How sex’s rising politization creates more brand risk
Download the full What The Future: Indulgence issueSex is the oldest and most common indulgence. Yet, the politization of topics surrounding it is a swinging pendulum. Today, sex and related topics in family planning, relationships, gender roles and sexuality are central in the culture wars. How comfortable people are with sex in their lives affects how comfortable they are having it depicted in media and marketing. Carter Sherman covers these topics for The Guardian and in “The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future.”
Matt Carmichael: If the “trend” toward hookup culture was overblown, is the countertrend about younger people not having sex overblown, too?
Carter Sherman: There is a lot more data to back up the sex recession narrative than there was to back up the hookup culture narrative that was going on when I was coming of age as a late Millennial. What I think could end up being very overblown is the extent to which this is a problem. It’s worth exploring the way that these narratives make young people feel. At worst, these myths lead to bad policy. These policies and this overarching idea that we have to entice people into living the sex lives of certain stripes misses that people might just be making the best choices for themselves.
Carmichael: How are different generations viewing the role of sex and what it is for?
Sherman: I was really surprised to encounter this. Younger people are incredibly sexually progressive. They have a more expansive idea of sex and gender than previous generations, because of the internet. They were able to look up things like the definitions of sex. They were able to find communities that accepted them, that welcomed them. That sexual progressivism, for me, marks an enormous change.
Carmichael: What changes will this sexual progressivism lead to?
Sherman: When I was growing up, I did not really think about sex in political terms. But the fact that young people are understanding that they're existing in a political ecosystem, I think is very new. And the fact that they're doing so much activism around that fact, I think has incredible consequence for the rest of us.
Carmichael: If we have a changing relationship with sex, will that change how effective it is in marketing?
Sherman: What has really stood out to me is that as young people have more sexually progressive views, they seem to be less interested in sexual content in the media. Young people are less interested in seeing sexual storylines in TV shows or movies that they consume. I think the increased awareness around power dynamics and sexuality can lead to more criticism of sex and marketing.
Just look at the Sydney Sweeney ad for American Eagle. It was intended to be fun and sexual, and it had some interesting language to go along with that. People did not even appreciate the sexual elements of it. If your goal is to straightforwardly sell a product without potentially becoming controversial, this generation is primed to turn any possible piece of marketing into the discourse, and that could subvert your aims.
What has really stood out to me is that as young people have more sexually progressive views, they seem to be less interested in sexual content in the media.”
Carmichael: If young men and women have a growing ideological difference, how will they form relationships? Does the politization of sex play in?
Sherman: I have a lot of sympathy for these young people who are trying to navigate this. There was one young woman who I interviewed who told me that she's attracted to men, and she's interested in having sex, but she hasn't had sex yet because she's afraid that if she tries to meet a man, he'll turn out to be an incel.
Carmichael: That would seem to bode poorly for relationships, yes?
Sherman: I try to understand the extent to which sex is a proxy measure for people's willingness to be vulnerable, have empathy for others or to simply connect. I worry that young people are shying away from doing any of those things. That has real political implications. Having connection and empathy for others is a bedrock part of living in a democracy.
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