Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Kitchen & Dining Tech Style & Beauty Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Amazon Prime Day Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeNP CommentAmy Hamm: Debra Soh’s Sextinction shows us how lonely our future might be There is a profound conflict between a hypersexual society that is becoming sexlessLast updated 4 days ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Deborah Soh's new book, Sextinction, warns of a sexless future and the end of humanity. Photo by Getty ImagesIn Aldous Huxley’s seminal Brave New World, published in 1932, the author imagined what terrible things advancing technologies might do to mankind. In Huxley’s created world, set in 2540, human beings are grown in labs — but not due to any cultural aversion to sex. The culture is hypersexual: the totalitarian government uses a slogan, “everyone belongs to everyone else” to brainwash its citizenry into a collectivist identity that makes taboo monogamy and even motherhood. Regular and extreme promiscuity are the norm, in Huxley’s world.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorIn 2026, our culture is also hypersexual. But, unlike in Huxley’s vision, people aren’t having much sex at all. Especially Millennials and Gen-Z’ers. This is the paradox that Debra Soh opens her new book, Sextinction, with: “Society has never been more sexualized, and yet we are having less sex than ever before,” she wrote. She describes this fact as “not just a crisis of sexlessness, but one of lost intimacy, social cohesion, and common cause.”This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againUnlike Huxley, Soh doesn’t use her imagination to foretell our future: she uses science and first-hand experience, including her testing out AI chatbot boyfriends and interviewing sex-doll manufacturers. She acknowledges that the science surrounding sexuality research — like most of academia these days — leans heavily to the left. Soh argues that leftist academics are worsening the crisis with “bogus research” to back ideological claims. (A problem that seems to be a recurring theme in our society, including with academia’s bolstering of gender ideology.)The cost of not fixing the “sex recession,” argues Soh, is rampant loneliness and, potentially, the very end of our species.Clearly, Soh doesn’t skirt controversy. It’s why the journalist and former sex researcher walked away from academia entirely: it was too full of censorship-loving conformists for someone who is unafraid of a loud heterodoxy.There are many examples of Soh’s necessary (for the common good) contrarianism throughout Sextinction. For instance, on pedophilia and child sex dolls (yes, they exist, but are illegal in several countries, Canada included), Soh wrote that she “wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, “coming out” as a pedophile will be celebrated by society. The view that nonoffending pedophiles deserve understanding is one I once foolishly supported as a result of my time in academia. It is now something I deeply regret.”Soh is also refreshingly critical of pornography, a position rarely taken outside of religious or second-wave feminist groups. It takes courage, particularly as a female, to make anti-porn arguments. Porn has become so pedestrian in our culture that expressing even a hint of censoriousness about it commonly lands one accused of a very uncool, very backwards prudishness. Just as we are supposed to believe that “sex work (I hate the term and insist upon calling it what it is: prostitution) is work,” we are also supposed to believe that it’s empowering for heaps of young women to put themselves through university (or to at least attempt to) by sharing naked photos and videos of themselves on OnlyFans.Additionally, our culture either ignores, or is largely ignorant of, Soh’s warning about children and teens being exposed to pornography, which she wrote can “normalize the sexual objectification and abuse of women, along with abnormal and unwanted sexual practices.” More public intellectuals need to take Soh’s reasonable but unpopular stand, here — and I believe that Soh’s book might call on others’ courage.Soh is tough but fair on both sexes, calling each out for their toxic behaviours that further the sexlessness crisis and tragically pit us against one another. Few of us would deny, I think, that the modern “battle of the sexes” has morphed into a nasty fight with rapidly diminishing common ground.Men, Soh argued, need to take care of their bodies and minds, find purpose, and work hard at being successful. “(S)top — or at the very least, cut down on — self-medicating through distractions like alcohol, drugs, doomscrolling, online gambling, and porn.” On the flipside, women, she argued, could do more to embrace femininity and stop “compet(ing) with men at being men.” She goes on: “It’s okay to be feminine, nurturing, and to show a softer side.”I agree with her. Men and women are not, of course, obligated to adhere to any particular sex stereotypes, but it’s undeniable that pop culture and the third-wave feminist movement both demonize biology-based stereotypes as some sort of prison sentence that might be imposed upon us — all the while glorifying those who defiantly reject them. Can we not just return to being ourselves, without considering stereotypes at all?And what if men and women can’t find a way back to each other? “Sneaky AI sex robots may one day succeed at taking over, not by force, but by making alternatives to sex so enticing that humans select themselves into extinction,” wrote Soh. It sounds like a prediction Aldous Huxley may have come up with, were he alive today.In a recent X post, Soh wrote that she hopes her new book “helps you navigate our brave new world.” I think that Sextinction is required reading for our times.National Post Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.