Free Republic

In the digital age, having an affair has never been easier. Author Angela Levin spent five months interviewing middle-class professionals for an extensive study that charts the rise of the no-strings-attached* relationship. In the first of a three-part investigation, she reveals why the UK is in the grip of an infidelity epidemic. 'Been left parked in the garage of marriage too long, battery getting flat and needs somebody to give it a spark of life, full tank and ready to go. "Present owner does not like going for a ride any more but am not up for sale. Seeking discreet...

Last month, a boy asked my 16-year-old daughter to his school's homecoming dance. She agreed to go, bought a new dress and made a hairdresser appointment. The boy never bought tickets to the dance. Neither did his friends. They decided that attending homecoming wouldn't be cool, and instead planned to just dress up that night, go out for dinner and then hang out with their dates at someone's house. My daughter was disappointed, as were her girlfriends. They would have loved to have been taken to the dance, to show off their dresses, to see and be seen. At 6...

In a culture where young women take pride in having guilt-free sex with partners they barely know, Nolan and Aparicio are rarities. They have genuine boyfriends, not hook ups. "I don't know anyone else who's in a relationship, do you?" Nolan asks Aparicio. Nope, no one else. Hooking up has come to define sexual relationships for most of today's teens and young women. It can mean anything from kissing and touching to oral sex or intercourse. Vagueness is its hallmark. "A girl can say, 'I hooked up with so-and-so,' and no one knows what she did. It protects you and...

Eat right. Avoid cigarettes. ...college kids hear this wisdom from their university health-services and wellness officials. However, it is unlikely that these same students will hear this gem: “Casual sexual liaisons on college campuses are hazardous, especially for young women." [snip] In Unprotected, Dr. Grossman posits that one reason college health services are inundated with depression, eating disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases is that health professions have failed to address the medical and psychological risks of unrestrained sexual behavior. She also presents the effects of sexual license on long-term infertility in women, the effects of abortion on the mental health...

Eat right. Avoid cigarettes. ...college kids hear this wisdom from their university health-services and wellness officials. However, it is unlikely that these same students will hear this gem: “Casual sexual liaisons on college campuses are hazardous, especially for young women." [snip] In Unprotected, Dr. Grossman posits that one reason college health services are inundated with depression, eating disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases is that health professions have failed to address the medical and psychological risks of unrestrained sexual behavior. She also presents the effects of sexual license on long-term infertility in women, the effects of abortion on the mental health...

"The so-called sexual revolution is not, as advertised, a liberation of sexual behavior but rather its reversal. In former days, even under Victoria, sexual intercourse was the natural end and culmination of heterosexual relations. Now one begins with genital overtures instead of a handshake, then waits to see what will turn up (e.g., might become friends later). Like dogs greeting each other nose to tail and tail to nose." Walker Percy, The Last Gentleman (1966) Nineteen sixty-six, the year in which Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman was published, is also the year I entered as a first-yearman at the University...