Are Glory Days of Casual Sex Over?

Columnists debate how big of a backlash casual sex is getting
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2010 12:12 PM CST
Are Glory Days of Casual Sex Over?
More and more women are expressing regret about casual sex--but maybe that just signals a more nuanced attitude, not a backlash.   (Shutter Stock)

The days of glorified casual sex are over…or are they? On the one hand, we haven’t seen Paris Hilton’s undies in years, raunchy Christina Aguilera married herself off and has been replaced by virginal Taylor Swift, and even “the fictional Carrie Bradshaw is wed and living a New York domestic fantasy,” writes Jessica Grose on Slate. As further proof of the backlash against casual sex, Grose points to quite a few recent memoirists dealing with “sex regret.”

But is it really that simple? It’s more likely that “we're beginning to also allow ourselves more nuanced feelings about our hookups,” and “slowly inching toward a world where a woman isn't either good or bad, a wife or whore, a virgin or slut," writes Tracy Clark-Flory on Salon. As for wild children Aguilera and Bradshaw getting married, is that really a shock? Or just “the happy ending so many women expect to come from all their youthful flirtation, dating, and”—yes, “hookups.”
(More female sexuality stories.)

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