The Atlantic ran a long article in its December issue about “The Sex Recession” — asserting that sexual activity among younger people is either declining or less fulfilling or just less fun. Some of the reasons she identifies, I understand, are not universally accepted. Whether porn, with all its exaggerated practices and exaggerated body parts, has moved sex (which we used to call “making love”) into an un-fun, intimidating place probably is subject to challenge. (I think my peers and I find some of dark practices a little scary; the mystery and adventure were plusses for us.) But I really liked one point the writer, Kate Julian, made. When she told interviewee women about how older people struck up conversations and met mates “in the elevator, in the break room, on the walk to the subway,” she found the following reaction:
I was fascinated by the extent to which this prompted other women to sigh and say that they’d just love to meet someone that way. And yet quite a few of them suggested that if a random guy started talking to them in an elevator, they would be weirded out. “Creeper! Get away from me,” one woman imagined thinking. “Anytime we’re in silence, we look at our phones.”
Who’s shutting down whom?