<p>Emerald “when Kennedy was shot ( I was in 1st grade!)”</p>
<p>Gee, Emerald, you are old! I was only in kindergarten at the time :)</p>
<p>At the middle sized midwestern school I attended many many years ago, (I clearly remember the Kennedy Assassination), the sexual activity was frequent and varied for both men and women (which makes a certain amount of sense). What was good was the mutual respect, and the act of “liberation” that it represented. No one was called promiscuous or condemned, or for that matter exalted, for engaging in what was considered a rather normal activity. “Hook-ups” were often daily occurrences. At that time I traveled throughout the country during the summers and found it to be the same wherever I went, small town Nebraska, the California coast, the large cities east and west. Perhaps it was just the times, but I find it difficult to believe it to be really that much different now. As mini has pointed out, it looks like it may have always been so (my aunt was born just a few months after the marriage of my grandparents in 1900).</p>
<p>??? The change is that we now have more girls engaging in one night stands than before. What is more? When I was in college in my first year dorm, it seemed like it was just about every girl who live on the 2nd floor, while we girls on the 5th floor were more into coupling (by second semester we each had a regular boyfriend) – but I don’t know if the girls on the 2nd floor would have agreed. </p>
<p>I have said that while there were girls who engaged in one night stands, none of my friends did. – You weren’t friends with everyone and neither was I – though my guess from the tenor of the posts is that I ran with a wilder crowd than you. </p>
<p>I didn’t mean “more” of the same meaning more girls having one-night stands – I meant that it was common then, common now, and I don’t have any means to accurately survey what was going on. Hard to sort out fact from fiction in any case. </p>
<p>Percentage wise, I don’t know: like me, my over-18 daughter seems to hang out with sexually-active couplers (the serial monogomous types) - and the swingers all tend to be girls who are known to her but hang out with a different crowd. So maybe “promiscuous” is simply a label that people tend to attach to others who are not their friends, while we all give our “friends” the benefit of the doubt. And since we really have no clue what our “friends” do when they are not with us, it’s all based on our assumptions in any case – I don’t know any real-life women who have the type of open, tell-all relationships with other women like the one depicted on Sex and the City. </p>
<p>Here are some quotes from an article I found on the internet which seem to be more based on facts rather than assumptions:
Source: “The Sexual Counterrevolution”, Copyright © 1997 by The American Prospect, Inc.
<a href=“http://www.fathersforlife.org/sexual_counter_revolution.htm[/url]”>http://www.fathersforlife.org/sexual_counter_revolution.htm</a></p>
<p>Just an aside:</p>
<p>The phrase “you would have to be mental” or “that is mental” is extremely offensive to many people.</p>
<p>PS, you may not know how to get marijuana, but I could get that or any other street drug anyone can name, simply by asking my own teenager who at his school is selling. May not be quite as easy as walking into CVS, but pretty darn close. That’s the drug scene in many high schools today, which is a scary, but very true fact.</p>
<p>Illegal or not, just like alcohol for minors; it’s all available to those who seek.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What, like illegal abortions? ;)</p>
<p>Seems like the conclusion on these last few pages is that promiscuity is like an accent – it’s what other people have. :D</p>
<p>mollie "Seems like the conclusion on these last few pages is that promiscuity is like an accent – it’s what other people have. "</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Actually, since I am the OP, I think the “conclusion” that some/many seem to have is that promiscuity doesn’t even exist, or if it does exist, it isn’t a problem that will have any long lasting negative affects.</p>
<p>I think that is sad, naive and short-sighted.</p>
<p>No, Jlauer – my belief is that (a) “promiscuity” is a subjective concept reflecting a moral judgment, and (b) for anyone over the age of 18, nobody’s business but their own.</p>
<p>For teens, it is legitimate for a parents to be concerned about their own kids, but not something that really should be the concern of outsiders - or at least not those who are appropriate authority figures in their lives. I assume that parents will try to impart whatever values are important to them to their kids.</p>
<p>I agree with calmom</p>
<p>I also concur with calmom. I personally dislike the word promiscuity.</p>
<p>I think that it’s funny that some are sensitive about “moral judgments” of adult behavior as if they don’t make judgments all the time about other adults and their behaviors – manners, rudeness, number of children a family has, work ethic, cigarette smoking, child rearing choices, working mom vs sah mom, choice of vehicle, the part of the country that they are from, their political bent, their choice of religion, etc, etc. For some reason, having a personal opinion about moral issues is somehow hands off… doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>To those who are just bothered by the word, “promiscuity”, it was chosen because it a well-known word that could easily be used in the OP title (which has limited space).</p>
<p>I don’t care if someone smokes with other consenting adults, and I don’t care if they have sex with other consenting adults, either. Rudeness by definition involves an unconsenting adult (when they consent, it’s called a “roast”). The choice of vehicle affects the roads I travel, so unless they leave it in the driveway…</p>
<p>As for religion, I wouldn’t presume to know anything about any religion other than my own—the worship of the Unitarian flying spaghetti monster ;)</p>
<p><<<<< I don’t care if they have sex with other consenting adults,<<<<</p>
<p>So… you have no problem with, say, polygamy or perhaps prostitution or adult incest (sex between adult siblings) or “group marriage” or “swinging” or other sexual pairings/groupings??? </p>
<p>(I think it’s interesting that so many who insist that as long as adults are “consenting” - no problem, BUT they don’t support polygamy or other such “consenting adult” issues. )</p>
<p>ok I admit- it does bother me to hear about polygamists, but primarily because the cases I read about, I don’t believe the women have any options, and are prevented from leaving.
But generally I don’t care about what two adults do, as long as no one is being physically or emotionally harmed or coerced.
I also am bothered by the proliferation of fast food joints, by the crap that passes for “literature” in bookstores, and that the military will lie to teenagers in order to get them to sign up.
But those things I am more likely to do something about ( well not the crap in bookstores)-
If somone wants- to be in a polygamist or polyamourous relationship, if they are an adult, and have freedom to go if they want, then- I don’t care.
I wouldn’t say I “actively” support it, but that is their choice- and I wouldn’t necessarily say it is going to affect every other aspect of their life or make them a “bad” person.
Prostitution- it depends-
the oldest profession they say .
I really don’t know people in the sex industry, I have read women stating that it can be empowering, but I also read stories of teens having to turn tricks to stay alive on teh streets.
I don’t think sex work is something most people would choose to do if they felt they had other options, however I also dont think it is the most demeaning thing you could do either, especially if neither person involved is being physically or emotionally harmed.
I think adult incest- that is a sexual relationship between two people in this culture who were part of a family unit, would be emotionally damaging, in the cases I have read about, so that would be something that I would not be “supportive” of.</p>
<p>I have a problem with slippery-slope arguments.</p>
<p>I also have a set of opinions on all of the other issues (polygamy, incest, prostitution, etc.) as well as gay marriage and gays in the military that for the most part could probably generate continued debate – but none of that has anything to do with my views on sex between unmarried consenting adults. For example, marriage is a legal status that includes a whole panoply of state-imposed rights and responsibilities – so polygamy would necessarily be a state-sanctioned status that might or might not be desireable in our society, depending on how you view all those legal ramifications. (e.g., how would IRS treat tax returns from polygamous households? how would child-custody and visitation be arranged in the event of divorce?)</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t want to get into it, beyond pointing out the fallacy of this particular rhetorical gambit. Unless you want to start another thread on polygamy…</p>
<p>The problem with moral arguments is that they are an imposition of an outside point of view on behavior that is individual and personal.</p>
<p>If an adult wants to smoke and knowingly potentially shorten his own life, that is a personal choice. Just don’t do it around me.</p>
<p>I have a problem with polygamists who take young girls as wives and treat them as chattel. If grown women consciously choose to share one man, good for them. I wouldn’t want to do it, but I am not going to interfere with their choice.</p>
<p>I might not choose to be a swinger, but it doesn’t impact my life if someone else does it.</p>
<p>Similarly, I don’t really care whether one is Christian or Buddhist, a SAHM or a working mother, has ten children or none, as long as those decisions do not impact anyone but the indivudal making the choice. In other words, I don’t want to support welfare of those ten children, nor do I want theocratic decision making in public policy.</p>
<p>So, to me, what people do in their bedrooms as consenting adults, is their choice. I do not feel the same when discussing this issue as it relates to teenagers or those under age.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48509-2005Mar18.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48509-2005Mar18.html</a></p>
<p>ayear old, but interesting</p>
<p>Since marriage is a legal and public construct that has the side effect of legitimizing sexual behavior, it doesn’t enter into the question of public vs. private behavior that I was trying to address.</p>
<p>Marriage is not, by definition, a private behavior. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be all that ceremony.</p>
<p>
And this is, of course, why we should avoid using “moral” arguments, or “morality” when making social decisions. Better not to have morals in an open society where it’s everyone for themselves–morality is just so judgmental; some morals even lead to Laws and social norms…YIKES!</p>
<p>
As I understand it, polygamy in the United States is, in fact, an exclusively “private behavior,” as it is not legally sanctioned. Many people in the United States just find it morally wrong (sorry to use the bad-word amongst good libertinesdont mean to be judgmental, or moral, mea culpa-mea culpa! I don’t mean to offend).
As it is, I understand that refering to anything as “morally-right” or “morally-wrong” is offensive and bad form; let’s just say we “do” and “don’t like” things, but that they are Ok to “do” and “don’t do” anyhow.</p>
<p><a href=“sorry%20to%20use%20the%20%C2%93bad-word%C2%94%20amongst%20good%20libertines%C2%97don%C2%92t%20mean%20to%20be%20judgmental,%20or%20%C2%93moral,%C2%94%20mea%20culpa-mea%20culpa!%20I%20don’t%20mean%20to%20offend”>quote</a>.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>God forbid you write one post where you don’t act like a smartass. You might melt.</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>