“Sex is as important as eating or drinking,” said French writer and libertine Marquis de Sade. “We ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other.”
We’re not sure what the 16th century nobleman would have made of a recent French sex study, which clearly shows that times and attitudes towards carnal pleasures have evolved.
A new opinion poll commissioned by sex shop chain Espaceplaisir and led by the French Institute of Public Opinion (Ifop), which surveyed a total of 1,011 women aged between 15 and 29, has found that the importance of sex in young women’s lives is waning.
Only 38 per cent of women aged between 15 to 24 felt that sexuality was very important or even essential, compared to 62 per cent in 1990.
Within the same age group and the same time period, the proportion of young women for whom sex is “essential” has fallen from 14 per cent to 9 per cent.
