okCupid et al
Mar. 16th, 2012 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteThe range of sexual morality appears, in part, to be charted along the course of population growth. That is, the denser the population, the stronger the push towards sexual freedom.
For example, in 17th-century England, most people lived in rural communities of 100 persons or less, and if two unmarried people were caught having sex, they were whipped until bloody and cast permanently out of the area, isolated from their friends and family.
In 19th-century England, 200 years later, most people were collected in towns, and London was the largest city on earth. Urban residents did not have to take a personal interest in the social lives of their neighbors to ensure the stability of their own lives, and even if they wanted to, strict rules of sexual conduct were much more difficult to enforce.
Now we're on the edge of another leap in accessibility: Database-driven location-aware matchmaking sites.
How are these going to affect sexual morality?
For example, in 17th-century England, most people lived in rural communities of 100 persons or less, and if two unmarried people were caught having sex, they were whipped until bloody and cast permanently out of the area, isolated from their friends and family.
In 19th-century England, 200 years later, most people were collected in towns, and London was the largest city on earth. Urban residents did not have to take a personal interest in the social lives of their neighbors to ensure the stability of their own lives, and even if they wanted to, strict rules of sexual conduct were much more difficult to enforce.
Now we're on the edge of another leap in accessibility: Database-driven location-aware matchmaking sites.
How are these going to affect sexual morality?
no subject
Date: 2012-04-02 06:56 pm (UTC)Human sexuality is remarkably plastic, but in general, I don't think there were very many "random meat market bars" 400 years ago, compared to today. Even with population growth factored in.
I think "meat markets" have increased in popularity because there are more patrons available with those desires. They don't necessarily want to get married, bear children, or form a household. They don't even necessarily want a steady companion. But what they do want, most definitely, is sex, and sooner rather than later. Why would they want this? Perhaps because those other things I've listed are incompatible with, or even destructive to, the structure of the rest of their daily lives.
Homesteading out on the prairie, with plenty of land to grow food if only you had the hands to work it, and most things constructed from scratch? Makes sense to have ten kids, and marry for life to give them a stable household. Living in a city, a few blocks from your extended family, with food, land, and time at a premium, plenty of hands for any job, and lots of your nephews running around? Why have more than a few kids? Why have any? Why get married, when you have endless variety around you and your specialized job can pay for so many different essential goods? (Why not spend an extra decade of your life canoodling with the ladies/guys, enjoying your freedom and career, before you "settle down"?)