'Cheap sex' is making men give up on marriage

NY Post ^ | September 2, 2017 | Larry Getlan

[EdnaMode]

Thanks to cheap sex, marriage may be doomed.

The share of Americans ages 25-34 who are married dropped 13 percentage points from 2000 to 2014. A new book by sociologist Mark Regnerus blames this declining rate on how easy it is for men to get off.

Regnerus calls it “cheap sex,” an economic term meant to describe sex that has very little cost in terms of time or emotional investment, giving it little value.

Regnerus bases his ideas, in part, on the work of British social theorist Anthony Giddens, who argued that the pill isolated sex from marriage and children. Add online pornography and dating sites to the mix and you don’t even need relationships.

The result is “two overlapping (but distinctive) markets, one for sex and one for marriage, with a rather large territory in between comprised of significant relationships of varying commitment and duration,” Regnerus writes in “Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy” (Oxford University Press).

In generations past, women generally made men wait until marriage to have sex. To get a wife (and, therefore, sex), men had to be clean and presentable and have a good job. This, Regnerus reasons, gave men all the motivation they needed to become respectable members of society.

Now with porn on-demand and greater reproductive freedom, sex is a commodity available at any time. This has left men with little motivation for marriage, writes Regnerus, who cites demographer Steven Ruggles’ prediction that one of every three people in their 20s will never marry.

[BobL]

All true...but in the end, it’s a probability game. Marriage of Americans to foreigners tend to hold up much, much, better than marriage Americans to men-hating feminists.

[Yaelle]

I guess I effed up the curve there. Lol.

Marriage doesn’t agree with me. I’m the woman every guy would want, according to these FReeper descriptions, which means I lose every time.

[Yaelle]

I don’t really want to know where you live; I just know there are a lot of little massage parlors in North Oc!

[Sequoyah101]

Yup. My hand here at the farm and I were winding down for the day, sitting on the porch as we do talking about things and what we are going to work on the next day. It got around to this subject. He said, “You know Mr. Sequoyah, families are good and only a he and a she make can make one. Two he’s or two she’s just won’t do.” Simple truths from a good but simple guy.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

I can promise you, you are not wrong.

It’s a pathetic display of juvenile ranting by a few anti women.

For them to claim all the silly reasons why, and then object to being called to the carpet, there is no wonder as to why they are bitter and boast every chance they get. I can only imagine what a treat they must be face to face.

[Bodleian_Girl]

I know a girl who did. She was not religious.

[Trillian]

Marry the wrong person and your life can be hell on earth.
Marry the right person and your life can be heaven on earth.
I am very thankful for my husband.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Are you attempting to suggest that countless women haven’t endured that?

[Scott from the Left Coast]

“Marry the wrong person and your life can be hell on earth.”

An absolute truth there.

[BobL]

Nope...it’s all perceptions. I don’t read about women wanting to change the system because it’s biased against women. But I certainly here men wanting just that.

...and that’s what people like the ones that I grew up with also here, which is why none of them ever got married.

[Garth Tater]

"The lack of the ability to form patriarchy family as enshrined by the bible is killing marriage. "

Civilization spent thousands of years working out a "deal" between men and women that not only worked well for them and their children but also for the society as a whole. We threw that out when will let the civil govt into the deal and now the arrangement is broken and as is evidenced by the posts in this thread it is not getting back together anytime soon.

Maybe our society will be able to work out another kind of deal that works well for everyone and creates a decent society or maybe we will be able remove the courts from the marriage contract and go back to church, family and community being the arbiters of marital problems again - but with the power of govt growing ever stronger in all facets of our lives I'm not hopeful in that regard.

The only advice I could give my kids (which is working for them so far) was to select their mates from good families with no divorces going back at least 2 generations.

[9YearLurker]

http://www.expertadmissions.com/InTheNews/Print/2007617USNewsWorldReportManyCollegesR.aspx

[minnesota_bound]

#13 Lots of Scottish influence back in the 1960's


I see some really attractive women here in Los Angeles area, generally at the mall but there are many more out of shape women with their out of shape guys around, along with too many tattoos and greasy hair.
I did some research and found this. I like sizes 8, 10, 12

I blame the pre-packaged foods we have for many being out of shape.

[Twink]

Add to that all the bitter divorced, never married, single women (with cats ;)). Bitter males and bitter females.

[Twink]

Yes it’s all the fault of the women. lmao

[Twink]

OMG this is not a promotion for family. WTF?

It’s ideas/ideals like this that created feminism and our society today.

One extreme to the next and they both suck.

[Twink]

That tends to happen in two income households.

[Twink]

And it’s better for American women how? These so called American men are such catches? Please.

[Twink]

The men bashing women and the women bashing men is prevalent here and elsewhere. I’d say it’s an equal opportunity thing. And both suffer for it.

[Twink]

Ha you lived with her and that somehow makes you better than her? You needed to bring her up? You dumbed yourself down for her?

And you consider yourself a gentleman? Better than her? Glad she got away from you, lol.