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Have More Sex, Please

nytimes.com

11–16 of 16 posts

Re: Have More Sex, Please

#11
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anecdotally, I've noticed young men seem more insecure about taking their shirts off in public How do you know it's due to insecurity and not growing awareness of the dangers of ultraviolet radiation?

Are we more aware of the risks of UV than 20 years ago? Maybe it's because I have a skin type that burns in 10 minutes but I was about as concerned about that then as now.

Being aware and caring about it are different things. When I was a child and my family went to a beach (which was roughly maybe 2 weeks out of a year), parents encouraged tanning a lot. "Get those sun vitamins" and all.

And then my grandfather died from skin cancer. You bet that as an adult, I am not exposing much of my skin to sun at all when I am out on a sunny day, and I apply sunscreen to my face daily. I have no issues with being shirtless otherwise, and do it quite often, mostly at the gym.

Disclaimer: my gym is a small local one, not a massive chain, and being shirtless there is both explicitly allowed and is very common. At any given point, about a quarter of the people there will be shirtless.

Re: Have More Sex, Please

#12
post #2

I suspect the decline is associated with the unrealistic hyper-attractive humans we see in media. Insecurity about body image seems to be on the rise. And then there's stuff like this: https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2022/s... Anecdotally, I've noticed young men seem more insecure about taking their shirts off in public, even in contexts like at the beach, than they were in my generation (a coup…

In the summer, I see young men running and exercising in the park shirtless. Now, some of these guys are in very good shape.

Re: Have More Sex, Please

#14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anecdotally, I've noticed young men seem more insecure about taking their shirts off in public How do you know it's due to insecurity and not growing awareness of the dangers of ultraviolet radiation?

Are we more aware of the risks of UV than 20 years ago? Maybe it's because I have a skin type that burns in 10 minutes but I was about as concerned about that then as now.

I think it's much more common to see people in long sleeves with heavy sunblock at the beach than it was 20 years ago.

I think a good barometer is to look at how people dress their kids. I don't remember any kids in my youth wearing sunshirts at camp. And while my mom always sent us with sunblock, it wasnt mandatory. Lots of kids at my kids' camp come well protected from the sun.

Re: Have More Sex, Please

#15
post #2

I suspect the decline is associated with the unrealistic hyper-attractive humans we see in media. Insecurity about body image seems to be on the rise. And then there's stuff like this: https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2022/s... Anecdotally, I've noticed young men seem more insecure about taking their shirts off in public, even in contexts like at the beach, than they were in my generation (a coup…

In 2018 "obesity prevalence was [...] 21.2% among 12- to 19-year-olds." [0] according to the CDC. That's one out of 5 being obese, not just overweight. And it has more than tripled since the 70's [1]. I have to wonder if it's related.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_15_16/obe...

Re: Have More Sex, Please

#16
Jeez Magdalene, you ask so politely but as one of the many young men you described as "displacing their sexual desires, relying entirely on porn or other online stimuli," I could have used some tips or something because you sure make it sound like it's easy for you
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