Do you think the "free love" movement would have kept going if STDs were not a risk?

GridReXX · 2025-07-15T00:14:21+00:00

There would be more sex happening than post AIDS crisis. But culturally speaking, not too much different than now?

Condoms exist. People who want to have sex with many partners are having sex. The people who are scared to have promiscuous sex because of STDs even when wearing condoms aren’t the majority of abstainers I don’t think.

I think most people who aren’t having loads of promiscuous sex are not doing so because 1) they don’t want to or 2) because they aren’t able to. Not because of a risk of STDs.

Edit: I also think many, if not most men in this world, would still secretly prefer a low n or virgin woman for a “wife.”

Makuta_Servaela · 2025-07-15T02:27:42+00:00

The free love movement is still going. You're just not aware of the parties and events in which they're being held currently. My local kink club's pup night (a community of mostly slutty bi dudes) is this Friday. And the biggest furry convention in the world happened the other week- there are well-known stereotypes about furry hotel room parties.

kopdjernigan · 2025-07-15T00:23:45+00:00

We probably would be having more casual sex sure… but I highly doubt today’s incels would be in the group of high n count casual sex people. Maybe higher chance they aren’t virgins. Imo standard would be lower, maybe at best your standardcels would make the cut but a lot of inceldom is mental and neuroticism. You still have to make moves as a man back then.

And another thing guys with n counts typically don’t care about n count as much, especially because they are having sex with woman who also tend to have high n count.

Hoopy223 · 2025-07-15T00:26:16+00:00

More sex for sure. Free Love would’ve kept going a lot longer. Gay sex would be off the charts lol.

TheSuitCh · 2025-07-15T01:28:55+00:00

Realistically, if unwanted pregnancy was not a risk for women, then very likely men and women would have the same level of standards. Women are only choosy because evolution made them that way so that they could avoid unwanted pregnancies.

ThatBitchA · 2025-07-15T01:42:27+00:00

No.

Women aren't interested in casual sex long term.

Casual is fun once or twice. But it's not the most fulfilling sex.

Casual sex is like fast food. Easy and convenient and in small quantities.

Outside_Memory5703 · 2025-07-15T01:22:45+00:00

baller696969balls · 2025-07-15T01:38:41+00:00

Nope. Women will never be as horny as men, it’s a biological fact. As others have stated, we already have access to condoms and other preventatives that make our current world pretty sex-positive. The high body count thing has always confused me a bit though. I still don’t think the elimination of STDs would change that.

The only things that would probably be altered are gay sex, which would be at an all-time high, and rape, because there would be no reason for rapists to “hold back”, even though there are plenty of reasons that rapists still ignore anyways.

Kapoue · 2025-07-15T05:50:43+00:00

I doubt a lot of people are restraining themselves that much over STDs. There are a lot of ways to mitigate if not eliminate the risks. Herpes is the one that's hardest to prevent but in my experience having an open discussion about safe sex practices helps.

I've been to a few first dates where we showed each other our latest STD tests and discussed our sexual history even if we didn't plan to have sex that night 🤭

growframe · 2025-07-15T00:27:32+00:00

Would this significantly change human sexual behavior?

Maybe

Would we become more like bonobos for whom sex is like a handhake?

I doubt it

Would women be willing to lower their standards?

Not significantly

Would guys be less repulsed by high body counts when average guys would also be capable of high body counts?

Not significantly

Cool-Mixture-4123 · 2025-07-15T02:04:43+00:00

Uptight people hated the "free love" the conservatives, the Christians, the "straights" . This was counterculture often involved drugs

Today the orthodox old fashioned religious etc hate it even more the easy hookup scene. The idea of getting laid (others not them). They also hate gay culture which is often hedonistic.

Everyone repressed socially sexually or bound by religion hates all this shit

ConstipatedAvocado · 2025-07-15T08:55:25+00:00

There is still plenty of "free love" to go around, its just not attached to the hippy communes and super left leaning politics anymore. It went mainstream. Plenty of 9-5ers now partaking in swinging, ENM, cuckolding, partner swapping and all other manner of subversive sexual behaviours.

The idea you have of "free love" never really existed, it was a collective term for a number of north american and european intellectuals attempt to normalise non-normative sexual and romantic relations. Be they LGBTQ, polyamory, individualism and naturism. And they mostly won, all those subgroups have seen a massive increase in mainstream acceptance even though there hasn't been a monumental shift in the number of people in the mainstream partaking in them.

What people need to remember that the term "free love" was coined in the 1900s and its nadir came in the 60s to 70s. It was largely a counterculture fueled by coastal progressivism and drugs than a realistic lifestyle choice for many, at least in America. Its also an era where porn came to the fore, but that I feel was still msotly catered to the male gaze. One thing many dont understand is that the increased popularity of sexual culture is actually what has exasperated the problem of incels. Unlike the 60s to 80s where men still largely dominated society both economically, culturally and politically and pornography was still largely made by men and for men, sexual culture now is a lot more centered around women's pleasure and enjoyment. I used to be involved in the swinging scene and women were very much the ones who needed to be catered to and "unicorns" (single women) were easily the most sought after demo. There is nothing to suggest that if "free love" carried over, the liberalisation of women wouldnt come with it. And this is where incels/redpillers get it wrong, if they feel Tinder/Hinge/OLD is bad, they'll find swinger/ENM sites/fetlife/sex clubs literal nightmare fuel. The gender ratio is even more lopsided and shallow expectations are even higher. There is a super popular swingers dating site here in the UK and every other profile is asking for some variant of "gymfit"/well endowed/BBC/tall and when I ventured to sex clubs, the guys with the lions share of success were almost always fit, highly sociable, confident and/or extremely well endowed.

If you're thinking "free love" or even more liberalised attitudes towards sex would offer some kind of respite to sexually unsuccessful men you're in lalaland.

Junior_Ad_3086 · 2025-07-15T00:56:00+00:00

reminder that caring about body count is not necessarily rooted in insecurity but rather pattern recognition backed by data.

personally i don't think things would change as much as one might expect. most women are not interested in the free love lifestyle, as i believe they are wired to seek security and stable partners much more so than men.

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ComprehensivePipe448 · 2025-07-15T01:12:55+00:00

That’s pretty close to reality is it not?

I think It would have Negative effect as studies show men tend to have a higher chance to be more misogynistic the younger they lose their virginity and men with higher bc are usually more likely to be rapists Also assuming everyone like you says become sex fiends that would obviously not have a positive effect on society? Ideally the people who want to and are able to will have tons of sex and the people who don’t just won’t but in that society they would be pressured into doing so since that would be “normal” so linking back to the increased rape

Of course people would probably just ignore all of that since they would be to busy enjoying themselves So the people with high libidos and I guess the avg person will have a good time with sex being less risky and more easy access so yeah for them but a crap ton of people are gonna feel like shit about themselves since they gonna be told and feel like they should have a ton of sex and won’t understand that sex isn’t always good like people on Reddit claim it is I never understood the need for this sex encouragement stuff anyways , as the people that really enjoy it and want to and are able to do it, no amount of shaming is actually gonna stop them from just doing it and keeping it private , of course sex ed is always needed , but whats the need for sexual encouragement it’s really not a necessity of life , and u gonna make people feel like they have to , meanwhile the other way round like I said wasn’t really stopping anyone who wants to from doing it but I guess making a crap ton of young boys more insecure (ur post was wrong about less insecurity btw it would be the opposite ) and a crap ton of teenage girls feel like they should lose it as fast as possible is worth it as long as you can talk about ur sexual antics publicly and proudly

BaronGrackle · 2025-07-15T02:29:03+00:00

In your hypothetical, if it's still possible for sex to be nonconsensual? Then you're still going to have a lot of the same issues.

"That barista was really nice to me, I'm asking her to my place."

"What do you mean, no?! Sex is just like a handshake, bitch. You don't just say no. It's fucking rude!"

throwaway73737828 · 2025-07-15T04:21:40+00:00

There would be more escorts and guys would go to escorts a lot. Many women hesitate to go into sex work because of this, same with men who wants to go to escorts. My roughly estimation would be the total rate of women becoming escorts and men going to escorts would increase by 40%. Which I think society would be a better place. Men who murder people because they get no playtime, would be erased and women would become more rich as well. Win for both of us.

BobtheArcher2018 · 2025-07-15T09:59:42+00:00

STDs are by no means the only reason that free love is problematic, especially if society wants a widespread monogamy paradigm for family creation and child raising to work.

As for Body Count, both genders value female sexual purity more than male. But culture and environment matter a lot in terms of how this manifests. It does not necessarily mean valuing virginity in women, for example. However, some N Count number in either men or women will become gross in almost any culture, and this number will always be significantly lower for women, whatever the threshold is.

USSTexasBB_35 · 2025-07-15T10:20:42+00:00

It'd be like today's society except more sex, nothing more

Cultural-Ad-8486 · 2025-07-15T11:17:43+00:00

This is unlikely to change much.

We are a naturally monogamous species and thank God, most normal men and women are still looking for LTRs

And especially those who already want casual sex and other things, are already doing this and for example, almost any woman and a minority of men will have no problem finding free sex if they want it and now in our time.

Fun_Push7168 · 2025-07-15T11:26:56+00:00

No not really.

They didn't account for jealousy. It's eventually problematic in every occurrence where these things are tried.

A little bump in the casual sex market but it wouldn't have changed it drastically. The effects wore off mostly anyhow.

If STDs didn't exist we'd have more casual sex but the dynamics wouldnt change a lot.

badgersonice · 2025-07-15T16:21:39+00:00

If this free love movement did continue on past the 1970s

You know, I’ll idly speculate, but this could have been highly influenced by peak lead poisoning from leaded gasoline. Increased lead levels are linked with impulsivity and behavioral problems.

Notice that millennials and gen z are way less promiscuous… and that lines up with gen x being exposed to a lot more leaded gasoline in their youth (leaded gas began getting phased out in the 1970s, and was fully banned in 1996).

Powerful_Monitor3659 · 2025-07-15T16:59:15+00:00

Correct me if Im wrong, but that movement was always part of a subculture. It absolutely still does exist.

Artistic_Speech_1965 · 2025-07-16T09:35:12+00:00

Or we can go way before where no one can put their genital anywhere before a serious commitment

The modern dynamic has shown the radical differences between men and women, showing that something like marriage helped two people to get what they need

RelevantJackWhite · 2025-07-15T00:17:16+00:00

Yeah, I think we would probably be having more sex. IDK about you, but I had it drilled into me to be terrified of STDs as a kid. It was used as a convenient excuse not to talk about sex as an enjoyable thing.

Jazzlike_Function788 · 2025-07-15T01:10:00+00:00

More women might have casual sex. The same men who currently have casual sex would have more casual sex. The same men who don't currently have casual sex would continue to not have casual sex.

Nothing else changes in this scenario.

Title	Do you think the "free love" movement would have kept going if STDs were not a risk?
Author	antiheightism
Upvotes	2
Comments	62
Date	July 15, 2025 12:07 AM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/1m0302l/do_you_think_the_free_love_movement_would_have/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/do-you-think-the-free-love-movement-would-have.1557167 https://theredarchive.com/post/1557167

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