Westerners ‘are more promiscuous’ (BBC News):
People in western countries tend to have more sexual partners than those in the developing world, a study says.
Monogamy is dominant across the world, but multiple partners are more common in rich countries, according to the study published in the Lancet.
This was despite developing countries having higher rates of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.
Is this surprising or what? Just look at their TV shows and music. With songs so unabashedly named ‘Promiscuous’ and ‘Unfaithful’ (just for example), I would be blind not to see this coming.
15 Comments
Isnt that fucking obvious.
Well, since you havent been to Ldn and NYC (have you?) don’t judge first. It’s allright to know the facts but when it comes to real life the concepts you think you know you’ll find that you don’t really.
Try going!
Tell me about promiscuosity then!
I don’t think I’ll be travelling to those places anytime soon, so perhaps it’d be better if you just share whatever it is that you’ve seen?
Oh… Are thee? mood.
oh… anyway ayrus, why the angst? the dude’s just trying to set his perspective on these issues from his own point of view given his environment and experiences.
ok? and its not that he didnt have any source of quote to begin with i.e. the BBC (a western organisation i belief!)
hur hur.
Chill, everyone! I’m okay. More opinions, please :)
This article is so true, and so sad. I live in America, and I see what the culture promotes, and it is not good for men or women. It is creating superficial human beings and creating hurt and cynicism among men and women.
What saddens me more is the equanimity with which we manage the disease of promiscuity.
We make it into entertainment, which, the more twisted, the more it provokes our uncontrollable imagination, the ‘better’. Celebrities and popular icons who openly engage in such practices become glorified by the impressionable masses, this being catalysed by a nonchalant media which adopts a brutal what-sells-goes philosophy. Think the ‘dark’ dramas, the ‘reality’ shows. Casual sex, multiple partners—”haven’t I heard that many times before?” we find ourselves asking ourselves.
Of course, you say, having such rotten notions so manifest in society should not affect the wiser and stronger-willed among us. But why let ourselves go near it, or let some agent (e.g. the media) make it closer to us (and our children)?
But while we can’t immediately kill these ‘agents’, I say, let’s fortify our minds and souls, ladies and gentlemen.
hey yesterday they had another BBC report abt UK kids ranked the most ‘misbehaving’ bunch among the rest of Europe due to high rates of boozing, sex, drugs among them.
it cited the break down in family values, community living among the key influential factors.
i am a new yorker.
before you snigger, let me qualify. everyone’s a new yorker. go there and you’ll feel it.
i’ll share. it’s true that in north america the culture is very sexualized. this is also generally true in most western countries.
but to blame it on television shows and music in general exhibits a naivety (is this correct spelling?) that mostly a person who has not travelled can.
i believe, no i have the facts that westerners are more promiscuous because of the sexual revolution in the sixties. do you guys know about the sexual revolution in the sixties?
i suggest you read on the topic first, then we can debate on the same level.
otherwise, it’s just empty talk.
:)
one more thing, there’s macro picture and there’s micro picture. we have to look at both before we can offer a balanced, nuanced an fair arguments.
you guys mostly look at the micro picture.
i wish you read the international herald tribune today which states that in lebanon the ratio of young women to young men is five:one. therefore the competition for young men is very stiff.
the young women became very sexualized.
so there’s a demographic explanation there.
similarly, we cannot simply say because of the booze, sex and drugs, people are misbehaving. there are a confluence of other factors, societal pressure, inability to cope with job loss, lack of parental guidance, among other things.
most people would rather die than think, and most do.
so you think first. please do not take news reports, statistics and the like seriously. even if they come from BBC.
journalism is about angles. about opinion. it’s your duty to read many sources on one subject before you can offer a cogent argument.
granted, it’s not easy on a blog setting, so if you prefer to meet face to face, i’m up for it. whereever you are in the world!
:)
just because i happen to focus on a particular thing i.e. the media does not mean that you may assume that i blame promiscuity -entirely- on that thing. i think we should be clear on that.
yes, i have not travelled much.
yes, i do not know about the sexual revolution in the sixties.
yes, i am not a ‘new yorker’.
yes, from the obvious lack of my experience in these areas, i might appear naive to people like you.
but i am merely discussing just one cause of promiscuity which (i think) i happen to know better i.e. the media. (the media is pervasive in our lives; we can’t miss it in our normal daily lives, yada yada.) never have i hinted that the media is the only, or the entire, or the main, or the general cause of promiscuity. was i arguing for a particular standpoint? out of the question.
in case you haven’t noticed, i’ve but taken a what-i-see/know-i-say approach kind of writing. i don’t claim to be expert in the topics i write, neither do i want to win anybody’s respect or agreement.
i. just. write.
so if you’re up for an intellectual battle of ‘cogent arguments’ and ‘meet[ing] face to face’, i’m afraid you can’t find that here—that is, from me (other people are still welcome to engage).
all that aside, thanks for sharing!
“We make it into entertainment, which, the more twisted, the more it provokes our uncontrollable imagination, the ‘better’. Celebrities and popular icons who openly engage in such practices become glorified by the impressionable masses, this being catalysed by a nonchalant media which adopts a brutal what-sells-goes philosophy. Think the ‘dark’ dramas, the ‘reality’ shows. Casual sex, multiple partners—”haven’t I heard that many times before?” we find ourselves asking ourselves.”
Right on brother!! Media has a very big effect on people. I use to watch TV, and I stopped 4 years ago, and my mind is much clearer now. I don’t have invading thoughts. What I suffered from most with the TV, is needing to buy this thing and that, and after I stopped watching it, I realized that I don’t need to buy those things.
For young women especially, I think the TV can be harmful to them, especially when they see the way women look on TV - perfect and flawless. No real woman is like that, or if there is they are very few. I’m glad there are some celebrities who are coming out and addressing the issue including Jamie Lee Curtis. There was also a recent commercial by Dove which showed a model, and her transformation. They actually play with her image from a computer cutting down her neck, changing her eyes, etc. It was quite shocking.
Although media cannot guide our lives completely, it is constantly suggesting this and that to us, and after a while, I believe many of us start to listen.
hahaha. good response. shafaa told me i am condescending. i can literally talk forever until i beat you because you just get tired and realise this other person won’t shut up.
anyway, don’t take life so seriously. i know you, and i think NS do some worse things to your mind, and it’s not good!
don’t put everything you think to internet too! it can harm you in ways you cannot imagine yet.
and for god’s sake don’t just criticise. do something about it. write to the straits times or something. blog is not enough. not for now anyway.
or become this expert media person that people would actually listen to you.
think about it!
More on the impact of the media:
Media Messages Harm Child, Teen Health (WebMD)