Is Sex Passé?

I stumbled upon a link over at Hot Air to a New York Times piece by Erica Jong, the author of Fear of Flying. She wonders what has happened to sex since her controversial book came out:

People always ask me what happened to sex since “Fear of Flying.” While editing an anthology of women’s sexual writing called “Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex” last year, I was fascinated to see, among younger women, a nostalgia for ’50s-era attitudes toward sexuality. The older writers in my anthology are raunchier than the younger writers. The younger writers are obsessed with motherhood and monogamy.

Just as the watchword of my generation was freedom, that of my daughter’s generation seems to be control. Is this just the predictable swing of the pendulum or a new passion for order in an ever more chaotic world? A little of both. We idealized open marriage; our daughters are back to idealizing monogamy. We were unable to extinguish the lust for propriety.

Funny, the mothers of Jong’s generation hated all that the middle class stood for, now their daughters are nostalgic for it. It’s sort of ironic.