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As the War on Terrorism progresses, the news becomes more and
more a single-issue update than a comprehensive look at the
events that shape our lives. Any given moment spent viewing the
news networks reveals new developments in Afghanistan, in the
anthrax cases, and in the lives of those affected by the attacks
of 9/11. C-Span, for a time, seemed to be "All Airport
Security, All The Time", and CNN Headline News now includes
a detailed weather map of Afghanistan alongside the maps of New
England, the Southwest and other American regions on its 24-hour
ticker.
What the news no longer seems to be covering is day-to-day
reality for the 250 million or so Americans who don’t happen
to be on an anthrax-infested mail route or on the ground in
Afghanistan. The problems that plagued America before 9/11 have
not evaporated like so much dust at Ground Zero. If anything,
they have been made worse by the lack of attention paid them
since the terrorist attacks.
Today, crime rates in the inner cities are still rising,
teens are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate, and the divorce
rate still exceeds 50%. All of these problems are worthy of
their own columns, but they can all be traced to a common root:
Modern Sex.
Sex, of course, is nothing modern and certainly nothing new.
But the Manhattan Institute has recently released a new book
entitled Modern
Sex—Liberation and its Discontents (edited by City
Journal editor Myron Magnet) detailing the profound
cultural effects of the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s.
The effects of that age are impossible to ignore. Though not
openly visible in today’s headlines, those effects can be
found behind the headlines: Behind the inner city shooting, the
son of an utterly absent father. Behind the jump in the teen
pregnancy statistics, lonely girls who give sex to gain the love
of a child. These and more are the issues addressed by Modern
Sex, and they are issues perhaps, in the long run, even more
important to our society than the search for Osama Bin Laden.
Modern Sex is a compilation of a dozen revealing
essays by some of conservatism’s top editorial talent,
including (among others) Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Wendy Shalit,
and Harry Stein. All of the essays have appeared separately in
the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal at various
times, but taken en masse, they paint a poignant and disturbing
portrait of American sexuality at the start of the 21st
century.
The book is divided into several sections, each detailing a
different aspect of American sexuality. After the book’s
introduction, the editor gets right to the point with the first
section, called "Sex Now." It this section that
contains some of the best insights, including a brilliant
assessment of the hit HBO comedy "Sex and the City"
entitled "Sex, Sadness, and the City" by Wendy Shalit.
With pinpoint accuracy, Shalit uncovers the truths woven
throughout the series (which has been a hit with liberal media
such as the New York Times). After quoting several of the
star character’s defeated, depressed monologues (usually heard
after yet another failed fling that began as a one night stand),
Shalit declares:
"The publicists and pundits may not
get it, but [show creator] Candace Bushnell and producer
Darren Star of the "Sex and the City" TV show
understand in their heart of hearts the failure of sexual
liberation. That’s why all the story lines keep returning
to the unhappiness of the players involved. The characters
of "Sex and the City" accurately represent what
the sexual revolution expects of women, and what the woman
who looks for liberation through the bedroom can expect. The
writers know that their four protagonists, for all their
cool urbanity, experience feelings of loss and sadness and
loneliness that are real and typical for women in the age of
liberation."
Other topics covered under "Sex Now" include
"The ‘L’ Word: Love as Taboo" (a great commentary
on the overwhelmingly casual treatment of sex among young people
today), and "How We Mate" (a scathing indictment of
the common practice of cohabitation, otherwise known as ‘shacking
up’).
By far the most shockingly informative segment of Modern
Sex is the segment concerning the sexualizing of children.
This set of three articles by Kay S. Hymowitz covers the sexual
revolution’s effect on today’s kids, from grade school to
age eighteen.
The essay called "Tweens: Ten Going On Sixteen"
forever cemented this writer’s decision to home school any
future offspring—or at the very least put them in the
strictest private school available. "Tweens," or
children between the ages of 8 and 12, are, according to
Hymowitz’s extensive research, acting very much the same as
juniors and seniors in high school did ten or even five years
ago. Oral sex has become commonplace activity in middle schools
(ages 11-14, mind you), with children apparently (thanks to Bill
Clinton?) not considering it sex at all, but rather "just
fooling around."
Hymowitz recounts a story of a seventh grade boy who had his
first sexual experience when an eighth grade girl offered to
perform oral sex on him. Not quite past puberty, the boy
described the experience as not all that exciting but "sort
of interesting." According to several school administrators
quoted in the essay, this behavior often takes place on the
playground (no doubt just yards away from the swings and
tetherballs that the 12 year olds of yesteryear were contented
with). Hymowitz goes on to expose the underlying causes of this
unsettling trend—and what she has to say may surprise a lot of
parents.
Other stellar essays include a series on the war between the
sexes, and a section on the ideology of the sexual revolution.
Of course, so many problems cannot be addressed without offering
some sort of solution, and the last section of the book gives
the reader just that. With common-sense logic and sterling
erudition, Roger Scruton presents two essays advocating the
resurgence of social stigma and the revival of traditional
marriage and family.
Modern Sex should be required reading for
policymakers, parents, educators, and anyone else seeking the
causes and solutions for today’s prevailing social ills.
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Modern Sex :
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