I'm not quite sure when condom-wearing went out of vogue, but apparently these days more and more singletons are opting to get a free shag sans protection. While we have more information about sex on hand more than ever before, the current sexual generation seems to be suffering from what experts have dubbed the "safe sex burn out".
Men are declaring that condoms are "no fun", an "annoying distraction" and a "mood killer" with one gent going so far as to tell me "it's like having sex in a plastic bag". Others muse that the sex becomes more clinical and less intimate when protection becomes an issue. And with everyone lying about the number of partners they've had anyway, (it seems there's a common belief that if you take the bashful approach, they'll have a better chance at getting laid), many don't seem to think there's any risk in going without any protection.
"We've both been tested, they've told me their last partner was clear and so there's no clear risk," says one female colleague who hasn't used a condom in three years. "I've never had a problem." Yet ...
But all this leaves me mightily flummoxed. What happened to sex-ed? What happened to bedroom rule 101: Always use protection?
True, we were all a little freaked out back in high school sex-ed (and possibly scarred for life) from the condom on the banana thing while our folks sat next to us giggling in the corner, but what about the fear of diseases? Unwanted pregnancies? Have we forgotten it all?
After witnessing a bunch of single friends discuss their recent casual sex dalliances and encounters, which they say took place without protection, it seems sadly these fears appear increasingly non-existent.
It's little wonder then that sexually transmitted infections are on the rise. Chlamydia infections have doubled in the last five years with 60% of women and 25% of men getting it. SBS World News recently reported that rates of HIV infection will "jump 75% in Victoria and significantly increase in Queensland in the next seven years if current trends continue". And a staggering 25 per cent of all teenage women in the US have an STD.
But what baffles me is that the risk of garnering such diseases doesn't manage to scare singletons out of a good time. True, talking about contraception isn't the sexiest way to begin an evening, but neither is admitting you've caught an STD from your last casual sex dalliance. (Especially when it comes out on the first date!)
But my 40-something-year-old publicist friend reckons it's not everyone that's shunning protection, just mainly her Gen Y staffers. By her reckoning, it's because these women skipped out on the AIDS scare of the 70s and 80s, hence are a little less cautious when it comes to the unprotected hanky panky.
"Young women now assume that the Pill is their answer to everything," she exclaims. "But their lack of sex-ed is going to end them up in serious trouble."
The trouble is that while abstinence has in some circles become the trend du jour, in others it is often scoffed at, with some girls telling me that a hot dude is going to reject the, if you refuse to do it without a condom. Which to me, denotes one sad state of affairs.
So what's the solution? Do we need to learn about protection all over again? Do we need adult sex-ed specifically targeted at Gen Y? Perhaps.
Because in the end, it should be as Dr Sally Cockburn (also known as Dr Feelgood), told The Herald; "We don't think twice about putting a seatbelt on ... We shouldn't think twice about using a condom". Amen to that.
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