Remember that Saturday night a few weeks ago? The one with the tacos and the tequila and that handsome guy named Ted? Remember how you woke up the next morning, crawled out from under his toned and tattooed arm and snuck out of his apartment with a happy little grin on your face? And then remember how, a few days later, your girlfriends chastised you for your decisions, making you feel guilty for your night of fun, even though you’ve been feeling kind of awesome ever since?
Turns out they might be in the wrong.
A new US study by sex researcher and NYU instructor Dr. Zhana Vranalova showed that, for some of us, getting down and dirty with a total stranger can actually boost our overall life satisfaction, our self-esteem, and can help lessen anxiety. Um, hells yes!
According to Dr. Vranalova, your sociosexual orientation is determined by your motivation for, your attitudes toward, and your past experience with casual sex. Those who engage in sex without the necessary requirement of commitment have a less restricted sociosexuality than those who do not.
Dr. Vranalova’s studied showed that, of her 370 subjects, the 42 percent who had indulged in and enjoyed casual sex (aka, a less restricted sociosexuality) were more likely to report being less depressed and having higher self esteem than those who hadn’t.
The issue is, that even as casual sex become more frequent in society, it is still one of the most taboo subjects to talk about, making the stigma surrounding it one that will be nearly impossible to lift. And that is why Dr. Vranalova started The Casual Sex Project (www.thecasualsexproject.com) as a way of broadening our circle of acceptance and empowerment and hopefully tearing down some of the preconceived notions of what casual sex is really all about.
This collaborative story-telling platform is looking for casual sex-goers of all ages, gender, sexual orientation, race, gender identity, and religion to come together and tell about their experiences with casual sex – “the good, the bad, and the ugly”. At present the site has close to 400 stories posted, with more coming in every day. If you’ve got a story, this is the place to share it.
