[quote] “I feel like having casual sex is a sign of being cool and desirable for Millennials and Gen X, [but] my Gen Z peers value it much less,” says Jo, a 23-year-old civil engineer living in Colorado. “The idea that casual sex could be purely enjoyable is pretty foreign to most people my age, I think — we see it as objectifying, pointless and not worth the effort.”
[quote] Now, Katie and her friends are cynical about some of the progressive messages they had received about sex when they were younger. “We all really embraced third-wave feminism and sex positivity, and it impacted us so negatively,” “It’s seen as potentially shallow, a repackaging of the patriarchy, and not in the best interests of women, especially young women"
[quote] 24-year-old Kero* from London tells me that she chose to step away from sex three years ago due to low self-esteem. “I just wasn’t confident enough to put myself out there or connect with anyone,” she explains. More recently, she's considered having sex again – but only under certain conditions. “I’ve grown from my past insecurities and those sentiments have sort of matured into, ‘I only want to be with a man who has earned my trust, who worships the ground I walk on’”
[quote] “I think of sex positivity as a little corny and naive for our time,” said Jo “I get that it was necessary and a response to repression — and I found it super helpful as I was unlearning anti-sex religious attitudes I was raised around, especially as a bi teenager — but it feels somewhat passé now.”
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[quote] “[Gen Z] thinks of older generations as sexually regressive and predatory,” Luna says. “There's a big fear of predators and pedophiles [and] a lot of very, very contentious debate about what behaviors, relationships and desires constitute pedophilia and predation.”
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[quote] Young puriteens have recently been seen on social media moralizing about age gaps in adult relationships and partaking in the perennial “No Kink at Pride” debate. “Hearing Gen Z talking about not wanting to see kink at Pride is giving Karen vibes,” tweeted 35-year-old RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen last month, and “aging internet twink” @notn1co birthed a meme about Gen Z being such hysterical killjoys they’d call the cops upon seeing a jockstrap.
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[quote] That became especially clear earlier this month with the ongoing debate over kink at Pride, an exhausting and well-worn discussion that has dominated some corners of the internet. Those who take the anti-kink at Pride side argue that kinksters should not be allowed because minors, as well as adults who are uncomfortable with such public displays of sexuality, can’t provide their consent to things like seeing a guy on a leash licking an Earl Grey-flavored cone outside of an artisanal ice cream shop. Those in the other camp argue that kink is deeply rooted in the history of LGBTQ liberation and Pride itself, that there is nothing inherently sexualized or disturbing about a man in BDSM gear and the onus should be on parents to explain such things to children or steer them toward more overtly family-friendly Pride events; and also, who the fuck cares.
[quote] This discourse is not entirely organic: much of it is pushed by far-right bad actors attempting to promote homophobic talking points. It’s also not new, like, at all. “There’s always been discussion of how family-friendly the Pride parade [should be], or when I was a little baby gay, whether drag queens should be on floats, and if we were ‘flaunting’ our sexuality,” millennial author and activist Leo Herrera told me. “It tends to come from the more corporate conservative side who is really concerned we are presenting stereotypes or that we won’t be accepted or it’ll cost us funding or press. It’s the same conversation repackaged.”