Seventy per cent of men and women agree that sex on the first date is now acceptable, according to a poll.So boy no longer just meets girl, he immediately beds her too.
And vice versa, because girl these days is just as likely to bed boy.
It's equality, stupid. Or perhaps just stupid because there is a high price to be paid for this sexual freedom - which is the ever-increasing number of people, particularly young people, who will contract a sexual infection.
The poll of 3000 people was commissioned by telly channel FX.
It might have been useful, as well as helpful, if FX had also asked how many thought it not just acceptable but essential to use condoms.
Unfortunately as I, if not FX, know from running Joan's Juniors, many of those kids who think it's fine to have sex two minutes after they meet someone are less happy to use protection.
There are still some of the same old double standards about in that girls not only don't like to ask their partners to use them but believe that those girls who do carry a pack of three in their make-up bags are somehow "easy".
They also tend to think condoms are unromantic.
But there is nothing romantic about the number of kids having kids - and abortions.
Nor is there much that is romantic about the 6426 under-25s who, in the first six months of 2005, were found to have chlamydia, which can lead to infertility. That's a rise of 14 per cent on the same time for the previous year.
Meanwhile, HIV infection from heterosexual sex more than doubled in the UK between 1999 and 2003.
And although condoms certainly help, they won't necessarily prevent genital herpes or warts which increased by 20 per cent last year.
Many of the most common STDs - especially chlamydia and herpes - produce no obvious symptoms in up to 75 per cent of those infected.
Figures also show the risk of contracting one of 20 different sexual infections from a single bout of unprotected sex is 33 per cent.
This risk is increased when the kids are not only under the influence of instant lust but of drink.
But then sex these days to the kids comes much like their food - fast and often.
The three little words "I love you", according to FX's survey may be used to get it but are not necessarily meant.
We can't blame the kids entirely.
They're surrounded by images of sex - it's on television, in the magazines they read and the music to which they listen.
They also think they know it all but, while it's true they usually understand the mechanics, they can remain incredibly naive about the emotions involved.
Their hearts, behind their tough exteriors, remain fragile.
They still want to find their one and only. And when they do, as the survey indicates, surprise, surprise, what they most want from a relationship isn't looks and loads of money or even sex.
No, what they rate most are companionship, security and fun.
Fidelity also still matters.
Fifty per cent of men and women will stay monogamous from that first date until it ends. And that happens by mutual consent in 61 per cent of relationships.
Once it's serious - and getting serious FX says means taking their partner home to meet good old mum and dad - two-thirds will always put their partners before friends.
Not that it stops seven out of 10 of the men thinking their mate's ex-girlfriends are fair game.
Women remain more loyal to their pals, with the vast majority believing their best friends' former lovers are always off limits.
I suppose we should also be reassured that both sexes agree it is best not to settle down and get married until they are in their 30s - by which time they will have had, on average, a dozen partners.
There are still, FX says, some old fashioned taboos.
While the majority of men think it is quite acceptable to break wind in front of a potential partner, only a third of women would do likewise.
When asked to name the most successful celebrity relationship, the results differed slightly between the sexes but reflected the general attitude in the report.
Gay lovers Sir Elton John and David Furnish proved to be the ideal role models for women while cartoon couple Homer and Marge Simpson scored most with men.
FX's head of marketing, Cecilia Parker, said the research was commissioned to unpick the psyche of modern men and womens' thoughts on relationships.
She said: "The results show that men and women are from the same planet. Our attitudes to relationships are merging, the gender war is over. All we want to do is to make love".
I agree.
The trouble is that FX have confused love with sex and the tragedy, it seems to me, is that so, too, have many of today's kids.
from Daily Record
No comments:
Post a Comment