A lot of modern feminism is essentially -- whether conscious or not -- female-on-female sabotage in the mate competition :-/ "Being feminine is being lesser than", "eating healthy is diet culture", "pursue a career over relationships" etc etc.
Great article. The West is in the strange predicament of late stage sexual revolution where sex is at first impression easily available, yet most young unmarried men are still involuntarily celibate. The absence of brothels nowadays is something unexpected in a period of otherwise rampant "liberation," with online marketplaces like OnlyFans having taken their place. So, the women got what they thought they wanted: a competitive sexual marketplace where they all (mistakenly) assumed they will get their top % chad one day and instead become aging dog moms on medications. Meanwhile, they expect young mid-tier men to continue working, keeping the lights on and maybe occasionally enjoying a bit part in masturbation nation. This is no way to run a civilization.
Thanks for the roller coaster ride through the cultural practices of sex regulation. In almost every case, I could disagree and point out lacuna, gaps and contradictions with your topsy-turvy notions of who’s running the sex show. Primarily, you aren’t making the crucial insights that generations are hierarchical: elders over the newest cohort, and the fact that there are laws and law enforcement. Yes, some practices, like first-cousin marriage, persist despite legal regulations suppressing it. There is scant prostitution, there is veiling and foot binding and clitoral excision, but all of these practices are receding.
The main issue that has grabbed you is the inexplicable sex repression. Here is a questionable statement, you said,
“Accordingly, since the male control theory holds that men want to suppress female sexuality, there should be less sexual activity when men are in the minority and therefore have more leverage. On the contrary, the increased power this gives men over the courtship process means there is more sex, not less. They don’t have to offer as much to get it. Counterintuitively, teenage girls are most likely to become pregnant when there is a shortage of men.”
The problem is that sex ratios are only one factor of a complexity. You obviate male competition for females, for access to females, especially sexy ones, which occurs socially or generally and more definitively by parental controls. Fewer males than females, which is very common, does not eliminate male hierarchies nor the economic dynamics underlying matches, marriages, sexual behavior and reproduction - the affordance of offspring. As wealth increases, reproduction increases.
Consider how the dynamics of bride-price and dowry work in advanced industrial ‘liberal’ societies, and you might understand how the sex-marriage system works.
Lastly, “sex” is a vague term. Supposedly you are referring to heterosexual coitus, but the term includes everything from sodomy between male and female to homosexual behaviors. Laws, both codified and normative, imply constraints on sex. Men wear macho masks to claim a triumphant transgression over these laws; women appear sexy to extract money at clubs which is a trick, but reproduction is the main issue: the living conditions of offspring. From that perspective, the sex repression attitudes and practices make sense, and you are ‘bucking the system.’
The repression isn't inexplicable. It's explained in the post. The reason is simple. Women restrict their supply of sex to make men compete harder for it.
'Ladette' culture has a lot to answer for.
A lot of modern feminism is essentially -- whether conscious or not -- female-on-female sabotage in the mate competition :-/ "Being feminine is being lesser than", "eating healthy is diet culture", "pursue a career over relationships" etc etc.
Great article. The West is in the strange predicament of late stage sexual revolution where sex is at first impression easily available, yet most young unmarried men are still involuntarily celibate. The absence of brothels nowadays is something unexpected in a period of otherwise rampant "liberation," with online marketplaces like OnlyFans having taken their place. So, the women got what they thought they wanted: a competitive sexual marketplace where they all (mistakenly) assumed they will get their top % chad one day and instead become aging dog moms on medications. Meanwhile, they expect young mid-tier men to continue working, keeping the lights on and maybe occasionally enjoying a bit part in masturbation nation. This is no way to run a civilization.
Thanks for the roller coaster ride through the cultural practices of sex regulation. In almost every case, I could disagree and point out lacuna, gaps and contradictions with your topsy-turvy notions of who’s running the sex show. Primarily, you aren’t making the crucial insights that generations are hierarchical: elders over the newest cohort, and the fact that there are laws and law enforcement. Yes, some practices, like first-cousin marriage, persist despite legal regulations suppressing it. There is scant prostitution, there is veiling and foot binding and clitoral excision, but all of these practices are receding.
The main issue that has grabbed you is the inexplicable sex repression. Here is a questionable statement, you said,
“Accordingly, since the male control theory holds that men want to suppress female sexuality, there should be less sexual activity when men are in the minority and therefore have more leverage. On the contrary, the increased power this gives men over the courtship process means there is more sex, not less. They don’t have to offer as much to get it. Counterintuitively, teenage girls are most likely to become pregnant when there is a shortage of men.”
The problem is that sex ratios are only one factor of a complexity. You obviate male competition for females, for access to females, especially sexy ones, which occurs socially or generally and more definitively by parental controls. Fewer males than females, which is very common, does not eliminate male hierarchies nor the economic dynamics underlying matches, marriages, sexual behavior and reproduction - the affordance of offspring. As wealth increases, reproduction increases.
Consider how the dynamics of bride-price and dowry work in advanced industrial ‘liberal’ societies, and you might understand how the sex-marriage system works.
Lastly, “sex” is a vague term. Supposedly you are referring to heterosexual coitus, but the term includes everything from sodomy between male and female to homosexual behaviors. Laws, both codified and normative, imply constraints on sex. Men wear macho masks to claim a triumphant transgression over these laws; women appear sexy to extract money at clubs which is a trick, but reproduction is the main issue: the living conditions of offspring. From that perspective, the sex repression attitudes and practices make sense, and you are ‘bucking the system.’
The repression isn't inexplicable. It's explained in the post. The reason is simple. Women restrict their supply of sex to make men compete harder for it.