Interesting perspective. Taking these in order -- in the (intelligent part of the) first world, disease and unwanted pregnancy are essentially nonfactors. Yes, those are powerful historical reasons not to have indiscriminate sex, but we can throw 'em out with the bathwater in enlightened places. The last point, about promiscuity and self-esteem, is a little off in my opinion. Cause and effect are reversed. Promiscuity isn't causing the low self-esteem, it's being caused by it. So your point is less a comment on promiscuity and more a question of how can we help people who don't respect themselves. That said, I agree with you about the pseudo-evolutionary point about what humans tend to want in partners. Both men and women I think in general would rather be in a long relationship with someone who has in the past been less promiscuous, for the reasons you mention. That's just a guess. I would respond: wise in some parts of the world, but wisdom is a bit irrelevant in the cleanest and safest places. The desirability part makes sense to me, even I don't like that it is the way it is.The reality is that there are drawbacks to indiscriminate sex. Disease, unwanted pregnancy, the fact that many hyper-promiscuous people have low self-esteem and are using sex to assuage that.
So in summary being more discriminate with whom you have sex with is (a) wise and (b) a more desirable trait, for BOTH genders.
Yes - that's what I meant, albeit I put it clumsily. Though I think it's fair to say that in some cases you get into a vicious cycle where the promiscuity (due to the type of partners it attracts, and the societal response to promiscuity) tends to further perpetuate the low self-esteem. > wisdom is a bit irrelevant in the cleanest and safest places Fair enough: I don't know how old you are, but I grew up in the 1980s (in terms of when we learnt about sex) very much under the shadow of AIDS. For Gen Xers like me, the link between indiscriminate and unsafe sex, and illness and death, was forged during our formative years. It isn't something I consciously think of or worry about these days, certainly HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. But it's still part of the sexuality background that we all grew up with, and I guess I can never regard it as a non-factor, even in "the intelligent part of the first world".Promiscuity isn't causing the low self-esteem, it's being caused by it.