Has sex evolved.
 

What do you think. Does what we do in the sack today differ greatly from our ancestors. I am thinking..probably not. I bet there were cultures where oral sex was very common. Or anal sex for that matter (greek).

I don't think what we do is any different, but the fact that we TALK about it is what is different.

The "forbidden" paontings of Pompeii and Herculaneum are risque even by today's standards.

In the old tribal cultures where everyone ate and slept in the same cave, I suspect things would have been very vanilla, but wild apes have an array of sexual practices.

Jane Goodall has referred to a few with the chimps.

I'd have to say yes sex has evolved. There are swinger clubs etc out there, whereas when our ancestors walked around, they wouldn't have thought of having an orgy as it probably never even entered their mind. Cleopatra was also know for her sexcapades as well as her beauty. Also back then, they didn't have video/TV with porn readily available to people. It would have been primitive compared to now.

I agree with Cheyanne.

i doubt cavemen were organizing orgies, but i think once civilizations—even the primitive ones—were birthed, that sex was likely at least a small part of sacred, pagan, secular, and government ceremonies as well as just a huge part of daily life, and prolly some pretty kinky stuff too. in a slightly more modern era there are times when overt sexuality becomes taboo and times when it’s the exact opposite and times when its acceptance is somewhere in-between, but what has evolved is access. anyone within walking distance of a puter can access any bizarre, erotic, sickening, shocking, loving, or perverted sexual act ever conceived by man, beast or cartoon.

so no, sex hasn't evolved all that much.

In the same way that wild animals do not 'organise' orgies, but sex with multiple partners at one time takes place quite frequently, I imagine that group sex has been around for as long as human beings have.

If sex has evolved, I would argue that it has become more 'civilised' and tabboo than in previous times, certainly when you look at ancient Greek and Roman cultures and no doubt going further back in history than that. I think it is naive to assume that our sexual practises today are 'wilder' than they were thousands of years ago, as I'm pretty sure that group sex, incest, rape and underage sex are far less common practises today than once they were.

The sophistication of our pornography may well have evolved however, I think this, at least in part, has developed as more and more sexual practises have become frowned upon in the 'real world' and become the stuff of fantasy only.

Sex in art, drama and literature has definitely become more tame than in previous times. A particular phrase from a Greek comedy we studied in school will remain in my head for eternity:

"He cunnilingus practises,
On all the whores in town"

Considering this was part of a popular play (the equivalent form of entertainment as watching TV or going to the cinema) it's a pretty risque line by today's standards, but was considered funny but not shocking back then. Likewise in Greek comedy, male characters not only wore masks but also cod pieces with a massively exagerated false erection attached to them, purely for comedy value. Again, I can't even see this going down well in the bawdy comedies of Shakespeare or Chaucer's generation.

I agree.

Evolution? We've gone from splitting in two to trying to rejoin the pair. How much more basic can we get?

Sexual practice in societies has oscillated rather than evolved. The permissiveness pendulum has been swinging probably ever since we've grouped together enough to make it possible.

Now we need to decide if cyber-sex in it's many forms is sex or intellectual activity.

(Oldfart drops lit match and departs in haste, stage left.)

lou i agree that there is nothing done in the sack today that hasn't been done before but as far as sexuality in art and mass media goes, i think there are tons of radio shows, plays, paintings, novels and movies that are wild by anyone's standards. more accessible and more of them, too; whether that increase is a reflection of population growth or tastes i don't know, probably population. and even more innocuous stuff like commercials, talk shows, soaps, and sit-coms find ways to insert bawdy jokes, although the language isn't always as "vulgar" the idea is the same.

and the extreme--what i have read aboiut the recent indi film destricted blows away anything that ever came before in its frankness and vulgarity.

My guess is that the only thing that changes is the way we view our sexual practices..."porn" is really a modern concept, mostly born out of Victorian times, the paintings that OF referred to were not so much for erotic stimuation as they were billboards in the brothels of the day, a "menu" of services availible to their clientel...I would expect that cave men & women experimented with every variation of inserting whatever appendange into whatever opening or crevice till they found the ones they liked the most, & it was only later that the priests came along to tell them which ones were unacceptable in the eyes of the dieties...

It's changed a lot--contraception.

No it has not evolved has some have said. It has gone backward as we get more civilized. The cavemen did not care about there partners sex, just that it felt good. There are cave drawings of all sorts of coupleings and from just two people to large numbers involed. With religion we got restrictings. But even the Bible say that Adam and Eves children had sex with each other to populate the world. Noah's grandchildren had to have sex with each other to repopulate the world. People just do not like to think of that part of the meanings in the Good Book.

Yes, I'm afraid pornography is not a new concept either, as some would say. Obviously technology means that we now have photographs of the acts rather than paintings, and in some people's eyes that means the pornography of old was 'art' but that's naive.

Again (because I'm a classical scholar) I site the pottery of Greece and Rome as examples of ancient pornography, and let me tell you there was a hell of a lot of it! In widely bisexual times, you can't tell me that nude sculptures of beautiful young men such as 'The Kritios Boy' were not appreciated for their arousing qualities as well as for thei artistic merits....

I totally agree with Lou. We are big ole prudes right now compared to cultures in the past.

Saying we talk about it more now discounts the fact that a healthy sexual life (how to do it) was taught to children in human society all the way up to about 1000 years ago.

People were much more comfortable with sex in the past. If we have evolved, I would think it was in the wrong direction.

Except those of us at Pixies of course. :loveshowe

Since the root meaning of "evolved" means a process of growth, then I would say, yes.

Someone mentioned contraception and technology. Bam! There you go. The "threat" of unwanted pregnancy is (arguably) minimized, Instant watch-at-home-and-user-controlled DVDs upped the ante over VHS porno tapes which hopscotched over 8mm film projectors and the (sadly) now-defunct Times Square smut theaters where lonely souls used to jack off. I sure could've used the internet and downloadable QuickTime clips fifteen years ago. Back in the day, people found ways to get their jones on and probably thought they were doing something "new." But we can look back on those times and point out a myriad of inconveniences we probably can't fathom dealing with because they don't exist anymore or have become obsolete, outdated, outmoded.

As we evolve, so does the way we do, approach, think about, use, deal with sex. Now, the practice of sex may not be anything new under the sun, but the access of it has changed and that's an evolution right there.

Now whether it's a positive or negative evolution is up to the individual, methinks. But since change is inevitable in life, and sex is part of life, then yes, sex definitely has evolved.

You are not wrong there jax. In fact in those times they were alot more liberal in their thinking and weren't so up tight about it. Now days we have to be careful because we can get into all sorts of trouble if we have sex in public, in front of other people, in the middle of the city etc. We have instead been resigned to having sex at home, either in bed, on the couch or anywhere else you can do it that is comfortable. Society looks down upon this behaviour and yet at the zoo or even on tv when we see animals doing it we don't even batter an eyelid. If kids happen to see it happen at the zoo parents or teachers try to coerce the kids away from it. If it is on tv on the discovery channel etc parents will change the channel or send the kids away. I think that is so that they don't get the "what are they doing" questions and yet at school kids are being taught about their bodies and how object a inserts into slot b. It's ironic in funny way. Here we are trying to protect our kids from things and the schools are teaching them anyway and society frowns upon certain activities out in the open but at home we can do what we want.

About a decade ago, I was first learning to use the 'net, & all around I heard the critics saying that it was all just porn & cybersex (& how is that a bad thing? lol)...that got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing) that whenever new technology comes along, it's always intended to be used for noble purposes, to make us safer, or make life and/or work easier, etc...but the next thing you know, some genius has found a way to adapt it for sexual practices...whether art, photography, moving pictures, internet...even the automobile, when they put in a back seat, someone immediately thought, "What a great place that would be for sex!"
I guess this connects back to the idea that as we evolve, we have an inherent need to bring sex along for the ride... :huh:

These kids will be coming home with all kinds of questions. :D

Not all parents do this with their kids. It's certainly not the way I was brought up and nor is it the way I intend to raise junior.

Sex is part of life, and the less children know about it, the more curious they are to find out about it for themselves first hand.

I just can't see the problem in explaining to a four year old that the lions on the discovery channel are making baby lions and that the word you use to describe that is 'mating'.

To be honest, I'd have a harder time explaining why Arnie is gunning people down with an automatic weapon (I'm thinking the answer is something like, 'Because he's not very clever and hasn't worked out that violence doesn't solve anything') but a lot of parents these days seem happier to have their kids see that kind of behaviour than anything remotely sexual.

Boy, do I ever agree with that!

Actually in my district we are expressly forbidden to discuss that object a inserts into slot b. Boy student are told about object a and what it is capable of. Girls are told of slot b and how it works but that is the extent of it.

No children here but you are describing how I was raised. Censorship didn't exist. From age 10 on I also had unrestricted access, including checkout, to a college library. (And the age 10 bit simply was a matter of when it became practical for me to go there.)

A horribly corrupting experience--I've actually had sex out of wedlock! In my defense I'll add that I married her.