When the book is written on Generation Y, it won't be written that we were a repressed generation.
Sex is everywhere. Sex sells, quite literally, as porn is a billion dollar industry.
It seems we're bombarded from every angle with messages promoting promiscuity and perversion, victims to a mass media set on destroying moral values and virtue.
Critics point to shows like "Secret Life of an American Teenager" or movies like "Juno" that seem to glorify the idea of the pregnant, unwed teen, and they tell us the end is nigh.
These people are the same dinosaurs who cling to notions of abstience-only education, despite the numerous studies citing the ineffectiveness of abstinence education.
People have sex. It's just a fact.
We don't have to get into debates about what "is" is or talk our way through the bases because it's assumed we've all somehow been socialized into knowing these things.
Parents don't give "the talk" any more; teachers and televisions do.
The prevalence of sex within our society, however, is really nothing new.
Looking through the grand literary history of the world, sex has always been a part of the cultural experiences and legacies.
Even the Bible contains the Song of Solomon, after all.
What the modern age has truly done to the notion of sex is to devalue it.
Sex is no longer revered as the spiritual and emotional connection it was throughout most of literature.
With the advent of the pill, sex was also loosened from the binds of simple procreational purposes.
Sex, sadly, is becoming little more than a physical manifestation of lust within today's society.
Sex loses its deeper meaning and becomes simple, an act.
If there is an inherent dignity and pride to humanity, and we hope there is, then we need to think about our cavalier attitudes towards sex.
We live in a world where STDs, curable and incurable, are clear and present dangers.
No birth control is 100 percent foolproof, and unplanned pregnancies are certainly not unheard of.
The emotional and psychological issues involved in sex also complicate and confuse the matter.
We have to reclaim the value in sex.
Sex should cease to be the means to an end, but a celebration of the love and care that a couple share for one another.
While we may be denied the instant gratification of sex on demand, the wait makes the value higher, if only due to the longing and anticipation.
Modern society may deem such views as repressive, but a certain amount of restraint preserves dignity and honor.
Think before you screw, Generation Y.
Make good decisions, and remember that you have dignity... for now.
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