I'm not even sure that much is really true. At least not to the extend you might think. They were probably a lot more open about it with their peers than they were with you. Just like the people here probably wouldn't be as open about it with their children as they are here.
This doesn't really hold up as sex positivity and openness has shifted significantly in recent decades. Yes, people are more open about it with their peers than cross-generationally, however, at the societal level, it is absolutely objectively true that current generations are more open than previous ones (irrespective of current rates of sex by generation).
I think it's something that fluctuates naturally over generations. The 50s were buttoned up, 60s were very sex positive and more open, 70s/80s a lot of places drifted more conservative again. We've probably trended more open since the Victorian era but it's not linear.
Man, every time I read threads like this I'm like... y'all need some fuckin history. Read some of the horny shit the classical Greeks or Han-era Chinese were writing, lmao. It would make the raunchiest smut writer blush even today.
I was watching an entirely unrelated video on ancient Egypt and there was a question along the lines of their attitudes on sex. Apparently and unsurprisingly, they were very open about it and enjoyed it often. According to the researcher they had a phrase for it - "having a pleasant day" IIRC but I'm sure that was a cleaned up version.
You're confusing specific bits of literature for wider legal and societal recognition and discourse regarding sex. They can overlap, but they absolutely can differ, too.
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u/de_G_van_Gelderland 5h ago
I'm not even sure that much is really true. At least not to the extend you might think. They were probably a lot more open about it with their peers than they were with you. Just like the people here probably wouldn't be as open about it with their children as they are here.