Scientists blame assault fears for slowing human sexual activity

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It’s not just you on average, you all have less sex, and fears of assault can be to blame.

In an interview with Scientific American, two researchers whose results confirm the global trend of people having less sex in many cross demographics explained why, exactly, this can happen.

Some of the findings of Indiana University researchers Debby Herbenick and Tsung-chieh Jane Fu are less surprising, whether it’s the general decrease in the frequency of sex in couples. or the apparent correlation between increased use of social media by adolescents and a decrease in solo masturbation.

But perhaps the most interesting conclusion Herbenick and Fu drew was that some of the younger people they spoke to might be avoiding sex because they are concerned about unwanted brutal sexual behavior like sex. choking or even strangulation, both of which are risky, needless to say, and constitute sexual acts. aggression if committed in a coercive manner or without the consent of one of the partners.

What we are now seeing in the studies of thousands of randomly selected students is choking or strangulation during sex, Herbenick told SciAm. The behavior appears to be a majority behavior for college age students. For a lot of people, it’s consensual and wanted and requested, but it’s also scary for a lot of people, even if they learn to like it or want it.

We don’t know how much this can cause some people to withdraw, but we do know that some people are scared and don’t know what to do with what is presented to them, especially young adults, Fu explained in the interview. . They could consent to sex, but something like choking could happen without being asked first.

Known in sexual health circles as erotic asphyxia, suffocation appears to enjoy widespread popularity in recent decades. Breathing play, as it is commonly called in kink communities, can indeed be relatively safe when done with risk reduction in mind, but as this type of sexual act gains acceptance and in practice, it seems that Herbenick and Fus’s research may suggest that he began to become an expected part of sexual relations regardless of prior communication and consent.

Neither Herbenick nor Fu gave a reason for this perceived expectation, although others have suggested that it may be correlated with the widespread prevalence of free pornography online, involving young people learning violent sexual behaviors from pornography.

Unfortunately, this line of thinking often flattens the complicated economics and promotion of porn content as a business, and treats both viewers and the people who act and work in porn like pawns in an exploitative industry. and misogynist, an overly simplistic view that ends up stigmatizing sex work. in general and ultimately makes life more dangerous for all sex workers.

The bottom line is that no one should have to worry or be afraid of unwanted sexual acts, which, again, constitutes sexual assault. But with anti-sex work political agendas pushed across all levels of society and government, the complicated intersections of pornography and sexuality not to mention the complexity of the two as separate categories are often left in the dust. .

As the researchers noted in their US Science Interview, there are many more studies needed to map the complex factors leading to this slowing down in sexual activity. Either way, sensitivity to sexual desires and fears should be paramount.

Read more: People have had less sex, whether they are in their teens or in their 40s [Scientific American]

Read more about sex: The era of reproductive sex is coming to an end, according to the author

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