Anonymous wrote:So I occasionally waste an hour skimming through the various advice columns in Slate (which used to contain actual journalism but now seems mostly to consist of advice columns, to my irritation, but that’s another story). Browsing the Slate columns, I get the impression that absolutely everyone is struggling with issues related to having.... a very, very complicated sexual and emotional life. All the advice seekers seem to be in open relationships with four pansexual trans men or to be exploring polyamory with their ex who’s into bondage or to be trying to decide which sex toy to purchase for their gay male roommate who’s exploring his submissive side but also thinks maybe he’s asexual, except he’s also into swinging.
Okay, I exaggerate slightly. But as cis-gendered, heterosexual Gen X woman in the process of getting divorced, I read all this and I’m like: wow, is that what millennials are like? I feel like I live in a world in which pretty much everyone seems to be in more.... traditional arrangements. Whether gay or straight or bi, pretty much everyone I encounter through work and friends seems to be married or single and looking for a monogamous relationship. I know absolutely no one who talks openly about polyamory or swinging or their open marriage or their sexual tastes.
Granted, as a DC lawyer I probably do not travel in the wildest circles. But since I am getting divorced and may soon be re-entering the dating world (is there such thing as the dating world?), I am trying to figure out what to expect. Is the sexual world as reflected in Slate’s advice columns just where it’s at these days? Or does Slate represent only an unusual subculture?
Sampling bias. I mean, if you've been around DCUM long enough, you could draw all manner of (erroneous) conclusions based on the rantings of small and homogenous subset of the general population.
Kinky people are everywhere, and thanks to the Internet people feel free to express themselves sexually. But at the end of the day, I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of people are so starved for intimacy that the regular, vanilla sex would be a godsend.