To tell you the truth, there isn't a whole lot of difference between what Americans and Europeans DO in regards to sex. Kids in Europe are promiscuous. Kids HERE are promiscuous. If you're some randy single guy, you're just as likely to get a French woman into bed as you are an American woman.
I think the difference is that the chaste here will say sex out of wedlock is wrong, but the chaste in Europe say it's OK, but won't do it.
OK, I lied above: I do know what drives Europeans nuts. It's the religious aspect of our view of sex. Any mention of religion sends Europeans/liberals into fits.
I completely understand your point of view about chastity rings, pledges, and such. I think they're very tacky.
All of that said, I am a very proud American who is pro-Europe.
You wrote: "OK, I lied above: I do know what drives Europeans nuts. It's the religious aspect of our view of sex. Any mention of religion sends Europeans/liberals into fits."
Honestly, that's not it.
Europeans don't go into fits about American this or American that. Europeans think about Americans about as much as Americans think about Europeans or either think about Chinese, which is to say: not much.
It's only in the context of a discussion like this one that Europeans get to thinking about Americans and America, and vice versa.
Religion does not drive Europeans nuts. Most Europeans are baptized, and the churches are around everywhere. Everybody knows the old church is there, at the heart of the culture. Most Europeans don't really believe that the old belief is TRUE, but they neither fear it nor resent it. It's part of the culture, and it is generally protected too. The great cathedrals, et al, are usually maintained by state money, even in "secular" France.
Europeans do not go into conniptions over religion or religiosity. They are not afraid of it, and not sensitive about it. There are still crucifixes on the walls of public schools all over Italy. Once in awhile some politician will grumble. It's Americans who go ape shit over this stuff, one way or the other.
What Europeans get in a fit about is supercilious American presumptions of moral superiority. Read up the thread, and you will see it starts almost at once. Americans assume not just economic superiority and scientific superiority, which in some cases is true (and in other cases is not), but they assume that they have a MORAL superiority, and indeed that American wealth and scientific and military prowess are based on this American moral superiority.
Americans are in no sense whatsoever, either as individuals or certainly as a NATION morally superior to Europeans. American history is black as hell, just like European history is. There is no moral superiority in what Americans have done over what Europeans have done. America does enjoy very great propserity and power, and this is due to American business acumen and organizational genius, and good geographic fortune too. It is not related to superior American national morality, because America is not morally superior.
But Americans often insist on asserting a national moral superiority - look up the thread and you will see it in full cry. It is preposterous and annoying, and Europeans jab at it when they see it. This tends to enrage the Americans who really believe in their national moral superiority, and it isn't long before the goosestepping Nazis are invoked as proof of something.
To which the response is 38 million aborted babies in America.
MEXICO is morally superior to America in THAT regard.