getting married, and having a child. In 1960, 65 percent of men had ticked off all five by age 30; by 2000, only a third had.
Here’s a hint: there’s no such thing as a normal life. You can’t just say “our definition of adulthood has traditionally involved moving away from home and having a child!” and then assume that that’s good enough. Are adults who live with their parents (and their parents) happier or less happy than adults who don’t? Are people who have children more satisfied with their lives than those who don’t? Is it a good idea to get married before 30, or does it make marriages more likely to end in divorce? Also, nice job with that 1960 thing, the number of men who had done all five by 30 definitely has nothing to do with living in one of the most prosperous times and on the tail end of literally the biggest Baby Boom in American history.
“I’m astonished, just astonished, that kids are moving back home,” says Barry Schwartz, a longtime psychology professor at Swarthmore College who studies happiness and satisfaction. “My kids never came home once they left. They would have seen coming home to live as an absolute failure—the worst thing in the world.”
So… the word “failure” is having less of an irrational effect on people? How is that a bad thing? Would you rather that people be homeless out of stubborn pride? What is your goal here, Mr. Schwartz? (Okay, well, other than his fetish for the 1950s.)
The median age of male marriage keeps getting pushed further back—more than three years (which is an eon to sociologists) since 1980, to 28.2. That leaves young men with a long, long stretch of sowing wild oats—while young women tap their feet impatiently.
Uh, that’s actually a good thing. Later marriages are less likely to end in divorce, which I’m pretty sure most people would consider to be a good thing. Also, why are we assuming that women aren’t sowing their wild oats, or that any gender is particularly eager to marry? This article just seems to take “women sob at bridal magazines while the men they love fuck strippers” as a given.
Prior generations of men, she says, would leave their tight-knit communities of college friends, move to new cities, and become isolated. That made relationships with women more attractive, since women typically organized social life. “Now, Facebook makes it so easy to keep in touch with your old friends, to make plans and coordinate,” Bogle says. Guys can actually do it themselves.
And clearly we should go back to the old way, in which men were compelled on pain of eternal loneliness to date the first woman who comes along. That definitely sounds like a recipe for happy relationships.
If you don’t even have to leave the house to find sexual gratification—much less put on a tie, make small talk and pay for dinner—why would you bother?
Please raise your hand if you would like to get married to someone who is only marrying you because they’re tired of their lone dogeared copy of Penthouse. (And, I guess, because they don’t have any friends otherwise. SUCH A CATCH.)
Fuck, this thing is like a thousand words and I’m only on page two. Part two tomorrow!
About ozyfrantz
“…. while young women tap their feet impatiently.’
And did you notice this one too? This is a BAD THING because it’s impacting young women, cheating of their right to a man, any man, (regardless of what he may actually want.) Won’t anyone think of the women???!!!
“I’m astonished, just astonished, that kids are moving back home,” says Barry Schwartz, ….”
What do you wanat to bet that his grandfather moved his grnadmother into the family home, while his parents were still very much alive, just the way my granadfather did and just about everyone else’s Presentist much?
“Won’t anyone think of the women???!!!”
Um… I think the point Ozy was making is that the women who eventually might marry these men (or not) are plenty busy with their own careers and occupations and hook-ups and don’t particularly want to get married right now, kthx. So “think of the women” becomes “think of the stereotypical image of womanhood; the flesh-and-blood ones are busy living their lives, thanks”, which seems desperately unproductive, overall.
And what, exactly, is the problem with everyone playing through their 20s and building a life and figuring out what they want and deciding to commit to someone when they feel it’s the right person and the right time and calling it a good idea at that point in time? Regardless of the gender of the person, that seems like a relatively decent idea…
Well said…as one of those women who was busy doing my own thing for decades and is now happily partnered with one of those slacker guys (yeah, we pretty much do whatever we want when we’re not at work and it’s AWESOME), I say AMEN to your post
““Won’t anyone think of the women???!!!”
Um… I think the point Ozy was making….”
Ozy wasn’t making the point about young women tapping their feet impatiently, she was quoting it, with disapproval.
“And what, exactly, is the problem with everyone playing through their 20s and building a life and figuring…”
Who is this directed at? Do you think it’s a response ot something i have said?
I am objecting to criticisms of young men’s life choices, whatever they happen to be, based on how they affect young women or fail to give them what they happen to feel entitled to. They are not entitled to a man. that’s all I was saying.
Are young men really losing interest in sex? I keep seeing this allegation but since I’m in my 40′s, I have no way of knowing. Can anyone closer to that generation enlighten me? I don’t know whether to write this off as media hysteria or start worrying about it. I don ‘t know how to test it unless I start asking random 20 year old guys about their views on sex, which might either lead to some interesting conversations, or get me arrested.
The idea that any 20-something guy would dislike actual sex is a shocking idea to me and I can’t believe it’s true.
Well, its not that the interest has waned, its that it has become fixated on, and readily satisfied with, fantasy to the point that real sex with real women has become much less exciting (and less motivating) than it used to.
Of course, everyone just assumes that’s a bad thing, but I don’t believe many are thinking of the happiness and well-being of the young men in question. Usually they fret over the jobs their no longer doing and the young women their impacting as a consequence. Perhaps someone should actually ask these men if they’d rather return to the state of prior generations? Maybe you should be the first -you won’t get arrested, unless you end up trying really hard to get their attention.
Huh. Why is that though? Is it that real women can’t live up to the perfect women in porn? Is it because real sex is too boring because most women won’t do the extreme or ncomfortable things that happen in porn? Is it because relationships with women are too much trouble? I am genuinely curious.
Guys preferring blow jobs to sex doesn’t surprise me, though, that’s always been true.
It has something to do with increasingly numb dopamine-receptors and constant dopamine bombardment that require a person to seek out increasing quality and quantity of stimulation to achieve prior levels of fulfillment (I’m not a doctor, clearly). Its a bit like if you used to get chocolate once a year, but you now get it everyday at breakfast, lunch and dinner on demand. It was once really exciting, now its just “meh”.
“Why is that though?”
Because I get all the human connection, emotional support and physical closeness I want through platonic relationships, and porn does not demand I fill (because of my gender) an initiator role I’m neither comfortable or competent in. Neither does it expect you to jump through a dozen other gender preformance hoops for the chance it might be interested.
I can only speak for myself however.
I think this probably cuts both ways, and stronger so for people with little sexual experience (and my guess would be that there are more male virgins than female virgins among young people). One partner I had, who had no prioir sex partners, imagined many things to be easier and feeling different than they were in real life – I couldn’t live up to the perfect lover of her imagination, because in reality, skin and anatomy and such don’t work as she imagined. (On a happier note, another partner who has had quite few partners before me, actually really appreciates the way I touch and kiss her.)
I’d also say that I guess many women aren’t sexually interested in a man who doesn’t live up to their image of what a “real man” should be outside the bedroom – men being uninterested in women who don’t do some specific porny stuff isn’t equivalent to women being uninterested in men who don’t pay for a romantic dinner (and men being unwilling to pay for dinner is not equivalent to women being unwilling to perform certain sex acts), but both of these attitudes are reducing the amount of sex had for no actually good reason.
(Last and least: Depending on how wide you define “extreme things that happen in porn”, real sex can very quickly become very boring if the woman always goes into “passive unmoving receptacle for sex who only slightly moans to show the man that she likes what he’s doing” mode.)
Something caught my attention: If a woman finds sex to be boring, the usual assumption is that there’s something wrong with the partners she’s had/having. If a man finds sex to be boring, the usual assumption is that there’s something wrong with him.
Not saying that those are your assumptions, as you really do ask and are actually interested in the real reasons.
Well, agreed, everyone needs to take responsibility for their own satisfaction. If a woman is bored with sex but never says anything to her partner, she can’t just blame him.
I think my question was directed more at the idea (which I’ve heard but can’t prove) that porn has “taught” men to expect a kind of sexuality which is very focused on male pleasure and kind of neglects female pleasure (or expects women to find things pleasurable that often aren’t actually very pleasurable). Like I said, I don’t know if that’s true, it’s just an allegation I’ve heard about the prevalence of porn use. Frankly, when I was in my early 20′s, the guys I slept with tended to be sexually unskilled and focused on their own pleasure; learning to have great sex with another person takes experience. (I’m sure men could make similar observations about inexperienced and/or sexually passive women.) So I don’t know if sexual quality has really declined or if it is just a new version of a universal complaint since time immemorial.
I suppose one thing that HAS changed is that porn is so available and so enticing that men can satisfy themselves without needing sex. I can see, in theory, that this would take away an incentive that men used to have to seek out relationships with women.
One thing porn can help with is not needing to lower your standards and dating someone you aren’t into just for some decent sexual pleasure. Of course you don’t get the emotional aspect, but jerking off to porn can be better than dating a very negative woman, “bitch”, or whatever. Less need to settle basically.
I guess the problem of boring sex is in a way analoguous to boredem at a rock concert: If the audience is bored, the band sucks; if the band is bored, the band sucks. Is it problematic to see the man as the performer and the woman as the “audience” when it comes to heterosexual sex? Yeah, it sure is, but it is unfortunately quite a common view, among women and men.
Back to porn: I’ve heard the complaint/observation that apparently, many young men are trying to reenact porn they’ve seen instead of trying to have sex driven by their and their partner’s authentic individual sexual desires. My guess is that in times long gone by, virginal men tended to be more clueless about the hows and whats and wheres of sex and female genitalia when having sex for the first time, while virginal men today mostly know all the mechanical ins and outs of sexual intercourse and can rattle off 3 dozen different positions. Both kinds of men will feel like they ought to be knowing what they’re doing when losing their virginity, and both of their situations have different advantages and disadvantages for both of the partners. One situation is like having someone who has never done or even seen impro theatre improvising on stage, the other situation is like having someone who has never acted reading out a monologue he never read before on the stage – both experiences will most likely be cringeworthy, for some reasons that are the same and for some reasons that differ wildly in both cases.
Another thought about men focussing on their own pleasure: There is a huge expectation of men to orgasm when having sex (even here on NSWATM, you will find the assumption that of course, men orgasm at the end of sex). I know that I have been less considerate and caressing and caring about my partners pleasures, more focussed on my own orgasm, when I sometimes felt that my penis was about to go too limp to continue and I should make an effort to orgasm soon (when knowing that my partner feels like she (or I) was doing something “wrong” when I don’t come during sex), or after she told me she wanted me to come. Actually, personally, I’m far more into my partner’s pleasure and orgasms, and enjoy the tender soft sultry kind of sex which doesn’t bring me to orgasm far more than the wild ride at the end, but I know some women were irritated by me not coming (even going so far as considering a dysfunction).
Not that there aren’t men out there who don’t care about their partner’s pleasure, but I just wanted to highlight another aspect of men focussing on their own orgasms.
About sexual boredom and getting a woman in the mood. When a man makes me feel like the most beautiful, hottest, sexiest woman in the world, I’m always in the mood. I don’t need him to buy me stuff, look like Idris Elba, or even SHOWER for me. Just make me feel like a WOMAN. Don’t compare me to other women or make me feel insecure. That’ll make me lose my woman boner real quick. Smack my ass or jiggle my boobs and tell me how amazing they are. Look into my eyes with love. It takes like..5 seconds to do that. I’m willing to put in effort to please my man sexually, why should it be so difficult for him to do the same?
About performance. It’s life and I have to deal with it, but I get worse orgasms because I feel like I have to perform. When I’m distracted by making the right noises and giving the right angles, it’s harder to focus on my own pleasure. I can do that most of the time, but do I have to do it every single time? Is it so wrong to be able to enjoy my own pleasure occasionally without worrying if I’m enough of a porn star? Why can’t a guy trust that my orgasm is real and incredible if I don’t scream like a banshee throughout the entire experience? But I can definitely tell when a man has less real world and more porn experience. He does ‘perform’ more. He focuses on showing off what he can do, how long he can last, and what he knows…rather than enjoying himself, reading cues, listening, and paying attention to our bodies—the stuff that actually makes sex fun. That being said, it can be fun to pretend like you’re in a porno—it’s just not the end all be all.
All that being said, most of my worry is hypothetical and based on what people say on sites like this one. The men I’ve been with have enjoyed regular sex and had no problems initiating. My current partner and I have sex every day and I never get the impression that it’s a chore for him. He loves blow jobs, but loves PIV even more, and I’m a lucky girl for that. We’ll watch porn together occasionally but he by no means ‘needs’ it to get off or takes sexual lessons from it. He’s seen my p*ssy and naked body thousands of times (I’m naked a lot), and still acts like they’re the most wonderful things on the planet and takes the time to inspect and admire it all. Most men I’ve been with seem to be pretty cool when it comes to sex. They realize that it isn’t as seamless as porn makes it out to be. There’ll be laughter, mistakes, sweat, getting tired, whiskey dick, overly short or overly long amounts of ‘lasting,’ smells, weird noises, bad angles, wetness, dryness, smudged makeup, cuddling, falling asleep, bad lighting, surprise/weird erogenous zones, directions being given, positions that don’t end up working as well as they did in our heads, kinks, grunting, mess, queefing, kissing, pain, etc. That’s sex.
We’re all responsible for our own pleasure. Sure, I doubt I’ll ever up for SURPRISE anal, a 5 person gang bang, or electrocution, but it’s ok to ask me about most things, especially if you phrase it correctly. “You need to do this sexually or I’ll leave you” and “My ex was really good this, can you try it?” probably aren’t the ways to go. Ask nicely, and we can see what we can work out. I’ll do things I don’t enjoy sexually because it pleases my man. It makes me happy to see him pleased. I would hope he can do the same for me. Is some foreplay, kissing, and using muscles that aren’t your hand really THAT difficult? If it’s too much trouble to ask your girlfriend for sex or to take a second and appreciate what she wants, then I guess you should be masturbating. At least open up the relationship and let her find someone who is more sexually compatible with her.
As for the ‘settling’ part. I think that works both ways. I would never WANT a man to be with me because he’s settling. That sounds awful. The whole ‘Nice Guy TM’ argument is centered around women settling for someone who’s nice but they don’t feel sexually attracted to. Around her staying in a failing relationship because the guy isn’t abusing her or cheating on her. Men shouldn’t do it, women shouldn’t do it.
I’ve seen this floating around too, and heard the “guys are just finding it easier to beat off than have sex, even if relationships” and wondered if it had something to do with women trending towards wanting focused-on-them sex too – therefore sex isn’t just a she-lies-there/sucks-and-he-gets-off-and-goes-to-sleep deal, but an event with foreplay and taking turns and figuring wants and desires that day and cuddling afterward… soo much more effort! Really just easier to masturbate, and, as my husband put it “then just go to sleep.” Not to say that there aren’t men that for them their partner getting off is part of the appeal of having sex in the first place, oh no. But if we’re trying to explain why we might be seeing a trend of guys preferring masturbation over partner sex, that if for those guys their focus is just on their own pleasure (and they’re feeling lazy) the obligation of a partner’s pleasure would make masturbation a more appealing option.
Just asking, because tone doesn’t always translate too well over the internet: Do you have a negative opinion of guys (in a relationship) who, when feeling horny at the moment, rather just masturbate instead of first trying to get her girlfriend in the mood for sex (which may or may not succeed), possibly first mask their desire for sex because the girlfriend wants sex “to happen naturally”, and afterwards forcing himself to keep engaged in a conversation or keep on caressing his partner’s back while trying his hardest not to fall asleep until he finally fails to do so, because she would feel used and alone if he were to fall asleep after sex?
One could say that masturbation is selfish (because totally focussing on one’s own pleasure) and lazy; I would argue it is far more honest than trying to get a not-yet-horny girlfriend involved.
As a nearly 20 year-old guy (less than a week till adulthood holyshit!) I can assure you my friends and I aren’t losing interest in sex. I’d argue that we’re just as horny as previous generations – although of course, there’s no way to objectively quantify it. I do think, however, that my cohort has a much different relationship to sex then previous generations, and porn plays a very interesting role in it.
Simply put, it allows me and my friends to be pickier when it comes to girls. We have no need to string things along in doomed or incompatible relationships simply to get orgasms. Instead, we can hold out for someone we really like and want to make things work with, knowing that porn will get us by until then. Of course, it’s like subsisting on ramen noodles – possible, but far from ideal (if you’re the foodie type). I don’t think anybody in my friend group considers porn a long-term solution, in fact, if any perfectly healthy dude in my suite get too reclusive with a box of tissues, we call them on it.
Basically, if I start a romantic relationship with a girl, I’m going to commit to it. Hard. It’s going to be a major time and energy suck and frankly I don’t have that much of either to spare at this point in my college career. Therefore, I’m only willing to make that plunge for someone I really like and really want. If I take a girl on a date or two and don’t really feel a connection, I’m not going to pursue it farther just to get some play. Similarly, I’m pretty willing to say no to sex if it comes up earlier than I’m comfortable with in the relationship.
Actually, I doubt that a *healthy* relationship is a major energy suck. Not that it doesn’t take energy to keep a relationship going, but it’s a bit more like jogging: Yes, it takes time and energy, but it also gives you a lot of energy, *if you aren’t doing it wrong* (or so I heard).
I just think that it’s important to know that an intimate relationship isn’t supposed to be draining you of your energy – if you feel your relationship is burning you out instead of firing you up, then there is a problem in your relationship you should try to solve; if needs be, by ending it.
Just the 2 cent of a guy who was far too long in a relationship that was draining for both sides.
Is the author suggesting that porn causes a lower sperm count? I’d never heard that one before. If it were effective enough, watching porn could be a form of birth control…
While I share the author’s hate on for this article, the low sperm count thing has nothing to do modern young men and everything to do with something going on in our environment. Unlike all the other BS about “the end of men” this thing about sperm counts is real, objectively measurable and has a real impact on life in a fundamentally biological way.
Every decade or so (so I’m told by my pediatrician friend), the sperm / mL of semen cutoff is reduced. Sperm counts are dropping and have been for decades. No one (and I mean no one) knows why. While obviously, we are able to reproduce, there does come a point at which this WILL be a major infertility issue. That will constitute an end of men, because if nothing else, a fundamental aspect of the males of our species is their ability to fertilize eggs. If you can’t do that, or if men en masse, can’t do this, a threat to the very survival of our species has arisen and it’s not trivial nonsense like boys playing video game, or refusing to play the social roles that society has set out for them. It’s an inability to reproduce, or in other words, a failure to fulfill a fundament of life itself (which requires two functioning individuals of different sexes).
Anyways, enough…
Learn more here if you care to: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/out-for-the-count-why-levels-of-sperm-in-men-are-falling-1954149.html
Here’s the moneyshot quote (a term of art that one
:
“Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the WHO conference where a Danish scientist first alerted the world to the fact that Western men are suffering an infertility crisis. Professor Niels Skakkebaek of the University of Copenhagen presented data indicating sperm counts had fallen by about a half over the past 50 years. Sperm counts in the 1940s were typically well above 100m sperm cells per millilitre, but Professor Skakkebaek found they have dropped to an average of about 60m per ml. Other studies found that between 15 and 20 per cent of young men now find themselves with sperm counts of less than 20m per ml, which is technically defined as abnormal. In contrast, a dairy bull has a viable sperm count in the billions.”
You’re about half the man your dad was. Your son, asssuming this trend continues, will be half the man you are. And so on. The end result of that is extinction. Be afraid.
The Wet One
“a fundamental aspect of the males of our species is their ability to fertilize eggs.”
Transphobic/cisnormative statement, please amend it.
Really? Isn’t “male” a purely biological idea rather than social construct? If he said “men” or “masculinity”, I’d maybe see your point. But surely, there is some immutable, clinical understanding of xy chromosome’d, smaller gamete’d creatures that we can agree to use?
Hugh, all I’ve got to say is “Call the waaaaaaahmbulance.”
It is what it is. Deal with it.
See here as well about lower sperm counts: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/disappearingmale/chemicals.html
Decent documentary in my view.
Talk about an entitled woman writing an article (the one linked in your article). Wahhhh, how dare men enjoy leisure activities like gaming. How dare they not want to be tied down with marriage so early, how dare they enjoy casual sex.
It’s funny when I see these articles written, why don’t the female authors and any other women who are upset about “men being boys” take a long hard look at their own behaviour in relationships, maybe…just maybe….some women are turning men off to relationships. Every guy that fits the description of what she is whinging about that I know has usually been fucked over time n time again by women.
“They don’t have jobs. They’re dropping out of college. They play video games all day and watch porn all night. Even their sperm counts are low. Why won’t guys grow up?”
Oh I dunno…maybe jobs are hard to get? In my area there is 10% overall unemployment, but for young adults that rises up to 15-20% I believe. Jobs just don’t exist, and I live in the country with probably the best economy (Australia) that came out pretty good after the GFC. In other less fortunate economies it’s probably worse, there aren’t enough jobs for the job-seekers.
Today’s men are handling work-life balance far better than their predecessors I’d guess, in 10-20 years I wonder if heart attacks will be lesser.
It seems these women are quite “successful”, have a job, live independently yet are unwilling to “date down”. They want men who are at the same level or higher level than they are, don’t want “losers” (which apparently means a man living at home, working part time and likes to play games). Quite frankly it really sounds like these particular women feel completely entitled to a man who is becoming rarer and rarer.
As women gain more of this success, better jobs, etc, they are finding less eligble bachelors because the men are not keeping up pace. Maybe…just maybe….boys are falling behind in school, girls have been given a major push and boost in the focus to ensure they are educated whilst the boys were ignored.
The last 30 years or more? Countless articles, campaigns, etc for women to boost women in STEM fields, boost their grades, address their inequality issues yet for men? Not much has been done for men in a long time. It’s only now being discovered that it may in fact be MEN who are more likely to be depressed than women, apparently because male symptoms are different and more difficult to detect. Suicide attempts are higher for women but successful suicides are 4x more likely in men. Men are less likely to report depression or seek treatment.
“Gender bias occurs in the treatment of psychological disorders. Doctors are more likely to diagnose depression in women compared with men, even when they have similar scores on standardized measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.” ht tp://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/
This could be a reason why the depression gender difference is biased, it could mean we have a lot of men who aren’t treated correctly and are suffering in silence. This can only add to the “losers” who are not only playing games, but are “escaping” and aren’t as engaged in society as their peers. But as you can see on their site it’s “gender and women”, the resources seem to be gynocentric. Where the F is the support for men? I did a search for men’s mental health on their site and nearly every listing is about WOMEN.
I have no doubts men are currently in a crisis, so much these days is setup to address female issues but not too much for men, this can mean women will drive forward whereas men will stagnate or even regress without also receiving support. It’s a good sign we need a masculist movement to help inspire and advocate for support of men and boys so they don’t slip through the cracks.
Modern reproductive strategy seems to lean toward producing a smaller number of quality offspring. I think this would favor men with lower sperm count and sex drive, as they would produce fewer children but give them each more of their time, resources, and energy. Additionally, with the advent of birth control and abortion, a man’s reproductive success becomes more and more dependent on whether he can find a partner willing to go off birth control and then carry the baby to term – when fewer babies are created accidentally, a high sperm count and being horny 24/7 year-round is no longer such an advantage – possibly even a liability as it would tend to lead a man to either spend a lot of energy pursuing women who will never have their children, or to produce a large number of children that aren’t given the resources necessary to succeed in the future.
Is it just me, or is there no printer friendly or single page version of that article? Also, does anybody know if it is possible to access the comments to the article without posting one?
I have to admit I have read Boy’s Adrift, and political agenda aside (segregated schools are NEVER a good idea. Ever. For any reason.) the author has some interesting observations.
There is a lot of talk about “sensory addiction” that I frankly don’t believe though. The problem is that positing that the reason boys are leaving school, men aren’t pursuing higher education, and/or men are delaying “adulthood” as “sensory addiction” begins the discussion assuming that boys are broken, addicted, unable to control their behavior.
I tend to believe the social explanation more. The idea that boys/men may be getting nudged away from education/higher education the same way girls/women get nudged away from math/science. The authors of the article mention this, but before the end dive off into some “addiction theory” to describe lack of sexual interest. Once again, I would be more likely to believe poor socialization/communication skills (on average) than I would low-level addiction.
“Something, it seems, is sucking the life out of guys quite literally. One-third of male college students say they’ve experienced erectile dysfunction.”
Or one third of male college students are comfortable enough admitting this for the first time in history.
“Constant access to porn has desensitized them; they can’t get it up with live girls.”
“Live” girls? I think he forgot the “XXX” ad the end of that XD. At any rate, lying this at the feet of porn is lazy. Porn has been around for a long, long time. If it actually gave people ED we’d have died out as a species.
“We’re seeing the replacement of penile sex with oral sex,” says Sax, “with the girl on her knees, servicing the boy. Boys and girls both end up losers.”
You couldn’t make this stuff up. Are men who go down on their girlfriends losers too? How about gay couples? Not to mention the lack of even one scrap of proof that oral is “replacing” PIV sex.
Only losers have oral sex! You heard it here first!
“One in five men ages 18 to 25 are now classified as “sub-fertile” because of low sperm count and quality, both of which have been dropping in the developed world for the past 50 years.”
Must be all the fellation. Spermkillers!
“Curiously, 50 years ago, around 64 percent of all college students were male.”
My mistake! It wasn’t oral sex reducing sperm count. It was women! Clearly 36% women is the “magic mix” for male fertility. Any more than that and their vagina-rays zap the twinkle right out of their eyes.
Enough of your Earth logic, or I’ll zap you with my vagina-ray.
Isn’t ED an early sign of heart disease? It sounds like it has more to do with the obesity epidemic than anything.