Promiscuity on the Rise Introduction: Poison flowing around us, slowly eating away at relationships, tearing apart marriages. Promiscuity is rising in today’s society. It is hurting many marriages and relationships as the rise of cheating on partner’s increases. Huxley’s dystopia shows how the rise of promiscuity may affect society in the future. As we are coming closer to this dystopia, promiscuity is hurting families, relationships and partners already in today’s society. Analysis Portion Huxley has shown the increase in promiscuity throughout the various practices of people in that society and the negative effects it holds. In the dystopia Huxley provides, promiscuity is necessary. Adults are supposed to sleep around. Even “poor little …show more content…
There has recently been an increase in casual sex and promiscuity throughout millennials. Although millennials have fewer partners, they are having more casual hookups. Today, “a large generation gap in both attitudes toward premarital sex and number of sexual partners” is greatly affecting our society (Kaplan). Promiscuity is increasing and close relationships are fading. Many are worried the world of dating will soon disappear. This promiscuity “creates a sense that hooking up has replaced traditional dating as the primary means of developing and maintaining relationships among young people, especially college students” (“Is Casual Sex on The Rise in America”). People are not marrying until later in life. They spend much of their younger years single, but not alone. They jump around from person to person, such as in Huxley’s dystopia. Although, unlike Huxley’s dystopia, relationships still exist. Many eventually find their partner and become married later on in …show more content…
A recent study in Zimbabwe shows “the number of married women using contraceptives has increased by 14 percent since 2010” ("Promiscuity on the Rise? Survey"). This could be linked to the number of divorces and cheating in marriages. Nearly half of all marriages fail. Cheating is only one of the many reasons. Cheating increases the promiscuity in the society as well. However, men aren’t the only ones to blame for this, “the number of women who reported having extramarital affairs has increased by 40 percent since 1990.” ("Women Are Cheating on Their Husbands More Than Ever, Experts Claim"). Married women have a growing desire to have more sex and their husbands are not meeting their personal demands, consequently, they find it
Donna Freitas “Time to Stop Hooking Up. (You Know You Want to.)” First appeared as an editorial in the Washington Post in 2013. In this essay Freitas aims to convince her readers that hooking up may seem easy and less stress than a real relationship, but in reality they become unhappy, confused, and unfulfilled in their sex life. “Hookups are all about throwing off the bonds of relationships and dating for carefree sex” personal experience, compare and contrast are a few techniques Freitas skillfully uses to strong convincing essay.
As analyzed by social critic Neil Postman, Huxley's vision of the future, portrayed in the novel Brave New World, holds far more relevance to present day society than that of Orwell's classic 1984. Huxley's vision was simple: it was a vision of a trivial society, drowned in a sea of pleasure and ignorant of knowledge and pain, slightly resembling the world of today. In society today, knowledge is no longer appreciated as it has been in past cultures, in turn causing a deficiency in intelligence and will to learn. Also, as envisioned by Huxley, mind altering substances are becoming of greater availability and distribution as technology advances. These drugs allow society to escape from the problems of life instead of dealing with reality. With divorce rates higher than ever in the past few decades, it has become evident that lust has ruined the society's sexual covenants. People are indulging in their sexual motives; lust runs rampant, thus strong, long-lasting relationships are becoming a rarity.
They base their findings on the National Health and Social Life Survey, which found that those born after 1942 were “more sexually active at younger ages” than those born from 1933-42, and the trend toward greater sexual activity among young people “appears to halt or reverse” among those born from 1963-72. In addition to these facts, an English survey of more than 14,000 students from 19 universities and colleges about their hookup, dating, and relationship experiences revealed that 72% of students experience a hookup at least once by their senior year in college, but hooking up hasn’t replaced committed relationships and is not a new concept to young adults. The evidence is convincing and shows that students often participate in both at different times during college (69% of heterosexual students participated in a relationship lasting at least 6 months by senior year as well.) Based on this, the amount of hookups and committed relationship by college students seems to even out over
As stated in the book, “college students have much to teach about sex” (8). That is because the values, ideologies, and worldviews of the students are representative of greater American culture. Although flawed, hookup culture on American campuses hold the possibility of accepting a culture of inclusivity, care, pleasure, and freedom while also rejecting predatory behavior, racism, classism, and abuse. Dismissing hookup culture all together is blind to the reality that young adults are going to have sex, and since sex is non-negotiable, one’s aim should be to foster open dialogue and critical thought onto a future where everyone enjoys the ability to freely explore sexuality, sex, and gender on their own
Huxley also uses distortion as a way to make people "see" in his depiction of human relationships. In the book, sex is looked upon as a tool for sharing with multiple partners. The frequency with which people sleep with each other is a disturbing aspect Huxley chooses to portray. Lenina Crowne symbolizes Huxley's portrayal of the complete lack of sexual morals and self-respect. Along with Soma, sexual promiscuity is another form in which the governm...
They have a proverb which is stated thousands of times, “every one belongs to every one else” (40). People do not care so much about monogamist relationships. Romance is no longer something that people have or do. Huxley writes, “these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy” (41). This sense of no emotion makes this world a better place because everyone is happy. Monogamy is something that causes things to be unstable, and everything in this world is about stability because “[n]o civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability” (42). Since every individual is artificially made, the Predestiners have control over the stability of the
Not only does Huxley use sex and reproduction as symbols of stealing human rights early in life, but he uses it for their adolescent and adult lives. Strange and alien sexual control is showed at an early age in this society when children of a young age are told to be playing an erotic and sexual game. This continued push on sexual promiscuity, especially on women, is in stark contrast to our own soci...
One major issue that helps maintain social stability in Brave New World is sex. It is thought of as normal for people to be completely open with their sexual nature. It is typical for children to run around naked during recess playing games that are sexual and sometimes homosexual in nature. Every adult is encouraged to sleep with as many different partners as possible. This outlook on sexual nature is quite different from actual accepted views. Today, sex is most widely accepted as a private, romantic event that should take place between monogamous couples. Because sex is a natural need of the human body, people of Huxley’s society feel pleased by being open with their sexuality. Indulging in their sexual pleasures eases their minds and keeps them from questioning the level of freedom they have.
...t can be so traumatic that we choose not to leave our fragile emotions into hands of others. After all of these setbacks, we are more willing to settle for just pure sex. This is in hopes that it will be stress-free and painless. What we don’t know is that commitment-free relationships come with many consequences. Brave New World shows how escaping pain, especially in terms of relationships, can actually cause greater suffering. By the World State essentially forcing these relationships on their citizens, they are also depriving them of vital immunity to suffering. They are being deprived of the wisdom that is accompanied by heartbreak. The consequences that Aldous Huxley was warning about are extraordinarily relevant to the contemporary American society.
In most countries in our world, society has experienced technological advances to the point of being able to accomplish what Huxley envisioned. In contrast to Huxley’s vision, the moral standards of most nations allow all humans to enjoy basic human rights that embrace family, personal relationships, and individualism. Today’s society is able to comprehend how with the technological advances Huxley’s world could be a reality, but with the privilege of a democratic society, civilization would not allow the medical intervention for reproduction, the conditioning for happiness and consumerism. Work Cited "Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : Barron's Notes" Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Barron's Notes. N.p., n.d. Web.
.... The Savage could see that it was nothing but valueless vice, and when he accidentally succumbs to that which he so detested, he commits suicide after waking from his 'soma holiday.' Aldous Huxley is also sending us many warning messages with his novel. If we spend too much of our lives pursuing happiness through physical fulfillment, we will miss out on what is truly important, our relationships with other people and with God. He is also telling us to be careful with our science, or we may end up like the Utopians, mass producing identical citizens, then brainwashing them to think alike, and to think exactly what the government mandates. Huxley tells us not to cheapen sex through promiscuity, because it is supposed to be something to express a deep and undying love to someone, not a simple carnal pleasure. These were just some of the mistakes the Utopians made, all of which contributed to their lives being shallow and meaningless. They were not truly happy, because they misplaced their values and failed to see what brings true joy and peace in one's life. The apparent blissfulness in which they lived turned out to be nothing, their Utopia was not worth the high price they paid.
According to the article “Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse,’” “People used to meet their partners through proximity, through family and friends, but now Internet meeting is surpassing every other form” (Sales). Jo Sales’ point is that the Internet is overtaking other ways of meeting a partner. In the past, the way of finding one’s potential partner was through family members, but now society is moving in the direction of using the Internet as a way to find their partners. Students in college provided a great amount of information regarding hookup culture, which supported Jo Sales arguments. According to Martin Monto and Anna Carey, “Current research and the popular media have claimed that the hookup culture is a widespread phenomenon that has replaced traditional dating...” (Monto and Carey 606). In making this comment, traditional relationships that were once said to be loving and caring have moved to sexual activity called hookups. Research shows how hookup culture has overtaken the roots of traditional dating and will continue to expand in the future. The study shows how college students were involved in one-night stands frequently knowing that they do not want to build a long lasting relationship. Traditional dating in the past formed stable relationships, and the idea of hookup culture was not even a topic of discussion. Questions
According to events from the past, history today has repeated itself due to the sustained and increasingly high levels of drug and alcohol use as well as the popularity of casual sex displayed on media platforms. Huxley’s idea of the “utopian” society is manufactured, just as it is being artificially created today; in the modern world, euphemisms are frequently used to cover up the real truths. Similarly, the “brave new world” hid
There was a time when more smart-conscious decisions were made relating to sexual relationships. In particular, sexual relationships within a marriage. However, times have changed. The pillars that hold up our individual sexual values have started to crumble. It is estimated that two out of three marriages fail due to infidelity. This is a scary statistic considering that people believe a marriage can survive infidelity. This brings us to our first myth: Everyone has affairs.
Paul, E. L., & Hayes, K. A. (2002). The casualties of “casual” sex: A qualitative exploration of the phenomenology of college students’ hookups. Journal of personal and Social Relationships, 19, 639-661.