The Sexual De-evolution

Erica Jong recently wrote in the NYT about how this generation of women has given up on sex. She quoted her 30-something daughter Molly Jong-Fast's essay "Your Generation Had Sex So Mine Didn't Have To" in nerve.

I was surprised not to be surprised. At issue is not the sex itself, but the wildness, the unpredictability sexual desire requires--or unleashes. How it can subsume the tightly monitored managerial impulse. I get it. We are a generation consumed with management--of families, careers--yes, men.

Sex requires an avenue for the libidinous to overflow. Its essentially anarchic nature was so attractive--represented freedom?--to the the 2nd-wave of feminists.

I don't hear much talk of freedom now--only of choice--mostly measured and responsible. With the dam that kept us out of the workplace largely burst, it feels like we're striving to harness our creative potential for productive purposes (career, family management). And sex is not productive from this standpoint (umm,or is it?).

Does choice turn out to be as much a burden, and a prudish one at that, as it is exhilarating?