WE NEED A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM TO REDRESS “SEXUAL INEQUALITY:”

There is a curious contradiction in breathless media dispatches about millennial sex lives. On the one hand, dozens of reports have highlighted supposed sexual libertinism among young people: Reports of Tinder rampages, campus hookups, and casual dating.

More recently, though, this narrative has been called into question by a new set of articles insisting that actually, contrary to the caricature, millennials are having less sex than previous generations. What gives?

New data from the polling firm Ipsos helps to reconcile these two competing narratives. According to Ipsos, yes, millennials have fewer partners on average than Boomers or GenXers. But this conceals significant variation. Ipsos writes: “There is a divergence between extremes where more Millennials are not having sex at all, but also those who are having sex are more likely to have more sexual partners or to have started earlier.” . . .

Millennial sexual habits are understandably of keen interest to the media, but they are tough to generalize. Both the “hookup culture” narrative and the “sexually isolated” narrative communicate part of the truth.

Apps like Tinder and loosening sexual norms might be encouraging hookups even as some millennials delay serious dating for financial reasons, and others turn away from casual sex altogether. The Ipsos data provides ample room for speculation. In the meantime, though, it’s interesting to note that millennials are experiencing a certain kind of sexual inequality: On the high end, young people really are prolific, even though as a whole they are more restrained.

I would make a “Long Tail” pun here, but I’m much too proper for that.