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Your Mom and Dad Got More P and V Than You, Statistics Say

Millennials are sleeping with fewer people than either Gen X or the Baby Boomers did.

These people had so much more sex than you. Photo via Flickr user Zanshin Art.

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

Millennials are the suckers of the modern world once again. Even though we're more open to casual sex and "hookups," we have fewer sexual partners and are losing it later than our parents did, according to a new study.

Could it be that our parents were that much cooler and more attractive than us? Or have we not been properly educated on how to fuck each other nowadays? (If you want to learn the art of how to fuck a millennial, check out it out here.) The report's author, Jean Twenge, also wrote the book Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—And More Miserable Than Ever Before. If we're the most miserable generation, maybe we're just sad that our parents had more game than us.

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The study, which was conducted by the University of San Diego, explores trends during the sexy years between 1972 and 2012. We're talking bell bottoms to skinny jeans, Michael Jackson to Justin Bieber. It compares the sexual habits of 18-to 29-years-olds of the Greatest Generation, Boomers, and Generation X to the youth of today.

The Greatest Generation had an average of two partners—these are most likely our prudish grandparents who had to climb the hill both ways and were too tired to bang after that. Boomers had 11 partners, and Gen-X had ten partners, but millennials drop down to about eight partners, a full two fewer fuck buddies, booty calls, or lovers than those before us.

Yet, the 12-year study of about 33,000 people also shows that we're more accepting of premarital sex.

The data shows that 47 percent of Boomers in the early 70s believed premarital sex was "not wrong at all." When it came to Gen X, 50 percent of the same age group thought that premarital sex wasn't wrong in the early 90s. In the 2010s, 62 percent of young people believe premarital banging is just fine.

So we're cool with having sex before marriage, but we're talking the talk without walking the walk (or fucking the fuck). But we shouldn't be totally disappointed in ourselves because there are plenty of theories for why this is. I'm sure you can all think of why you aren't boning someone right this second.

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Twenge believes that one of the main reasons is that we're more educated in the dangers of STDs, and maybe even the dangers of the world around us.

"It could be caution, that's one possible theory. That millennials are the first generation to be put into car seats and be told they can't walk to school and maybe that caution is extending to their sexual lives as adults," she said.

One minute you're scared to cross the street alone, and the next you're faced with real, live genitalia and don't know what to do: I hear ya. The fear of STDs is also seemingly alive and well, although HIV seems to no longer be the death sentence it was for Boomers. But it didn't stop Gen X from getting it on and it definitely won't stop the us. In fact, it was the generation that saw the HIV epidemic that had the highest number of partners. millennials should find it possible to be safe and healthy sexually while actually having sex.

One reason could be that we're generally more self-conscious of our "number," as in: "I just met this HOT guy on Tinder but I think I should just ask Mark to hang out tonight, I don't need to make my kill list any longer than it is." The social phenomena of slut shaming could be having an effect on our sex lives, and that isn't chill.

Related: Slutever: Dating 101

Sticking to our friend groups to fulfill our sexual needs could possibly be leading to a result of fewer partners.

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"The decline in sexual partners, the rise in friends or acquaintances with benefits might be rooted in a lack of trust in others," Twenge said.

So, maybe we just aren't as trusting as our wild, libido-driven parents were, to let new people bang us on a whim or take our flower in the first place.

That both does and doesn't contradict other findings, as Twenge also looked at casual sex rates among the surveys. In the study, 35 percent (44 percent of men, 19 percent of women) of Gen X'ers had casual sex compared to 45 percent (55 percent of men, 31 percent of women) of millennials in the 2010s. This could translate to meaning we are having as much—if not more sex than our parents, but with fewer people.

"It does suggest that Boomers had just as much as a hookup culture and maybe they didn't call it that, it was probably just called casual sex back then, or swinging," said Twenge.

You heard it here first folks, our parents were probably hooking up the same way we do. Gross.

It's possible that our lack of partners could be that we simply got picky, or maybe there's more to it. This might have nothing to do with morality, because millennials are inherently immoral people. Personally, I'm just too busy to be getting it on or even meeting new people I would want to screw. I'm busy trying to get into school, to get a degree, to get a job, to get a house, and maybe then make time to have sex to have some kids. For many of us, it just makes sense to stick with what you know, and with what's available. So call your Friend With Benefits—Hey Mark, what're you up to tonight? Want to watch a movie?—tonight AGAIN if you're in the mood.

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But Twenge was quick to correct me on the FWB concept. According to the data, it appears that acquaintances are having more sex than friends are.

"That went from 31 percent in 2005 to 41 percent in 2010 so maybe 'Acquaintance With Benefits' instead," she told me. "Maybe the idea of Friends With Benefits is that it's not close friends, that it's people who you know. They aren't close friends but people in your group."

The real questions is, will future generations see the decline of FWB? Maybe millennials should start accepting the term AWB as a more common thing.

The rise of casual sex with non-committed partners could be also be explained by the changing social norms, do we simply not give a shit about marriage anymore? Marriage is no longer the sacred institution it was half a century years ago (shocker). About one in five people in their 50s are divorced in Canada. C'mon Gen-X!

Twenge reports that the marriage rate has reached a 93-year low and the average marriage age has risen. In the 70s, men and women were averaging marriage at 22-years-old, but by 2011 Canadians were averaging at close to 30-years-old. That's pretty old, and that leaves a lot of years to be having premarital sex compared to before.

It's no secret that we're living in an over-sexualized world surrounded by advertisements promoting being sexy and technology that promotes a "hookup culture" among the younger masses. Online dating has been more popular and less stigmatized than ever, and I don't doubt that we stare at screens of people having sex more than we are having it in real life.

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"I mean it's most interesting with apps like Tinder and other hook up apps, you'd think maybe this number would be higher," noted Twenge. "But I don't know, maybe it's that you're seeing everybody on a phone just saying 'no, no, no, no,' who knows maybe that's one of the reason the numbers are lower."

Twenge believes millennials have allowed technology to replace some experiences online rather than in person. When things like virtual reality become a household item, who knows what introverted teens we will spawn.

As for the future, Twenge said it's hard to tell where these numbers will continue to grow. While she thinks attitudes towards premarital sex, and homosexual sex will continue to become more accepted, there's no way to determine if our children's number of partners will be higher or lower than ours.

With all the debate around sexual education and exposing the children to such "vile" subjects, it seems the kids aren't that bad compared to those before them. Unsurprisingly, the generation up in arms about our generation's sexual lives was having sex, too (and with more people). To the Boomers and Gen-Xers of the world today, I just want to tell you that some of us millennials, will still chose to wait until marriage or only chose to bang our partners. But there will be many who will continue to fuck spontaneously, continue to hook up, and Call Mark, Stacey, Tim, Mandy or whoever it is we hit up for that booty call. Whatever our decision is, just remember: you aren't ones to judge us.

Follow Sierra Bein on Twitter.