Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents

by Myron Magnet (Introduction)

These beautifully written essays add up to the deepest, most informative appraisal we have of how and why the sexual revolution has failed. Compelling and original.... Highly recommended. ―Kevin White

Genres: Sexuality

Hardcover

First published September 26, 2001

About the author

Myron Magnet, editor-at-large of City Journal, is the author of The Dream and the Nightmare and Dickens and the Social Order. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush in 2008. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arguably, the sexual liberation of the 1960s was a social experiment of sorts. One of the results seems to be that our society has become rather naïve about the differences between the sexes and we have become divorced from our nature. Honest dialogue is often suppressed for fear of oneself being seen, or worse yet labeled, as politically incorrect. Though I do believe the sexual revolution accomplished some really important things, I think it’s safe to say – at least in this regard – that it led to far more discontent than happiness. Perhaps we need to distinguish intolerance from our true feelings. It would be a start anyway…

One of the most interesting things to me is the curious parallel between this supposed 4th wave of feminism and evolutionary biology/psychology. And while I do have some problems with the field of evolutionary biology/psychology (we’re still pretty ignorant after all), on the whole I think it’s an extremely fascinating field and I believe that this radical empiricism has the potential to save academia from its excessive emphasis on nurture that the social sciences have propagated over the past few decades. That and perhaps even partly dispel the moral relativism that has remained for the most part unchallenged as a dominant ideology for too long, save for some theologians perhaps.

The biggest problem I had with this book was the lack of quantitative analysis/measurement to back up some of its premises. Who knows, maybe there just aren't a lot of statistics available on this subject. More than anything else, I think some quantitative data would’ve helped the book to define its problem more clearly and maintain a better focus.

Not that you need statistics to write an article or tap into the collective unconscious, but you know…