Why Is No One Having Sex Right Now? |
Fifty years ago, we were in the throes of the Sexual Revolution, a time of permissiveness brought on by the Pill, the feminist and gay-rights movements, and the cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. Many Americans were having more—and more adventurous—sex. But it wasn't everywhere you looked. Sure, people complained about too much sex on TV, but they were talking about The Love Boat. Now sex is like a currency that's been overprinted. Porn is at our fingertips at all times; we swipe past an infinite number of potential partners in every spare moment; our ex-president has been indicted for allegedly paying hush money to a porn star, forcing every NPR listener to have at least casual knowledge of Stormy Daniels's oeuvre. We are teeming with supply, yet demand is way down. A recent study found that the proportion of 18- to 29-year-olds who had zero sexual partners in the past year had increased from 10 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2018, and that's before Covid made physical contact more fraught. The sexual economy is a mess. There's hyperinflation and a supply-side imbalance. And like any economy, the sexual economy is subject to changes in the regulatory environment. Tomorrow the Supreme Court could make it illegal to think about Prince too hard. We were bound to arrive at this risqué but risk-averse state. The essential tension of America has always come from the tug-of-war between its puritanical nature and its pursuit of happiness. It's the only place that could produce both Hollywood and the MPAA ratings, child beauty pageants and purity rings, gay rights and "no homo." Even amid the Sexual Revolution—when women were seizing control of their sexual agency and members of the LGBT community were stepping out of the shadows—what defined sex in pop culture was the male gaze. It's why beer commercials had women in bikinis casting flirty looks at regular joes or sometimes—I swear—a bull terrier named Spuds Mac- Kenzie. We live in a confusing, chaotic country. |
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The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 (So Far) |
The opening page of Malka Older's new book says simply, "There are other ways to live." That idea carries through so many of this year's best science-fiction books, which are full of questions about how we might live differently with one another, on our troubled planet or in the furthest reaches of space. Science fiction, as Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote, is not predictive but descriptive, and what contemporary science-fiction authors are so often describing is a world that seems to be less and less built for humans to thrive in it. We are still close enough to 2020 that we're reading books that have their roots in that particularly tumultuous year—roots that dig deep into surveillance, capitalism, protest, inequity, and failures to learn from the past. But there are other worlds, other ways to thrive—and other ways to replicate humanity's worst failings, too. This year's best books don't shy away from who we've been and who we are, but they also brim with a fierce curiosity about who we might become. |
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Malört, the Unofficial Booze of the DNC, Tastes Awful |
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker made a bold declaration on Twitter in the leadup to the DNC: "Excited to announce Malört as the unofficial shot of the Democratic National Convention." In the tweet, Pritzker shared a brief clip of his interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki, in which he extolled the virtues of this liqueur well-known to Chicagoans. "You come to Chicago, you have to have a shot of Malört," he said. "I'm not saying it's the best-tasting liqueur, I'm just saying it's the one that if you want to prove your mettle you've got to have a shot of Malört." Then they each threw back a shot. Impressively, Psaki, a former White House press secretary, did not grimace. I wouldn't have blamed her if she gagged. As a native of Chicago, let me assure you that to describe Malört as "not the best-tasting liqueur" is the kind of understatement only a politician could make. Malört is probably—no, scratch that, definitely—the worst-tasting beverage an American can drink. Food & Wine described it as "citrus-flavored gasoline." That is accurate, though I've always imagined Malört as having the flavor of liquid ear wax. |
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Post Malone's F-1 Trillion Is Too Big to Fail |
Just look at this week's Billboard charts, where even during peak Brat Summer, seven of the top 20 songs feature country singers, three are hip-hop tracks, and Shaboozey—with roots in both—sits in the number-one slot. So it's no longer much of a shock to hear that Post Malone's new album, F-1 Trillion, is a full-on country project. Though he's one of the biggest rappers in the world by any measure, Posty has always been enthusiastically genre-fluid—sampling Fleetwood Mac, shouting out AC/DC and Jim Morrison, taking a more overtly pop lane on mega-smashes like "Circles" and "Sunflower." But it's still impressive how committed he is to this detour into Nashville, and how consistently effective the music turns out to be. Though it follows the disappointing sales of last year's Austin album, his version of "going country" isn't the simple trend-chasing cash-in we've seen from Steven Tyler or Jon Bon Jovi. The Dallas native has been teasing this move since 2015, with the oft-quoted all-caps tweet "WHEN I TURN 30 IM BECOMING A COUNTRY/FOLK SINGER." Since then, he's sung with Dwight Yoakam, Blake Shelton, and Keith Urban; brought Luke Bryan and Wynonna onstage with him; hung out with Kane Brown and Carrie Underwood; and performed a Joe Diffie medley at last year's CMA Awards. Prior to the new album's release, he headlined the Stagecoach Festival and, last week, made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. |
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The World's Most Iconic Chore Coat Is Still Number One |
Every guy needs a good chore coat. That feels like a style rule born of the #menswear "Dudes dressing themselves and posting about it in online forums" era, but it's something I believe in. And I don't believe it on trend-chasing grounds. I'm not really interested in every one of y'all pulling on chore jackets, beanies, and Red Wings again. I believe it because there's not a more versatile piece of menswear out there. Nothing else is as functional, and nothing else looks so good on a wide swath of men. When I'm tackling the question of which brand of chore coat to get, I default to my usual answer. Go for the classic version. In this case, that's the French brand Le Mont St Michel, which has been making this jacket since 1913. |
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Zoë Kravitz's (Shocking! Twisted! Brilliant!) Mind |
Kravitz approaches life with a side-eyed, surreal sense of humor that is very much at odds with her public persona. This sensibility has governed how she has responded to everything that's come since. To years of self-hate and insecurity; to an industry—a world—that rewards neither loyalty nor sanity; to professional rejection and personal heartache; to the ill will of web commenters and a doubting public. Her ability to laugh despite, well, everything is "something that gets me through life." And that offbeat sense of humor is partly what makes Blink Twice—her directorial debut (out August 23) and the biggest creative swing of her career—so damn watchable. Nearly a decade in the making, Kravitz's bombshell social critique both terrifies and enrages. In between, veering from satire to slapstick, it makes you laugh. Like, really laugh. Though it's not targeting racism per se, it's poised to rile and rattle audiences the same way Jordan Peele's Get Out did in 2017. It doesn't just suggest a decontextualization of who Kravitz is as a creator; it downright demands it. |
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