‘We’re just learning to make sex visible’

WESTERN BUREAU:

Young people the world over are having significantly less sex than generations before them did at their age, multiple studies have shown.

Sexual activity has been proven to affect cognitive function, health, happiness and overall quality of life – and, of course, reproduction. So from Japan to Australia, the United States to Europe, scientists have been trying to figure out why this is so.

Social anthropologist and University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer Dr Herbert Gayle says that Jamaica is also seeing increased sexlessness, despite a perceived increase in sexual activity as a result of more frequent showing of sexual content across various media.

“We are having less sex, and my generation had more sex than the millennial generation, which, in turn, has had more sex than these young people today. Sexual intercourse has dropped worldwide, including Jamaica, and you are talking about people whose fertility rate, in Jamaica, is at a crisis,” Gayle told The Sunday Gleaner.

“The human species is having less sex because they have more things to do for entertainment other than sex, because now they have machines, artificial intelligence, and they can play games like Candy Crush. Sex itself and the visibility of everything about it changed in 2005,” said Gayle. “Visibility always fools people and makes them think more things are happening, but sex is not a visible thing; we are just learning to make sex visible.”

Before the Internet, the only access to sexual content was through books and video-recorded material. But, with global technological advancements, including in Jamaica, it has become easier to access pornography and post explicit content.

In May 2025, the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) urged parents and guardians to monitor their children’s use of digital platforms, following reports that 22 per cent of sexual offence cases start with an online introduction.

SURVEY DATA

One of the US studies was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior in November 2021. It showed that between 2009 and 2018, the proportion of adolescents reporting no sexual activity, either alone or with partners, rose from 28.8 per cent to 44.2 per cent among young men and from 49.5 per cent in 2009 to 74 per cent among young women. The researchers obtained the self-reported information from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior and used responses from 4,155 people in 2009 and 4,547 people in 2018. These respondents to the confidential survey ranged in age from 14 to 49 years.

Specifically, the number of adults aged 18-24 reporting no intercourse in the previous year increased from 24 per cent to 28 per cent. Similar changes were noted with oral and other kinds of sex.

Similar results were obtained in oher studies in various parts of the world, with Gen Z undergoing what some researchers describe as a “sexual recession”.

According to Gayle, the digital age has altered Jamaicans’ approach to sexuality so much that even simple shows of physical affection are now a social media spectacle.

“In his day, my father would not send a [nude] pic. He would walk two and a half miles just to see his girl and come back to his yard. Now, we have cameras to show people we are sexually depraved, and if two people kiss, we video it,” said Gayle.

Commenting on Jamaica’s current approach to sexual behaviour, associate clinical psychologist Dorraine Young said that social media access and wider availability of information has made Jamaicans more informed today than in years past.

“The sexual attitudes and behaviours of modern Jamaicans, in my opinion, is quite complex, reflecting a mix of sociocultural norms, global influence, technology and ongoing social change. Young people tend to display more open attitudes toward discussing sex, boundaries and gender identity, as they are highly connected through social media and otherwise,” said Young.

“I would not say we have become a more permissive society, but rather a more informed one. Sexual behaviours are not new, but we now have greater access to information about sexuality and fewer mechanisms for secrecy,” Young continued.

However, that sentiment is not shared by Khadian*, a 42-year-old woman who believes that Jamaican society is more permissive toward young people now, compared to her own childhood with a protective mother.

“Back in my younger days, our parents and grandparents had more values and were more Christlike, and, even though some of them did not go to church, their children had to go. I believe that our current societal norms relating to sex have become more mainstream over time,” she said.

“Growing up, I did not get the opportunity to be as free as some people would have been. Whatever I was doing and wherever I was going, I got a certain time to come home, and my mother checked everything. I was never involved sexually until I was about 20, so my sexual expectations have not changed since then,” Khadian explained.

Still, despite the increasing influence of technology, Young pointed out that certain gender stereotypes continue to flourish in Jamaica, primarily the idea of men as being dominant and the greater scrutiny on women’s sexual expression.

“Traditional ideas of masculinity continue to shape sexual attitudes among Jamaican men, including expectations around sexual confidence, dominance, and having multiple partners, but more conversations are being had about emotional connection and sexual responsibility. While Jamaican women are generally more open about sexuality than in previous generations, women still face judgement and moral scrutiny more intensely than men. As a result, many women navigate a careful balance between self-expression and social expectations,” said Young.

One flourishing sexual practices is having multpile partners, including a spouse, which often leading to situations where men end up raising children that were not theirs, or ‘jackets’. In May 2011, it was reported that roughly 10 per cent of Jamaican men did not father the children they filed for to bring overseas.

Pamela* told The Sunday Gleaner that her husband remains affected years after a DNA test revealed that one of his sons from a prior relationship was, in fact, not his.

“My husband applied for his sons to come to Canada and, upon the applications being submitted, the immigration office requested DNA testing. The result came back as not even one in 24 million chances that one child could be his, and he was really angry, because all this time the mother was on him about child support … he is still angry now because of all the years he put in for the child and because of the mother’s behaviour,” said Pamela.

Polygenics Consulting, which has offered DNA testing services in Jamaica since 2015, revealed in April 2019 that 70 per cent of men the company tested were not the fathers of their supposed children.

*Names changed on request.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com