The Intercourse of History
From viagra to internet-enabled pornography, the past decade has had a dramatic effect on all our sex lives. Anne Sexton thinks about sex (doesn't she always?) in the noughties.
Anne Sexton, 05 Mar 2010
Sex isn’t what it used to be – it may be better or worse, depending on your viewpoint, but it certainly is different. As children become teenagers, teenagers become adults and people settle down to have families, our attitudes and expectations shift slightly. What has been particularly unusual about the last ten years is not so much this gradual reshaping of our mindset, but the impact of technology and scientific research, which has revolutionized the way we meet and mate. As we head into the second decade of the 21st century, Hot Press takes a look back at sex is the Noughties.
THE EVERYBODY’S WATCHING IT,
WHY CAN’T WE? AWARD
Ten years ago most people bought their porn from seedy back alley shops. These days porn is everywhere, and as social scientists have noted, for this we have to thank increasing broadband penetration, as it were. While porn in the form of pictures and video has been available from the early days of dial-up, slow download speeds and interrupted connections made it too time-consuming and troublesome for all but the committed fan. In 2005, just 7 percent of the country was connected to broadband at home. By 2008 that figure had jumped to 43 percent, and broadband means that porn is available at the click of a mouse.
Like the hysteria surrounding video ‘nasties’ and violence on television, the dangers of porn are much overstated by those who disapprove of it. There has yet to be a study definitively linking pornography to sexual violence. In fact, some researchers have found the opposite to be true: that greater access to sexually explicit content has lead to a decrease in rape.
Porn, like wine, is perfectly good for you in moderate amounts. Watch it for several hours a day and this, like any compulsive behaviour, is bound to affect your life. However, less than 1 percent of us get addicted to watching porn online – we spend more on social networking sites.
If there is a problem with porn, it’s not that it’s all over the internet – it’s that it is readily available to sexually inexperienced youngsters
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