I read an article about porn recently.

It was talking about today’s sexual landscape.

It was bemoaning the fact guys have options now.

They don’t have to marry to get sex anymore.

The article claims that pornography has decreased the value of sex in our culture. You girls have always been the gatekeepers to sex but with the advent of porn you can’t exact the same price as before.

In the “good old days?”

You could require commitment and provision.

But now since porn and masturbation exists?

It reduces the value of real intercourse.

The problem doesn’t stop with porn. It is also impacted by cohabitation and the hookup culture. Since guys no longer feel they have to sacrifice or commit to get access to your body you can’t and don’t require that at all.

What are you willing to “give it up for” now?

A couple dates and a few hours of attention.

And even though you might eventually cohabitate?

You don’t require real marriage anymore.

As I read this article I began to feel more and more disgusted. Not disgusted with porn or hookup culture but with the mindset toward intimacy this article shows.

All this talk of you girls setting your PRICE?

Negotiating access to your bodies?

How does this differ from prostitution?

It’s just that in the “good old days” marriage was the prostitute’s price!

What the author seems to be wishing for is a return to the days of your sexual monopoly. He wants you to be able to “fix” the price again in the sexual marketplace.

Price fixing is usually considered a bad thing.

At least in the “normal” market.

Since you’re not free to rig your sexual price now?

You actually have to COMPETE.

I’ll be the first one to agree with this author that porn and dating and the hookup culture is very defective. But not because you can’t set marriage as the price at which you’re prepared to sell your bodies now.

Further on the author gets one thing right.

The real point IS connection and intimacy.

But he’s wrong that you need monogamy or marriage for that.

All you need is to both be in love.

What do you think? Was marriage just a fancy name for what effectively was prostitution and is it such a bad thing now that you both have to win each other’s hearts?