The Intercourse of History

Sex isn’t what it used to be – it may be better or worse, depending on your viewpoint, but it certainly is different. As children become teenagers, teenagers become adults and people settle down to have families, our attitudes and expectations shift slightly. What has been particularly unusual about the last ten years is not so much this gradual reshaping of our mindset, but the impact of technology and scientific research, which has revolutionized the way we meet and mate. As we head into the second decade of the 21st century, Hot Press takes a look back at sex is the Noughties.

THE EVERYBODY’S WATCHING IT,
WHY CAN’T WE? AWARD
Ten years ago most people bought their porn from seedy back alley shops. These days porn is everywhere, and as social scientists have noted, for this we have to thank increasing broadband penetration, as it were. While porn in the form of pictures and video has been available from the early days of dial-up, slow download speeds and interrupted connections made it too time-consuming and troublesome for all but the committed fan. In 2005, just 7 percent of the country was connected to broadband at home. By 2008 that figure had jumped to 43 percent, and broadband means that porn is available at the click of a mouse.
Like the hysteria surrounding video ‘nasties’ and violence on television, the dangers of porn are much overstated by those who disapprove of it. There has yet to be a study definitively linking pornography to sexual violence. In fact, some researchers have found the opposite to be true: that greater access to sexually explicit content has lead to a decrease in rape.
Porn, like wine, is perfectly good for you in moderate amounts. Watch it for several hours a day and this, like any compulsive behaviour, is bound to affect your life. However, less than 1 percent of us get addicted to watching porn online – we spend more on social networking sites.
If there is a problem with porn, it’s not that it’s all over the internet – it’s that it is readily available to sexually inexperienced youngsters
In Ireland, with its haphazard approach to sex education, many a teenager will know exactly what bukkake is, but still have no idea how exactly to use a condom, and will probably have seen hundreds of men and women have sex before ever getting near an actual live naked body.
For the most part, porn is about fantasy, not reality, and that’s fine if you are an adult who knows the difference. But it will be interesting to see if teenagers who might be less well able to make that distinction are adversely affected. Studies conducted in 2002, 2006 and 2007 indicate that exposure to porn can affect the sexual attitudes and expectations of teenagers. Porn is also likely to give young people – girls and boys – unrealistic expectations of what the human body actually looks like. This was borne out by Channel 4’s Sexperience Sex Education Show: many teenagers found surgically enhanced bodies, like those of adult stars, to be ideal.
Teenage curiosity, and the fact that most youngsters are more techno-savvy than their parents mean that if a 13 year old really wants to see what barely legal college girls get up in their spare time, he or she will be able to find it. What’s more, a 2007 study of American teens found that over a third of them had been exposed to unwanted pornography while searching for unrelated content. But will this prove to be a problem in the long run? Probably not. Teenagers, who are far more resilient than they are generally given credit for, will grow up and mature, and with greater experience most of them will probably learn that sex is wonderful even if you are not having it with a man hung like a donkey or a woman with double G breasts and a tiny waist.
The thing is: porn is here to stay. Perhaps as we move into the next ten years porn will better reflect what sex is genuinely like. Read on...

THE "SMILE, YOU’RE ON CANDID CAMERA" AWARD
Porn may be as popular as ever, but lots of people are no longer prepared to pay for it. With peer-to-peer file sharing, downloading professional porn is as easy as buying it.
In other words, the effect of illegal downloading is that the adult industry is facing the same threats as the music business. But porn makers have to fight for survival on two fronts – the Noughties was the decade when amateur porn really took off. This would not have been possible without technology in the form of cheap digital video recorders and faster upload speeds. But the popularity of reality television, the media sensations caused by celebrity sex tapes and the internet ethos of user-generated content made sharing your homemade porn seem like a good idea.
The number of people making amateur porn has increased exponentially. From budding performers hoping to make a name for themselves, to couples indulging their exhibitionist side, amateur pornography is everywhere. It’s generally free and the quality gets better every year. Unless the professionals can harness new technology to make pornography interactive, the Noughties may well be the last decade of the big name porn star.

THE "SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS" AWARD
With every year that passes, the old Irish Catholic guilt surrounding sex becomes more of a distant memory. That is undoubtedly a good thing. Less guilt means we he have more sex and more sexual partners. Unfortunately this also means we catch more sexually transmitted diseases. By 2007 one in six Irish people had, er, enjoyed an STI. Less booze and more condoms in the next decade, people!

THE "ONE PILL MAKES YOU LARGER" AWARD
After years of research, a group of pharmaceutical chemists working on a cure for high-blood pressure struck out during clinical trials. The drug they had so much hope for, sildenafil, was useless – but then they noticed a rather interesting side effect: subjects getting horny. Granted, Viagra first became available in the US in 1998, and in Ireland in 1999 but we’ve snuck it in here because it was during this decade that Viagra became a worldwide phenomenon. Since the completion of Pfizer’s expanded Ringaskiddy plant in 2001, millions of couples around the world are dependant on a small corner of County Cork for their sex lives.
Over the past ten years Viagra has featured in countless magazine and newspaper articles as well as television shows – not just talk shows, but as part of the storyline too; athletes and doctors sang its praises and even Hugh Hefner credited it with maintaining his sex life. In short, Pfizer is a godsend for men with erectile dysfunction and the sex lives of older people have been radically altered forever.
Unfortunately Viagra does not work for everyone. More importantly, there is a huge difference between the ability to sustain an erection and the desire to have sex – a grey area often misunderstood by those writing about the drug. Sadly, many thousands of men have been left feeling disappointed that Viagra has not actually given them the new lease of life they hoped for. Viagra has also had some unintended consequences, such as the rise in sexually transmitted infections among the elderly – in some parts of the world the over-60s are more at risk for STIs than students. Older people generally do not have to worry about pregnancy and many of them are simply not as savvy when it comes to safe sex.

THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITALISM AWARD
In the Noughties, we were told we could all access a little bit of wholesale luxury. The Celtic Tiger was still roaring and credit was cheap and easy to obtain. Whether it was a Louis Vuitton bag or the latest iPhone, branded consumer goods became shorthand for the person we thought we were or want to be. It’s no surprise then that the previous decade gave rise to “brandophilia” – sexual excitement derived from or enhanced by the presence of a brand, trademark or label. Kinky, but not in a good way.
When we reflect on sex in the noughties a number of other trends spring to mind – internet dating and casual connection sites; sex discussed more openly in the media; a greater emphasis on sex as pleasure, particularly female pleasure, and the concomitant pressure on men to perform; the increasing popularity of breast enhancements; designer vaginas; the metrosexual; the term “va-jay-jay”; the search for a ‘pink’ Viagra (the elusive pharmaceutical Holy Grail may have been found this year); the slow but steady acceptance – or at least visibility of – alternative sexual lifestyles; the introduction of civil partnership and same-sex marriage in some European countries and American states; and last but not least Jenna Jameson.
If anyone represents sex in the Noughties it’s Ms Jameson – surgically enhanced, technologically adept, in your face, on your screen, brash and colourful – but ultimately insecure and vulnerable.
It has been an interesting decade. Hell, you could say we’ve had quite a ride. Here’s to the next ten years!