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Sex manners of the young generation
125 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1970
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January 17, 2026
Published in 1970 this slim volume is the result of a survey of ‘the Young Generation’ by the sexologist Robert Chartham.
In his introduction Chartham sets out his objectives. He wants to see whether his ‘Group 4’ - the young adults - namely those aged between 22-30 are really as ‘permissive’ as their elders thought they were and what, if anything had changed across the generations.
The questions he compiled, for both men and women, are listed in the back of the book. He sent these out to men and women who had ‘…been in touch with me about sexual matters at one time or another…’ and as he tells us in the final paragraph of his introduction;
“I sent out 500 of each questionnaire, and received back 278 completed forms from men and 191 from women. When I had discarded those under 22 and over 28, I had 264 men and 177 women. These results were slightly better than I had hoped to achieve, and gave me a sample on which I could rely. My respondents lived in all parts of the British Isles.”
The subsequent chapters are his analysis of the results with some commentary (provided by him) that sets out his own personal views. Those views are, largely, to be celebrated - at least when it comes to heterosexual sex! - and fairly progressive I would have thought from someone of his generation - women should be equal partners, there is no shame in them having experiences before marriage etc - and a lot of those views are borne out by the respondents.
As a snapshot of the views of a society at a given time it’s interesting and some of the responses are charming (some are also pretty blunt and quite typical of patriarchal attitudes as well). An interesting and diverting read.
I own several other books by Chartham - “Sex Manners for Men”; “Sex Manners for Women” and “Sex Manners for Advanced Lovers”. I wouldn’t be put off reading any of them by this one.
In his introduction Chartham sets out his objectives. He wants to see whether his ‘Group 4’ - the young adults - namely those aged between 22-30 are really as ‘permissive’ as their elders thought they were and what, if anything had changed across the generations.
The questions he compiled, for both men and women, are listed in the back of the book. He sent these out to men and women who had ‘…been in touch with me about sexual matters at one time or another…’ and as he tells us in the final paragraph of his introduction;
“I sent out 500 of each questionnaire, and received back 278 completed forms from men and 191 from women. When I had discarded those under 22 and over 28, I had 264 men and 177 women. These results were slightly better than I had hoped to achieve, and gave me a sample on which I could rely. My respondents lived in all parts of the British Isles.”
The subsequent chapters are his analysis of the results with some commentary (provided by him) that sets out his own personal views. Those views are, largely, to be celebrated - at least when it comes to heterosexual sex! - and fairly progressive I would have thought from someone of his generation - women should be equal partners, there is no shame in them having experiences before marriage etc - and a lot of those views are borne out by the respondents.
As a snapshot of the views of a society at a given time it’s interesting and some of the responses are charming (some are also pretty blunt and quite typical of patriarchal attitudes as well). An interesting and diverting read.
I own several other books by Chartham - “Sex Manners for Men”; “Sex Manners for Women” and “Sex Manners for Advanced Lovers”. I wouldn’t be put off reading any of them by this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review