A number of articles about sex have reappeared on Unherd. All by writers who used to be ardent feminists and now find it’s moving somewhere they don’t want to go.
I mention an observation that is repeated. It’s a shame and a bad thing that today’s teens don’t have the kind of sex life that was normal a generation ago. It’s a shame that they are not going through a time when they could grope and search and learn about themselves. When they could think of sex as “a pleasurable and exciting pastime from which – if one is lucky – a beautiful relationship can emerge.” In today’s puritanical milieu, sex is considered a political issue, and it looks like it.
…the sexually liberated student and her solid conservative mother belong in the same picture…
But it looks very much the same from the conservative side! Namely, that this youthful sexuality, enchanted by the discovery of contraception, took place at a time when Western societies had the best family life in history. That the sexually liberated student and her solid conservative mother belong in the same picture – including sharing values. I recall a sort of old Woodstock movie where the free-spirited girl is deeply shaken when she learns her mother has a lover.
It’s only today, when we have a comparison, that we realize what a great time that was. We find it absurd that the 1960s could be described as a time of decline.
Which leads one to wonder if in some areas we are victims of a similar optical illusion.
