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TexasTowelie

(111,279 posts)
Fri Oct 13, 2017, 10:04 PM Oct 2017

Study: 'Cheap sex' has led to decline in marriage

In a recent study, associate sociology professor Mark Regnerus found that the reason for a decline in marriage rates in 18- to 23-year-olds is due to the cheapened value of sex in today’s hookup culture.

Regnerus discussed this study in an article for the Wall Street Journal last month as part of his book published in September and the article received mixed reactions. One of his main arguments is that the uptake of birth control and online pornography have played a role in “cheapening” sex, and he said online pornography is more graphic and easily available than still images such as magazines.

“(Women) could have relationships, they could even be married, and just not have children until much later in their fertility cycle,” Regnerus said. “With porn, men have access and so does she if she chooses to watch cheaper sex that in some ways it more closely mimics the actual sex act than when it was just pinned on the wall of a mechanics shop.”

Regnerus argues that for American men, sex has become “cheap,” as many women today expect little in return for sex. Regnerus’ critics, however, said the decline in marriage is because of money, not sex.

Read more: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2017/10/12/cheap-sex-has-led-to-decline-in-marriage

Regnerus has conducted research on the impact of a child having a parent who has been involved in a same-sex relationship. A 2012 population-based study of his in Social Science Research generated protracted debate and controversy. This included a disavowal by Regnerus' department chair at the University of Texas-Austin, in which Christine L. Williams cites the American Sociological Association, "which takes the position that the conclusions he draws from his study of gay parenting are fundamentally flawed on conceptual and methodological grounds and that findings from Dr. Regnerus’ work have been cited inappropriately in efforts to diminish the civil rights and legitimacy of LBGTQ partners and their families." Two hundred social scientists, led by Gary Gates, signed the "Letter to the editors and advisory editors of Social Science Research", in which they express their concern "about the academic integrity of the peer review process for this paper as well as its intellectual merit." Regnerus continues to defend the research.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Regnerus
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TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
1. He's saying a main reason to get married is regular sex...
Fri Oct 13, 2017, 10:06 PM
Oct 2017

and if that is really the case, maybe it's not so bad that marriage rates are going down.

d_r

(6,907 posts)
2. He's saying a main reason to get married is regular sex...
Fri Oct 13, 2017, 10:10 PM
Oct 2017

Apparently he's never been married. Bada Bing.

Binkie The Clown

(7,911 posts)
7. "cheap" in this context is sex you don't have to pay for with life-long commitment.
Fri Oct 13, 2017, 11:00 PM
Oct 2017

Going back into ancient pre-history, sociologists pretty much agree that unlike other mammals, human females are "in season" year around in order to attract males to stick around to provide protection and meat while the female is unable to do so due to the burden of caring for a tiny infant. Back long before the mother could "get a job", staying alive was a lot harder to do and having the protection of a strong male was essential to survival. (Don't crucify me feminists. That's how it was, but that's not how it is now, so different rules should apply now.) With continual estrus the female lures the male with the promise of more or less constant access to sex. Even today, for a lot "primitive" males, that is the only compelling reason to stick around.

As the old joke goes, the difference between marriage and prison is that in prison you can get time off for good behavior.

AJT

(5,240 posts)
6. Young people should not be married between 18 and 23.
Fri Oct 13, 2017, 10:46 PM
Oct 2017

Young people should be in college then establishing careers. So, thank goodness for easy cheap sex.

no_hypocrisy

(45,769 posts)
8. I don't have a problem with either or both of those propositions.
Sat Oct 14, 2017, 07:33 AM
Oct 2017

"Cheap sex", subjective as it is, is meant to be recreational, not procreational. I've been engaging in it for decades with no ill effects.

And marriage should be delay until the parties are fiscally prepared for the obligations that come with comingling of assets and liabilities. Better and more stable marriages usually mean less prospects for divorce.

Vogon_Glory

(9,084 posts)
9. This sounds like typically corrupt right-wing faux-scholarship
Tue Oct 17, 2017, 01:03 PM
Oct 2017

The sort of fraudulent "scholarship" foisted on us by polemicists for over a century. Start with a pre-determined conclusion, wrote a polemic around it, then call your work "scholarship."

One of the differences between moderates and liberals on the one hand and self-professed s"social conservatives" (reactionaries) on the other is that the former recognizes that families are not simply a societal convention, but also economic units. The latter may bloviate about the males supposedly wearing the pants but ignore the implications.

It takes CAPITAL to form families--to wed, merge household, and to plan for children. And for a number of reasons young people today have less capital available to them than their baby boomer predecessors.

Somehow I doubt that Regnarus has bothered to factor in the cost of accrued student debt and the increased costs of housing before he decided to fixate on naughty pictures and "promiscuity."

And I doubt he ever will. That would mean a willingness to face unpleasant facts--a trait sorely lacking amongst the political right and self-styled social conservatives.

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