TOThere is also a recession in France, but not economic, it’s sexual. Confirming that the French are moving away from sex is a new Ifop survey according to which the percentage of French people who have had sex in the last 12 months has never been lower in fifty years: 76% on average, a drop of 15 points compared to 2006.
Less sex for the French
This increase in sexual inactivity especially affects young people: more than a quarter of them between the ages of 18 and 24 have started having sexual intercourse (28%) he admits he hasn’t had any for a whole year, i.e. five times more than in 2006 (5%). But even the sexual activity of the population loses intensity if we observe the drastic decline in the weekly frequency of sexual intercourse. Thus, today, 43% of French people declare that they have, on average, sexual intercourse per week, compared to 58% in 2009.
What’s going on
What is happening then? According to the study, in a context marked by a revolution in the relationship with consensus, French women are much less willing to force themselves to make love compared to 40 years ago. Additionally, more than half of adult women (54%, versus 42% of men) say they could continue to cohabit with someone in a purely platonic relationship, a percentage that has increased significantly over about forty years among women under the 50 years (+14 points compared to 1981).
Sex matters less to women
It is clear that the place that sex occupies in women’s lives today is much less important than it was thirty years ago: and the data also says so, given that today only 62% of French women attach importance to sexuality, compared to 82% of 1996. Then there is also the absence of sexual attraction towards others: asexuality is a sexual orientation assumed by 12% of French people and up to 23% among women aged 70 and over.
The reasons for the change
«After years of hypersexualization of society – explains François Kraus, director of the “Gender, sexuality and sexual health” division of Ifop – the decades 2010/2020 clearly mark the beginning of a new cycle in which the constraint on having a sexual life becomes less strong. In a changed cultural context, a growing number of French it seems to free itself from that obligation that makes active sexuality an essential component of a satisfying life and a harmonious couple. The investigation shows in particular how many women no longer feel obligated to respond to their partner’s sexual desiresome even resorting to more radical attitudes such as asexuality and abstinence.”
Marital duty does not exist
In short, there has been sexual liberation, there are contraceptives, there are television programs dedicated to sex, and yet it seems that people, at least in France, no longer enjoy themselves as much as they used to. The reasons, according to the report, are to be found above all in the spread of porn and dating platforms which have not led to an increase in the practice, but also in the addiction to series, video games and social networks. But beyond this there has also been an evolution in relationships between couples and in particular, French women they no longer feel the weight of “conjugal duty”.
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