Modern Sexuality Is Facing a Crisis
Modern sexuality: paedophilia, the AIDS epidemic, a large number of sexual abuses and millions of people who aren't happy with their sex life.
We talk about sex more than ever before, but we're practising it less than ever.
Less is more
Recently, an Italian statistics institute published data on sex life of Italian men and women and at first these look very surprising. The study has once again challenged the myth of passionate Latino lovers, who are actually average people: sex seems to bring them not only pleasure, but also a multitude of fears, doubts and other problems. The average number of sexual intercourses people have is getting 
smaller from year to year, the number of old virgins is on the increase, and sexual drought has almost become a symbol for young women who live alone, or divorced women, as more than a half of the latter don't have sexual intercourse in the years that follow the break up.
On the other hand, modern sexuality seems to be very different on the outside: everyday life is overflowing with every type of erotic accessories and with numerous sex shops, erotica and pornography fairs are the most visited fairs and events, and internet pages with pornographic content have many male and female visitors. What conclusion can then be reached regarding modern sexuality? Perhaps we're closest to truth by admitting that we talk about sex more than ever before, but we're practising it less than ever. We behave as buyers on a market full of goods, buyers who look but don't touch the goods, which in truth aren't alluring any more, they're not sinfully tempting, they aren't even interesting.
The crisis of intimate relationships
A similar picture of modern sexuality has been revealed by the study conducted at the University of Ljubljana, a study which concerned sexual behavior of young people in Slovenia. The resulting data suggest that sex isn't something particularly exciting for the young. Perhaps it isn't primarily sexuality which is undergoing a crisis, but intimate relationships, and most of all long-term relationships which require commitment.
The project of two people deciding to live together is today something that comes close to climbing a Himalayan peak or winning a lottery. Especially young men seem to be afraid of sexuality and relationships. Women still have a world of new possibilities open to them, a world of freedom which no previous generation has been given to such an extent. Men, however, are confronted with a strange world in which they see no place for themselves: old, chauvinistic ideologies are crumbling and look funny, and men learn the new matrices of intimacy only slowly and with difficulty. Many of them give up and prefer to be single or to indulge in 
virtual sex, which is cheaper and simpler.
In spite of the ubiquity of sex, our culture is characterized by considerable ignorance regarding our sexuality.
Double standards
It's a fact the messages about sexuality appear to be very confused and conflicting in contemporary society. Some people point out that Western culture, where one encounters a deluge of sexual images on every step, essentially denies the value and beauty of sexuality. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that people keep silent about sexual matters in school and within families. The young are left on their own to find out about sex the little they can. They usually go about exploring sex by undertaking quite unpleasant and painful experiments. In spite of the prevalence of sex images, our culture is in fact characterized by considerable ignorance regarding our sexuality.
Ubiquity of sex
Today, literally everything is marketed with the use of sexual hints - everything, from baby shampoo and food products to cars. Constant allusions to sex try to convince us that we live in a society that's free of prejudice, in a culture of liberal attitudes towards sex, while at the same time the majority of sex scenes on television, in films or in printed media are still labelled with the tag "for adults only", which shows that sexual activity, portrayed there, actually isn't something generally acceptable.
The ubiquity of "sex" and - simultaneously - an increasing number of sexually abused children, the AIDS epidemic, the high statistics of rapes, and millions of people who aren't satisfied with their sex life - all suggests that things have gotten out of our hands in the allegedly open and liberal Western culture. Modern sexuality thus definitely means the crisis of sex.
Discuss your sexual problems with other people!
