No sex please we’re Brexit

When the vote as to whether to stay in the European Union came around in 2017, the turn out to vote was exceptionally high. People wanted to vote, they wanted to have their opinion heard and so they made the effort to making it to the polling station to have their say. When voting, people did so on a number of different factors. Some of these included immigration, and their feelings about the free movement of workers from Europe into this country. Some people were more concerned about the laws that were being ported across from Europe. Without a doubt, there were a number of people who felt that we had lost our “sovereignty”, and they would have been right in that as a member of the European Union we have indeed limited our sovereign rights. Many people in the workplace voted on the basis that the employment laws that were filtering from Europe were unfair or just not appropriate for the UK. Certainly, there was a number of “leavers” who did so because of the promise from Boris that we could plug £350million back into the NHS every day if we did (though the reality is that this has been found to be untrue). A number of people also voted as a “protest vote”. They were upset at the general state of things, and they wanted to use their vote almost as a complaint against the government, so they just voted to “leave” because the government wanted to “stay”. The one thing that did not hit the news, and was in no way talked about, was how a Brexit might affect out sex lives. This is the subject of todays article.

 

Other relevant articles:

Why sex is important

 

I’d like to start by pointing out why sex is important. Sex is one of the fundamental human needs. Once we have achieved the basics that we need to survive, food, water, shelter, coming in almost immediately is our need for sex. We may think that this falls beneath other “needs” that we have, however, we must remember that sex is a primal need. It is an urge that is hard-coded into us on a biological level. When we “need” to go to the pub for a pint, whilst this can be driven by the bodies craving, it is still a developed need. We have grown the desire and “need” to have a drink over time, whereas we were born with the need for sex. We didn’t need to do anything to develop or encourage it, once we hit puberty, the urges come naturally without the requirement for any external factor kicking in to drive it. We simply wake up and find that we really want to have sex.

 

Sex is a fundamental freedom

 

There are many things that we would consider a fundamental freedom. The freedom to privacy is something that we are really hot on in the UK. The freedom to a family life. The freedom of speech is something that has long been protected, and may that protection never falter, so without the freedom to speak as we wish then how could any of us speak out against even the worst of atrocities?

The freedom of sex is not something that is discussed in the positive. It is widely discussed in the negative a lot. There has been (and continues to be) a lot of discussion about women having the right to say no to sex, and videos like the cup of tea have gone viral for a reason. There also good laws in place to ensure that someone of an age where they are unable to consent to sex is being protected.  We are fairly good about seeing people abusing their position for sex, recognising it as wrong, and then taking action to prevent it happening. However, what we do not talk about is the general right of access to sex.

 

Access to sex

 

The right of access to sex is the fundamental right to be able to meet other people with whom we may want to sleep with. The right to meet likeminded people who are on the same sexual page as us. If we want to have a no strings attached relationship, then we need to be able to meet other people that want the same thing. Finding a friend with benefits can only take place if we have access to meeting other people that are also looking for a friends with benefits set up. If we went to the supermarket and they had removed all choice from the shelves so that all we could buy was tomato soup, it matters not that we have the ability to eat things other than tomato soup, we don’t have access to anything other than tomato soup so it is a moot point. The right to access sex is fundamental to our ability to lead happy and sexually fulfilled lives.

 

 Brexit is going to be limiting our choices

 

At the moment, if someone from Europe wants to come to the UK, they can do so for a short period of time with no effort. What that means is we currently have a steady stream of “imports” coming into the country. A nice line of fresh models entering the UK which keeps our access to variation in the sexual market high. A hook up with someone who is new the country is far more likely that with someone who is local. Holiday hook ups are a real win… and the number of these are going to plummet with the advent of an exit from the European Union. We simply won’t have the same number of beautiful single people entering the country. With a reduced number of available people on the market, are we really very likely to be getting laid as often as before?

 

We crave the genetic variation

 

It is worth noting that one of the issues is that we crave genetic variation. We are hard-wired to want to mix our genes with “difference” which means that we are more attracted to people that do look a little different from us. This means that women/men from different countries are sexier. The supply that is being cut off is specifically the supply of the most attractive people as a result.

 

Would people still have voted if they had considered this?

 

If people were told, vote to leave and you will have less sex, would people still have voted to leave? I do wonder, and I think not. There is, of course, no way to know, but we are about to find out if I am right or not. When Brexit happens, if your sex life drops, you will remember these words and lament that we did not stay in.

  sex and politics, the sexual market place, changing sexual habbits