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Nicholas Vo
John Kubler
English 115
21 October 2014
Sex: Meaningless and Casual
Sex is a part of the natural cycle of life. It is a private experience shared between two
people who love each other; a way of bonding. However, over time, the meaning of sex has
degenerated. Ariel Levy, staff writer at The New Yorker magazine often critiques our pornified
culture. She says, Sex is one of the most interesting things we have to play with, and weve
reduced it to polyester underpants and implants (Levy 198) from her book Female Chauvinist
Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Today, sex is a form of entertainment or a sport.
Men, like Mike the Situation Sorrentino from the popular show, Jersey Shore, treat sex as a
sport. In one episode, he says, the only thing we care about is getting girls (Jersey Shore
Nothing But Nice). This type of man is only preoccupied with one thing and that is sex. These
men, also known as womanizers, are only looking for one-night stands and casual sex with no
strings attached. Furthermore, promiscuity is also increasing in popularity among women and
teenage girls. Ariel Levys Female Chauvinist Pigs describes the many cases of young girls
performing oral sex in public places and their view on sex as a form of conformity, not pleasure.
We live in a society of womanizers and rampant promiscuity. It even goes far enough to affect
relationships which now require sex in order to last. Our hyper-sexualized society is heading in a
negative direction because it reduces the meaning of sex to a sport in which individuals compete to
have sex with as many people as possible. Sex used to be a form of pleasure; full of meaning and
passion.

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Sex is becoming more and more common in a society of one-night stands and casual
encounters. In the romantic comedy, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Jacob, a handsome womanizer, picks up
many women using pick-up lines and special moves. When Jacob first speaks to Cals daughter,
Hannah, he casually says You wont regret the one time you went home with the guy from the
bar who was a total tomcat in the sack (Crazy, Stupid, Love 08:00). This is how these type of men
speak to women. It may be viewed as insulting or degrading, but in reality, women like it.
Throughout the film, Jacob is able to seduce multiple women and take them home with him.
Women fall prey to this type of man and this results in men longing to be like them. For instance,
in Crazy, Stupid, Love, Jacob is able to convert a man, Cal, from a faithful husband and father to a
womanizer. Cal, a man who has only had sex with one woman in his entire life, is now sharing
this experience with many different women. This is an example of how men reduce the meaning
of sex into a casual experience. However, Cal is left feeling lonely and lost in the end. He
eventually finds himself back at home yearning for his wife. Sex is an empty activity in the eyes of
men. It is a casual experience that inevitably leaves them feeling lost and alone.
Our pornified culture influences girls to believe having sex freely and frequently is
something to be proud of. Young girls perform oral sex in public places and sleep with multiple
men. In the graphic novel, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the main character, Marji, resorts to
living with her friend, Julie ,the pure definition of a western, hypersexualized teenager, after she is
expelled from her boarding house. Julie is only eighteen years old and she has a very active sex
life. She proudly tells Marji, Ive been having sex for five years. . . . Ive already slept with
eighteen guys (Satrapi 182). According to Julie, she has been sexually active since she was
thirteen. That is a very young age. In Ariel Levys Female Chavinist Pigs, she also describes how
girls in middle-school perform oral sex in public places. In December 2002, a middle-school girl
per-formed fellatio on the high-school boy sitting next to her on the school bus (Levy 140). These

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are all women who, at a very young age, become sexually active. They engage in promiscuous
acts not because they enjoy it, but as a way to look popular and conform to society. Levy
interviews a young girl who says Sex was something you did to fit in more than something you
did for pleasure. It was an ego thing. (Levy 154). Sex is no longer a form of pleasure among
women. It is a status builder, a way to gain popularity and conform.
In relationships today, sex is a necessity. Teenagers are constantly pressured to have sex
with their partner in order to maintain their relationship. They will more than likely have sex with
someone whom they have only been in a relationship with for a short period of time. If they
refuse, the relationship would end. For instance, in Persepolis, Marji is in a platonic relationship
with her boyfriend, Enrique. In other words, it was a non-sexual relationship. One night, she
hoped to lose her virginity to Enrique, but the next morning she awoke a virgin. Enrique then
ended their relationship by saying I think Im gay (Satrapi 214). After this event, Marji states I
understood Julie better when she talked about the negative effects of a platonic affair. . . I had
grasped the necessity of a carnal relationship (Satrapi 216). A carnal relationship is one that is
solely physical. After her breakup, Marji understood platonic relationships would never work and
in order to keep a long lasting relationship, there had to be sex. In her country, couples waited to
have sex until after marriage. Sex is supposed to be an experience shared between two people who
love each other, but now it is a meaningless act to maintain a relationship. Marriages are also
threatened by lack of sex. In the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love, Emily, the wife of Cal, has an affair
with a man because Cal would no longer satisfy her sexual needs. This shows that sex is needed in
relationships for them to be long lasting and women, as well as men, will resort to adultery if they
are not satisfied. This expectation of sex is more common than ever in relationships today. Sex is
stripped of its meaning and reduced to a form of maintenance.

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In addition to sex being reduced to mere maintenance, dating is also taught to be a source
of sex. Men are taught to go on dates not to secure a meaningful relationship, but to have sex. Dr.
Tom Keith, director of Generation M, is disgusted by the way some men teach others how to treat
women. He quotes Tom Leykis, a radio personality, who proudly says Were not going on dates
to make new friends. . . We go on a date to get laid (Generation M 49:47). This encourages men
to seek out one-night stands and discourages them from engaging in meaningful relationships. Dr.
Keith also quotes Leykis who states Boys, if youve been brain-washed into believing that a date
is anything less than full intercourse, the purpose of dating is to get laid (Generation M 49:58).
Men like Leykis teach people that dates are no longer a means of people to bond and get to know
more about each other. They popularizes the idea of womanizers and promiscuity which then
results in an empty meaning of sex.
We live in a world that revolves around sex. Sex used to be meaningful. It used to be an
experience shared between two people who love each other. Now, people engage in sex frequently
with complete strangers or people who they do not know very well. Men treat sex as a sport. They
compete with each other and try to achieve the highest score (the number of women they sleep
with). The womanizer type of man is what women like. Men like Mike The Situation and Jacob
from Crazy, Stupid, Love are attractive in the eyes of women. Not only that, but women also turn
to promiscuity as a means to conform in a society of sex. Women, such as Julie in the graphic
Persepolis, regularly resort to sex a way to fit in or conform. Sex is a form of maintenance, a way
to conform, and a sport. Sex is slowly being stripped of its meaning. In order to save sex from
degradation, we must urge teenagers and young adults to avoid promiscuity. Educating the
population on the harmful effects of the media is also vital. The media greatly influences people
all around the world. Shows like Jersey Shore encourage promiscuity and inspire men to be
womanizers. There are also movies such as Crazy, Stupid, Love that popularizes the image of

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womanizers. The people must be educated to understand that these popularized images and
promiscuity are wrong. Teenagers must also understand that sex is not a tool to be used only to fit
in. Otherwise, sex would mean absolutely nothing. It would be an empty experience.