Thursday, July 19, 2007

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Marriage and Kids are Divorcing

New report on attitudes toward marriage and children, from the Pew Forum, here.

The marriage gap, disparities in attitudes v. behavior (especially among elite whites), diminishing importance of children in marriage v. growing importance in chore sharing (!).

Reproduction and extinction

Modern love, via TimesSelect, here.

Re: my contention that the past decades have seen not so much a shift in sex culture but an extinction: the rituals and narratives that once both initiated and constrained sex have largely disappeared, without reproducing or mutating themselves---in the same ways that food culture has broken. Is this the cause or effect of new technologies, like the the birth control pill or high fructose corn syrup? In any case, the human result is more freedom, yes, but also confusion, self-deception, paralysis, and fear.