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Sex Is Cheap
Slate ^ | Feb. 25, 2011 | Mark Regnerus

Posted on 03/01/2011 4:34:44 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o

We keep hearing that young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life. Their financial prospects are impaired—earnings for 25- to 34-year-old men have fallen by 20 percent since 1971. Their college enrollment numbers trail women's: Only 43 percent of American undergraduates today are men. Last year, women made up the majority of the work force for the first time. And yet there is one area in which men are very much in charge: premarital heterosexual relationships.

[snip]

What many young men wish for—access to sex without too many complications or commitments—carries the day. If women were more fully in charge of how their relationships transpired, we'd be seeing, on average, more impressive wooing efforts, longer relationships, fewer premarital sexual partners, shorter cohabitations, and more marrying going on.

Instead, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (which collects data well into adulthood), none of these things is occurring. Not one...

To better understand what's going on, it's worth a crash course in "sexual economics"...

[snip]

Yes, sex is clearly cheap for men. Women's "erotic capital," as Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics has dubbed it, ... can't assure her love and lifelong commitment. Not in this market. ...Michelle, a 20-year-old from Colorado, said ..."I had an ex-boyfriend of mine who said that, um, he didn't know if he was ever going to get married because, he said, there's always going to be someone better." [snip]

And yet while young men's failures in life are not penalizing them in the bedroom, their sexual success may, ironically, be hindering their drive to achieve in life. Don't forget your Freud: Civilization is built on blocked, redirected, and channeled sexual impulse, because men will work for sex. Today's young men, however, seldom have to.

[snip]

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: adolescent; adulthood; civilization; cohabitation; college; commitment; enrollment; erotic; femaleslose; feminazism; feminism; financial; fornication; goingnowher; health; marriage; marry; moralabsolutes; relationships; sex; sexual; sexualeconomy; slut; stds; undergraduates; whore; youngmen
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To: Popman
My sons are all in their mid to late twenties and it astounds me how they let their girlfriends run their lives or are cut off.

I tell them all the time to grow a set and be a man


They are your sons. Why didn't you raise them to be men? Did you let our current trash communist/feminist pop culture raise them, so that they got brainwashed into believing they were subordinate to women? Are you saying that all of your sons resisted your every firm effort to instill manliness in them, or were you the one that failed?
41 posted on 03/01/2011 5:11:21 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: trimom

Feline?


42 posted on 03/01/2011 5:14:08 PM PST by razorback-bert (Some days it's not worth chewing through the straps.)
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To: fr_freak
subordinate to women

Real men know that women are neither subordinate nor superior to men. They are one half of the whole.

43 posted on 03/01/2011 5:14:14 PM PST by LuvFreeRepublic (Support our military or leave. I will help you pack BO!)
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To: Travis McGee

Those were my dear mother’s words. She was very wise and I grew up with her wisdom.


44 posted on 03/01/2011 5:14:20 PM PST by savagesusie
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To: Mrs. Don-o

These boys should research the youth-bulge theory. Although they have it great with the easy sex, the chinese and Muslim men are far less fortunate, so if the youth-bulge theory is right, American males may end up paying for it with their lives in war.


45 posted on 03/01/2011 5:14:38 PM PST by Vision Thing (He has a white house, and he wants to paint it black.)
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To: little jeremiah

It’s worse than merely destroying character. It causes a person to disconnect from others. It devalues humanity. But there are worse evils in modern society that do a better job of that.


46 posted on 03/01/2011 5:18:24 PM PST by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: dfwgator

If he’s in his 50’s, ugly as hell, but RICH, he’ll have his pick of the litter.


47 posted on 03/01/2011 5:18:47 PM PST by boop ("Let's just say they'll be satisfied with LESS"... Ming the Merciless)
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To: trapped_in_LA

Spot on analysis!


48 posted on 03/01/2011 5:25:01 PM PST by smaug6 (We can't afford to be innocent!! Stand up and face the enemy.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"I had an ex-boyfriend of mine who said that, um, he didn't know if he was ever going to get married because, he said, there's always going to be someone better."

There are a lot of available women around who are freely giving of their sexual favors -- but only to certain set of men who I'll refer to as the Alpha Males, the guys who women compete for. The "Mr Big" type from Sex and the City. Prince Charming.

For somebody in this set of males, it's a target-rich environment. You sleep with a woman until she starts bothering you about "commitment", and then you move on to a younger/hotter/tighter replacement. Women complain about this type as being "afraid of commitment", but the reality is that the guy has no need to commit to one women because he is a sought-after commodity (at least until he turns 40 or so)

Eventually a woman who's been chasing Prince Charming after Prince Charming gets tired of the "pump-n-dump" routine, generally as she approaches 30 and senses her market value starting to precipitously decline, and decides to settle for Mr Average.

There's a good article discussing the phenomenon SEXUAL UTOPIA IN POWER

49 posted on 03/01/2011 5:28:26 PM PST by PapaBear3625 ("It is only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything" -- Fight Club)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

American women now offer only sexual relations in exchange for a marriage contract. They will not cook, clean, sew, raise children, manage the house, or make life comfortable for the head-of-the-household, the husband. They are not interested in being good wives, just in receiving the benefits of such.

American men understand that American women no longer bring anything to marriage other than an offer of sex. They further have learned that this offer is bogus and will be repudiated shortly after the marriage contract has been executed. Plus young American men are readily able to obtain sexual gratification from young American woman, single and married, who are embracing the slut lifestyle.

So young American men increasingly view the institution of marriage as having no benefits and the huge liability of a better than 50% chance of divorce, in which case they will be the financial loser.

Given the above situation, is it any wonder that young American men now routinely avoid marriage?! It is a simple cost/benefit analysis which young American men are learning well.


50 posted on 03/01/2011 5:28:31 PM PST by DakotaGator (Weep for the lost Republic! And keep your powder dry!!)
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To: mamelukesabre

Sexual immorality is up near the top of the list of character destroyers. And those who habitually practice it usually develop or have other grave flaws as well.

People who use others sexually devoid of marital commitment see others - any others - as objects to use and discard when no longer useful. Hearts become coarse, calloused, hard, then cruel.


51 posted on 03/01/2011 5:31:00 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Tax-chick

Consider that stolen! LOL!


52 posted on 03/01/2011 5:31:16 PM PST by TSgt (Colonel Allen West & Michele Bachman - 2012 POTUS Dream Team Ticket!)
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To: fr_freak
Hope you got that saddled pulled real tight so you don't fall off your high horse

Of course I raised my sons to be men doesn't mean that have not learned a few lessons the hard way

The oldest is married now to a fine women and have a great marriage with two children tool him about 5 years to figure dad was right

The second has sworn off women after being burned one too many times

The third is a hopeless case

The fourth has seen his brothers BS they have to put up with and will drop a girl after the first date when she starts the manipulations

I for one am glad your offspring are perfect makes life so easy I am jealous of you / s

53 posted on 03/01/2011 5:34:39 PM PST by Popman (Obama. First Marxist to turn a five year Marxist plan into a 4 year administration.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

‘And that’s what more and more of them are doing. Peter Pans, Failed males.’

In other words, Charlie Sheen. At his age, George Washington had just finished the winter at Valley Forge. Washington, the old American hero — Sheen, the new American hero.


54 posted on 03/01/2011 5:35:55 PM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Colin Firth Rules!)
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To: Huck
In one frequently cited study, attractive young researchers separately approached opposite-sex strangers on Florida State University's campus and proposed casual sex. Three-quarters of the men were game, but not one woman said yes.

That doesn't prove women don't want casual sex. It proves that women are smart enough to know that situation proposed is very dangerous.

Now, it may be true that women don't want casual sex as much as men, but THAT study does not prove that. THAT study proves that the 'researchers' are idiots.

55 posted on 03/01/2011 5:40:03 PM PST by Lorianne (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. ___ George Orwell)
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Actually muslims are not paragons of virtue in the marriage department.

Porn searches are highest in the Muslim middle east. They are polygamous. They have houris. The think sex with men somehow doesn’t count. They can divorce by announcing it. They can abuse their wives without sanction. They can get temporary one hour divorces and remarriages so they can commit adultery. And they are motivated to suicide for the promise of a bunch of virgin sex servicers.

Not one iota similar to the Christian version of marriage.


56 posted on 03/01/2011 5:42:35 PM PST by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: Petruchio; Yorlik803; ryan71; boxerblues; Hammy; DollyCali; DaveLoneRanger; BigSkyFreeper; snugs; ..

57 posted on 03/01/2011 5:43:01 PM PST by RandallFlagg (Let this chant follow BHO everywhere he goes: "You lie. You lie. You lie.")
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To: Popman

At this point in time, most young girls present an unappealing choice for many young men.

The terms for him are that he must accept her bi-racial child from a previous relationship and all that entails. He must tolerate her insufferable friends. Be the worker bee of the chore of the moment.

Most young males say “no thanks”


58 posted on 03/01/2011 5:44:19 PM PST by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
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To: RegulatorCountry

“Would you hitch your wagon to a competitive scold who would take half of everything you have and then some, who could more or less enslave you to pay for their support after taking off for any reason at all better than half the time, and who has an increasing propensity to ruin your reputation out of sheer spite by fictionalizing child sexual abuse charges in order to gain sole custody of any children?’

What are your options then:

-stay single
-fornicate and hope no children or STDs result

I mean really, some marriages are very nice and do work out. Some wives are indeed horrible but so are some husbands. We all take a risk when we marry.


59 posted on 03/01/2011 5:44:34 PM PST by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
The basis of the article is wrong. Therefore the conclusions are meaningless.
60 posted on 03/01/2011 5:44:34 PM PST by grapeape (Blitzshield.com - making football safer)
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