Over the weekend I was watching one of those Sunday night yuf' issue documentaries, which in this case was about the alleged promiscuity (or sexual confidence, depending on your political outlook) of young New Zealand women.
The documentary (on TV1's Sunday current affairs show) revolved around an interview with four guys and four girls, who went on to discourse their antics out on the town and the guys made some typically ambitious claims about how many times they'd scored.
A noticeable thing about the interviewees (of both sexes) was that despite their apparent sexual confidence, none of them looked particularly attractive, but certainly made up for things in terms of "attitude" and extroversion, which seems to the most significant variable in how many partners someone ends of sleeping with.
While the interviewer at least spared the women having to answer any quantitative questions about their sexual habits, it was also apparent there were some class differences in sexual attitudes illustrated during the the interview.
The most sexually conservative of the women, also happened to be the most middle-class and well-spoken, while the most sexually confident of the group came across as the most working class. At the end of documentary the interviewer then revealed that the middle class-sounding woman was intending on giving up drinking heavily and cutting back on her partying activity, after a series of "unsafe" one night stands while the other more down-to-earth women appeared to have no intention of changing their Friday night revelry.
Underneath liberal rhetoric about empowerment and equality, it seems class and temperament loom large in influencing people's sexual behaviour.
Things got a bit confusing though, as the interview moved onto the topic of sexual diseases.After showing the males some unpleasant pictures of genital warts and other nasties to get across the safe sex message, the decidedly middle-class female interviewer ( Janet McIntyre) then took issue with the guys for discussing the point that people still tend to be judgmental of women who sleep with a lot of different partners.
The idea that traditional social mores may help contain the problem of sexual diseases seemed to take a back seat to the liberal principle that the individual must be free to make their own choices without censure.
In defence of the enlightenment principle of free speech, Voltaire is famous for saying: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
In today's sexual politics the creed of empowered middle-class liberal woman seems to be something like: "Personally I wouldn't be caught dead sleeping around, but I'll defend to the death your right to be a bit slutty."
The documentary (on TV1's Sunday current affairs show) revolved around an interview with four guys and four girls, who went on to discourse their antics out on the town and the guys made some typically ambitious claims about how many times they'd scored.
A noticeable thing about the interviewees (of both sexes) was that despite their apparent sexual confidence, none of them looked particularly attractive, but certainly made up for things in terms of "attitude" and extroversion, which seems to the most significant variable in how many partners someone ends of sleeping with.
While the interviewer at least spared the women having to answer any quantitative questions about their sexual habits, it was also apparent there were some class differences in sexual attitudes illustrated during the the interview.
The most sexually conservative of the women, also happened to be the most middle-class and well-spoken, while the most sexually confident of the group came across as the most working class. At the end of documentary the interviewer then revealed that the middle class-sounding woman was intending on giving up drinking heavily and cutting back on her partying activity, after a series of "unsafe" one night stands while the other more down-to-earth women appeared to have no intention of changing their Friday night revelry.
Underneath liberal rhetoric about empowerment and equality, it seems class and temperament loom large in influencing people's sexual behaviour.
Things got a bit confusing though, as the interview moved onto the topic of sexual diseases.After showing the males some unpleasant pictures of genital warts and other nasties to get across the safe sex message, the decidedly middle-class female interviewer ( Janet McIntyre) then took issue with the guys for discussing the point that people still tend to be judgmental of women who sleep with a lot of different partners.
The idea that traditional social mores may help contain the problem of sexual diseases seemed to take a back seat to the liberal principle that the individual must be free to make their own choices without censure.
In defence of the enlightenment principle of free speech, Voltaire is famous for saying: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
In today's sexual politics the creed of empowered middle-class liberal woman seems to be something like: "Personally I wouldn't be caught dead sleeping around, but I'll defend to the death your right to be a bit slutty."
2 comments:
Um, this is a little silly isn't it? What's your conclusion? Don't sleep with anyone, but if you do make sure that no body finds out about it? Is this why so many conservatives are revealed as having "interesting" secretive sex lives? Keep them coming NZ conservative!
I'm just throwing a few thoughts out there regarding underlying human nature and contemporary views on sex.
Woman seem to be under pressure to be more sexually assertive and some woman are uncomfortable with this.
Men are also under pressure to pretend they don't think less of woman who sleep around, but many still do, as the guys in the documentary revealed.
As far as sexual mores go, I think they were pretty good in the 70s and 80s ie, realistically liberal.
Call me a prude, but I'm just not into seeing children dressing like prostitutes or porn stars elevated from lowlives to cult heroes.
Masturating homosexuals at gay pride marches are another of my big turn offs.
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