L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

The Sin of Self-Restraint

July 9, 2007 on 7:15 am | In General Musing, In the news, Sex Files |

Chastity is a form of pollution? Maybe.

One could argue that chastity pollutes the sexual environment by reducing the fraction of relatively safe partners in the dating pool.

Imagine a fictitious country where most women are monogamous and all men require two partners a year. That would mean that a very small pool of prostitutes would serve all the men. In time all the prostitutes would become infected with STDs and pass it to their customers who would pass it to their monogamous wives. Now imagine that each wife would take ONE additional partner per year. The market for prostitution would die and the chances of any particular pairing resulting in the the spread of AIDS would drastically drop.

These rather unconventional arguments and others are proposed in the book “More Sex is Safer Sex” by Steven E. Landsburg. The first chapter is reprinted in the New York Times.

We well-meaning people are so put upon when it comes to saving the world. We sacrifice for the greater good (reducing our carbon footprints, boycotting war-supporting businesses, saving the rain forests, flossing) with a grim (ok, perhaps smug) doggedness while our neighbors tool around obliviously behind the wheels of Hummers, sucking sun-grown lattes past puffy gums. And now, here’s yet another demand on my precious time! Sometimes it’s tough to do the right thing, but don’t you think it’s worth the effort to combat the spread of deadly disease?

See more like that one:

• Why have sex (Fiction edition)
• Hey, lady! You call that a G-spot?
• Eyes for guys. Dicks for chicks
• Trust Your Lust
• X-Rated Bible