Wild River Review
Wild River Review
Connecting People, Places, and Ideas: Story by Story
May 2010
Open Borders
 

April 30, 2010

MORE AND BETTER SEX IN THE FUTURE?

By the Sexy G.

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To continue delving into the article, Reinventing Sex: New Technologies and Changing Attitudes, by Eric Garland, published in Integrative Spirituality 3/24/10, and I quote: “While a great deal of published research on sex today covers pregnancy, disease, and violence, comparatively little expert literature available deals with how sex will change in coming decades, according to a 2003 white paper by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This makes sense, because these topics pose the greatest risks to health and society. Very little research shows positive trends in human interaction. Not enough understanding exists to show how the basic human function of sexual behavior will shift along with trends in society and technology.

“The mainstream media cover changes in divorce and dating, but the ways in which sexuality and attitudes toward sex will change in coming decades are topics that require more investigation. Indeed, the media will cover many of these shifts, leaving fewer people to feel isolated about their natural inclinations. Unfortunately, few sexuality topics are deemed appropriate to discuss forthrightly, despite the fact that so much regarding sex is changing right under our noses.”

Wow, that’s potent stuff, but what does it mean for us? We already are aware that many people both men and women 55+ are engaging and thinking about sex into their advanced years. How has television and the internet affected us and how will it continue to have impact? Of course, porn on the internet is rampant. Even people in the workplace spend hours a day downloading porn. We’ve seen a some exposes of this happening in breaking news recently.

To continue what Eric Garland said in his article: “One arbiter of loosening public attitudes toward sex is that censors are relaxing on television. Television has come a long way from the days when married characters shocked viewers by sleeping in the same double bed. Clearly, television censors now allow much more frank discussion of sexual behavior…On an episode of CBS’s popular detective show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a murder victim is shown to be in a community of “plushies,” a group of people who enjoy sex while dressed up like stuffed animals. Never before has there been such an open discussion on the fetishes, proclivities, and preferences that are part of all human diversity. ”

I’ll never forget the first time I heard an ad for erectile dysfunction. I was kind of lackadaisical about it until I heard them say that a four hour erection could send a man to the ER. My first thought was that the man in that situation could hire himself out to several women for a period of time before heading to the ER.

But a world of revelation about sexuality and choices has emerged from the loosening of censorship which is a healthy thing I believe. Even sex toys have evolved into the electronic age (this for a later blog) for multiple and super orgasms.

Again Garland states: “Researchers are working hard to realize Woody Allen’s “orgasmatron” as visualized in his futuristic film Sleeper (1973). One U.S. surgeon has already patented a pacemaker-sized device implanted under the skin that triggers an orgasm, and begun a clinical trial approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” (I wonder how that will work if you forget to turn it off during a job interview).

Hey, obviously from the blogs I’ve written I’m no prude and all of these new devices and changes are fine with me. But what does this say for the future? I’m looking for enhancement of the old-fashioned approach – one-on-one and person-to-person. Why isn’t there talk of improving and increasing personal intimacy? It all seems to be more in mechanical development where strides are being made. To me none of what I’m reading appears to improve actual relationships.


Why aren’t we talking about ways to minimize the different approaches as to how we socialize boys and girls? How can we make boys more sensitive and able to empathize, especially with a woman? Society encourages men to minimize or even demean emotion. Then when feelings are out of his realm of understanding we applaud that as he’s from Mars. Bull. It is so encoded in our rearing habits we don’t even notice when we do it to our children. There are unpleasant names for men who respond with emotion. This makes genders divisive and contributes to divorces.

I’m all for increasing sexual pleasure, but we have to be cognizant that we still want two humans involved. It reminds me of how frustrated we’ve become to being answered and helped by computers on the telephone. When we finally get a human voice on the line (if that’s even possible) it’s like a bright new world opening up and colors are much brighter. Same with good sex between two people.

The SexyG

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April 21, 2010

WHAT DOES SEXUALITY LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE?

by the Sexy G

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An article entitled, Reinventing Sex: New Technologies and Changing Attitudes published in Integrative Spirituality, 3/24/10, and written by Eric Garland (a futurist and competitive intelligence expert) dealt with many real issues of today that appeared to influence his predictions. The topics are:

“New technologies will promote pleasure, simulate reality, improve performance, and thwart disease/Waning Church Influence/Swinging Seniors/Television and the Internet/

Pornography and Voyeurism/Disease Prevention/Sex Toys.


Garland opened the article with, “Trends in family, religion, health, education, and technology are changing how we view and discuss sexual matters – including marriage, courtship, and the act itself – and what they mean in our lives. Though new confusions will arise from increasing freedoms, sex in 2025 will be healthier and safer than ever before. There will be less shame, more tolerance, and less violence. Sexual activity will even become widely accepted as an important aspect of healthy aging and a regular component of geriatric life.”


At first, I thought some of what was predicted was voodoo? But after carefully reading the article (which was originally published in the November-December 2004 issue of the THE FUTURIST) I became a believer. Garland seems to have based his futuristic predictions on social and technological trends which he discusses separately.


Garland says: “Waning Church Influence. Without church structures to lay down rules, individuals have more choices than ever before on morality issues such as sex, and they will have even more choices in the future. Formal church structures have been telling people what they can do sexually and how they should feel about it. It is natural that sexual activity will be judged by society, as this behavior fundamentally affects the health and prosperity of social groups from the tribe to the nation-state. Historically, formal churches have dictated these rules, but their authority in modern society seems to be slipping, along with church attendance.”


This article was first written in 2004. The Catholic Church scandals were already flooding the media at that time. Just think of the world-wide explosion of exposes that have beset the church since then? And I’m sure that many people are looking into their own denominations and clergy for such aberrations of behavior. Whether they find them or not, the behavior of a minority of priests has in all probability set off a tsunami of disbelief and distrust of the clergy by many people.


To my thinking it would stand to reason that a good portion of the population will become doubters. If we look at the sexual precepts that most religions espouse, we might do a double take in view of the often large disparity between the content of pulpit lectures and the behavior of some clergymen. There is no way to reconcile the two. There have been numerous well-known and lesser known clergy caught in sex scandals which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t preach family values, scream fire and brimstone – you’re going straight to hell for sexual misconduct type of sermons.


Garland says, “This lack of religious structure is resulting in an increase in individual spiritual structures. While church attendance is down, more people identify themselves as simply “spiritual.” The desire to be close to God had not waned, but traditional structures may not fit every person. As there are more individual spiritual structures, so will there be more people deciding what in their behavior is right and wrong – especially as it pertains to sex.”


Another influence in the march into the future is, as Garland says, “The impact of the aging of the baby boom generation is staggering. In 2000, 35 million people were 65 years of age or older. By 2020, that number will increase to 70 million people. The United States will be remade in the image of its aging citizens.

“If you only paid attention to the media, you would think that sex is only the dominion of the young – unless you count superstars like Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas, who always seem to fall in love with younger actresses both onscreen and off. The media give the impression that young people have most of the sex out there. In reality, most of the sex in the coming decades will be enjoyed by people older than 50.”


This information has been demonstrated in studies done in recent years that address the myth that people over 55 tend to lose their sexual desire. Not so! As a matter of fact, the older population is almost as sexually active as younger people.


Garland went even further, “People will enjoy more sex for more of their lives than anytime in history. If medical technologies extend the normal life span into the 90s or 100s, then the average person will be sexually active for 80 years. That’s a lot of time to explore sex, and many decades to explore and enjoy after the kids are out of the house.”


There is much more to explore in this fascinating article dealing with sexual trends and fetishes. We’ll do that in the next blog.

SexyG

Wild River Review is funded entirely by reader support and donations.

To support our mission and passion for good storytelling, please help support my work and make a tax-deductible donation by clicking here: Wild River Donation.

To join our mailing list and receive WRR Monthly type your email address here.

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