Sociologist: Sexual Revolution Has Cheapened Sex and Hurt Women
The price of sex has plummeted, throwing the “mating market” into a tizzy, according to Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus.
“It turns out that a world in which it is possible to satisfy our sexual desires much more immediately carries with it a number of unhappy and unintended consequences,” writes Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, in a Wall Street Journal editorial. For his new book on the subject, Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy, Regnerus conducted 100 in-depth interviews of young adults in five major cities and surveyed more than 15,000 people.
Marriage, an institution that studies consistently find creates the best environment for children and leads to happier, healthier, more financially stable adults, is in retreat: In 1970, 80 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds were married, compared to just 40 percent in 2015,...