A question about American culture - Are the westerners really that promiscuous as the people from the East think thi (Dec/09/2006 )
Firstly, it’s a genuine question with no offense to the westerners or their life style. Please believe me, it only out of my curiosity.
>> Are the Americans really as promiscuous as they are shown on TV?
>> Do they really pick up strangers in bars and take them home to have sex with them….barely remembering their name next morning?
>> Aren’t he Americans afraid of STDs? Usually in a relationship, both partners should request the other to be HIV tested before sleeping with them, but the fast lifestyle of picking up strangers in a bar obviously doesn’t allow that. Does it never cross their mind that the person they are dating may be HIV +?
>> It is a different matter if one is a teenager or under the influence of alcohol, but do responsible, adults who are in a decent profession also have sex on their 1st or second date?
>>I am sorry such behavior disturbs me. A lot of TV is reflection of the society-I hope you would agree with me. But anywhere from the women in 'sex in the city' to 'Grey’s anatomy', it seems people are busy boinking strangers like there is no tomorrow! Even you have sex with protection, how can they feel so comfortable doing it with a partner that may be HIV+? Are Americans in real life the same? They just give in to their lust without worrying about diseases?
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my husband lived in mexico, i lived in russia and lebanon...it is a common thing it happens everywhere. here in japan too. ive never been to states but i guess wherever there is a bar and two poeple like each other here you go.....there are things to protect you from STDs you know. you can also have a long relationship and then discover your partner has some STD. once i worked in a hospital and we had a baby with HIV she was dying 
...then we doscovered her mom had HIV 
and then it became clear that her husband who had some fun for some time had HIV and transmitted it to his family. 
and it is not so uncommon case i guess. and viola: it is someone you actually have a family with! 
There are a few people like that,but in general, no. Just think, would shows which are very politically correct, and "safe" really top the ratings and earn the production companies millions of dollars?
I always thought the opposite of "the Americans", from my European view, until i was there. But as with every nation, you cannot lump them together. You find complete free & promiscuous people to complete godly and prudish ones (think of the millions of muslims and conservative christs there). Perhaps the contrasts are more extreme than in other nations.
i agree with hobgoblin that maybe the contrasts are just more extreme than in other places. in my experience, people go out to bars with a group of friends and spend most of our time with the group; two strangers may meet and hit it off, in which case they exchange phone numbers or email addresses and see more of each other before jumping into bed! i think tv partly exists so that we can live our lives vicariously...most people don't, and wouldn't, go out just to pick up a guy/girl and get laid, but if we had fewer inhibitions, maybe we would? tv lets us experience things without actually doing them 
certainly many people [i]are[\i] that promiscuous, but probably not most.
IF they are I certainly can't find them
TV shows are fairy tales for adults, US or Europe. As you're from another culture, you are probably not aware of the huge gap between media and reality in the West. Fairy tales sell, sex and violence sells - it's escapism, it means people just watch it and don't do it. Of course there are people who live like that, but it's not common and most people would frown about it and not think highly about persons who have sex with every stranger.
I am talking from Europe here, but my aunt lives in US.
Oh, and there are more such "games" - like haute couture fashion shows, where models wear such crazy things no sane woman would wear (not mentioning the clothes would look even weirder on a normal woman, not an anorexic model). It's like Western culture is a kind of play. Most of the time we are not serious.
I'm sorry for being all explanative now, but that was a surprising question, so I thought I'll explain it all
TV shows are just attracting viewers by adding in those scenes.
I believe that we do have promiscuous people everywhere, not only in the States. Not everyone is good and not everyone is bad. We have variety of people around us, no matter what their background are.
If I was going to be concerned about any country's sexually-transmitted HIV trend I would worry about India...where the trend of long distance truck drivers habitually screwing every AIDS-ridden prostitute on their route and bringing it home to their wives was once actually material for a pubmed paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...p;dopt=Abstract.
That said, there are promiscuous people here in the states and I know several people first hand that have a one night stand (almost always involving a condom). Obviously in the TV shows they don't show the guy putting on the condom (it would kill the heat of the moment) but I think it's more or less implied.
Americans in general are doing really well with getting themselves checked for HIV (about 50% of Americans have at some point been tested).
Don't believe too much of what you see on tv...people only WISH they could sleep with another beautiful stranger every night.... 
That said, there are promiscuous people here in the states and I know several people first hand that have a one night stand (almost always involving a condom).
I could not read the paper as the link does not find the server.
India and most of the south asia has a culture that forbids them from freely expressing their desire. Even talking about sex is still considered a taboo, even among close friends, forget sex education in schools.
Long distance truck drivers and the labor class people continually work under tremendous stress in the area. Even though the society considers openly speaking about sex a taboo, the mentioned community's speech is filled with filthy words mostly revolving around sexual acts and organs. Their living environment is such that one way of busting stress and one form of entertainment are those road-side prostitute who are not well regulated by a good health policy to control STIs. In addition, it is one way of showing their 'manhood' . . .
In short, society inhibits free expression and sex is not openly talked about. People never recieve sex education and have wrong idea about STIs, even HIV. Only thing they get to hear are those radio jingles promoting condom use and billboards which are frequently misinterpreted. At the same time, movies give them wrong knowledge about sexual practice. In such stituation, pent up desires, need to fight stress, and show their manhood makes them take up this learned habit.
. . . then such a large population remains as a threat to everyone.
Situation is Africa is even worse I heard. May be someone here can clearify that.