Premarital Sex: New Generation Culture

Premarital sex relationship is becoming the new generation norm and culture. In fact, for anything to attract very large number of audience, it needs to have the language of sex either pictorially or verbally. In the past few decades, the western world especially the United States of America has experienced extensive increase in fundamental life-style. In contemporary times, there has been extensive interest and curiosity in the phenomenon of sexual relations outside marriage. The issue of sex is at present the subject of youth club programmes, multi-million dollars movies, television shows, internet etc. There is some more nudity in advertisement, magazine and movies pointing to a general trend towards liberated attitude and values. Experts are in agreement that sexual attitude and opinions of present-day youths have become more liberal and permissive. This kind of permissive environment has influenced people to have liberal and permissive attitude towards premarital and extramarital sex. Furthermore, researchers like Roche (1986), Medora and Woodward (1982) and Clayton and Bokemeirer (1984), have asserted that there is very high incidence of premarital sex in our society today and maintained that the attitude towards pre-marital sex is in a continuous increase.

In effect, it does not seem fruitful to approach the study of premarital sex today from the standpoint of “deviant behavior” as it was in the past. As premarital sexual relationship became more culturally acceptable, people have developed much interest in it. Anate (1984), after mediating on the rate of the increase in the incidence of sex outside marriage emphasized that increasing urbanization seems to aid increase in sexuality particularly among adolescents. For Clayton (1998), “hundreds of teenage girls roam the street of urban centers, offering themselves to various men for economic gain”. Wagner (1980) was highly worried about the adolescent’s sexual attitude compared to the standard behavior. However, during the last years changes in societal attitudes towards sexuality have occurred. Hunt (1974) found a greater acceptance of masturbation, homosexuality and premarital sex in the early seventies. Ever since that time, the attitudes are in continual increase. Sexual activities have become increasingly diverse over the past several decades and there is no sign of abating.

Many social scientists believed that people are freer in this generation than other past generation and more prone to express themselves without fear of societal or religious discrimination. With the progress in civil rights and democratic ideologies, manners and attitude also change to keep pace with the time. Due to this enormous advantage, people seek to live their life the way it pleases them without fear of unnecessary intimidation. Women gained control over their reproductive life and gay gained rights to be proud of whom they are. No doubt, civil rights ushered in these changes in attitude towards sexuality.

These changes in attitude towards sexuality in the society are not without problems. The increasing rate of teenage sexual activities can be substantiated by numerous reports of unintended pregnancies, illegal abortions and dumping of unwanted babies. There is also visible evidence of different forms of sexual abortion. Among American adolescents as demonstrated by cases of prostitution, illegitimacy and sexual explorations include rape. Other problems and dangers associated with the present adolescent attitudes towards premarital sex otherwise know as unplanned sex include expulsion from school, prolonged or premature labor during pregnancy and child birth. Others are incidental diseases, injuries to delicate organs, bareness due to damage to the uterus, the risk of cancer of the reproductive organs and septic vagina. Other problem associated with premarital sex is high fetal death and infantile mortality among teenagers, premature birth and low birth.

References

Armstrong (1979), sex; the new culture, Journal of NIM, vol. 33, No. 1, p. 25

Bell and Chaskes (1989), adultery and marriage, psychological studies

Miller peters (1987), psychology of sexual interaction, Debo Press, Ijebu-Ode, pp. 159-162.

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