# End Recreational Sex!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [February 28, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234 "2024-02-28T14:37:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/1 "2024-02-28T14:37:34Z")
This started popping up the other day, apparently started by an X posting by Skeptic Michael Shermer, citing a 2023 Heritage Foundation video that I haven’t seen, and no one has linked to. I’d like to see that or a transcript as confirmation. If true, this is outrageous:
> [@](#):
>
> On Thursday, right-wing activist Chris Rufo — the man largely responsible for engineering widespread [conservative moral panic](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/anti-woke-1990s-video-nostalgia-art-1234613774/) about “critical race theory” and so-called “woke” politics — responded to an X, formerly Twitter, post from writer Michael Shermer highlighting Republican opposition to contraception. Shermer’s post quoted a 2023 video from the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, that said “ **conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose, and ending recreational sex and senseless use of birth control pills.** ”
> …
>
> Rufo didn’t see the issue. “So what?” he wrote. “The pill causes health problems for many women. ‘Recreational sex’ is a large part of the reason we have so many single-mother households, which drives poverty, crime, and dysfunction. The point of sex is to create children—this is natural, normal, and good.”
Bolding mine
This lead to comments elsewhere, like this:
> **[Let's talk about recreational sex](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/27/2226251/-Let-s-talk-about-recreational-sex?utm_campaign=trending)**
>
> I reckon a lot of y’all have heard now about the MAGA idea concerning recreational sex. If you haven’t, it’s pretty simple. According to a Rolling Stone article, a 2023 video from the Heritage Foundation said that, “conservatives have to lead the...
If there’s really a Heritage Foundation video saying what is claimed, it ought to be proclaimed loud and clear. Can you think of a more mobilizing isue than “they want to take your right to sex away!”
Even with hard-right conservatives being fine with that, this strikes me as a sure vote-loser issue.
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/2 "2024-02-28T14:43:09Z")
I had a vasectomy 6 years ago. Am I allowed to still get laid?
The insane wing of the insane MAGA party needs [Thorazine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorpromazine) as soon as the factories can produce it.
(And here I am making a big assumption that there is some portion of MAGA that have the resemblance of sanity)
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/3 "2024-02-28T14:54:47Z")
Earlier thread:
> [@What's next recreational sex?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-next-recreational-sex/772574):
>
> So many old taboo’s have been legalized in just this century. Same sex marriage transgender restroom access Medical marijuana Recreational marijuana How long will it take till some society (not necessarily ours) to legalize … Recreational sex … you know just for the fun of it not your wife or your girlfriend just someone that wants to get it on and for it to be legal, safe and doesn’t cost that much. How long do you think it will take 10 to 20 years? Like marijuana it will start with some…
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/4 "2024-02-28T14:55:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Rufo didn’t see the issue. “So what?” he wrote. “The pill causes health problems for many women. ‘ **Recreational sex’ is a large part of the reason we have so many single-mother households, which drives poverty, crime, and dysfunction.** The point of sex is to create children—this is natural, normal, and good.” -
Rufo obviously doesn’t understand it takes two to tango. Some of blame goes to men who don’t fulfill their obligations.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/5 "2024-02-28T15:36:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The pill causes health problems for many women. ‘Recreational sex’ is a large part of the reason we have so many single-mother households, which drives poverty, crime, and dysfunction.
Wait, are — are gays the chosen people?
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### Author:  [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/6 "2024-02-28T15:53:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Even with hard-right conservatives being fine with that, this strikes me as a sure vote-loser issue.
I’d like to live in a world where ludicrous right-wing notions would drive away voters. But I don’t think we live in that world.
In 2012, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that sex should not be just for pleasure and called for making contraception illegal. He even opposed _Griswold v. Connecticut_, [“the 1965 Supreme Court decision that struck down a ban on discussing or providing contraception to married couples.”](https://www.salon.com/2012/01/04/rick_santorum_is_coming_for_your_birth_control/) Santorum’s statements were widely covered by the media. Was his extreme stance an issue among Republican voters, though? I don’t think it was.
So if some barely-known activist at a right-wing think tank proposes the same insane idea, unfortunately, I don’t see it making the slightest difference in an election.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/7 "2024-02-28T16:44:26Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#):
>
> So if some barely-known activist at a right-wing think tank proposes the same insane idea, unfortunately, I don’t see it making the slightest difference in an election.
Only it’s not some barely-known activist – it’s arguably one of the most important Right wing Think Tanks around – the Heritage Foundation, which does a lot of steering of Conservative views and actions, and the statement emerged with their imprimatur. Publicizing this won’t change the minds of True Believers, but it’ll certainly get the attention of and motivate independents and fence-sitters.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/8 "2024-02-28T17:01:00Z")
The conservative mindset thrives on the concept of “I’m like this, and so should everyone else be. And if they can’t, they should just accept their lot in life.”
I thought that this meant things like “wear madras slacks and do insider deals on the golf course,” but I see it also extends to dyspareunia in the bedroom.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/9 "2024-02-28T17:02:05Z")
Non-practicing Catholic here. This sounds to me to be more like Catholic doctrine. Sex needn’t be for the purpose of procreating, but it must be _open_ to procreation. So sexy times for jollies is fine if it ends with PiV and the only contraception used is the rhythm method. No pregnancy occurs? Not a problem as long as you didn’t stack the deck in opposition to what is proper and godly.
No masturbation, no gay sex, no finishing anywhere but in her hoo-ha. You damned well better not deny God the opportunity to make a baby if he feels like it.
Anyway, I think this “movement” would likely clarify it thusly, and this is pretty standard and long-expressed orthodoxy for the “can’t just mind their own goddam business regarding religious stuff” chapter of the right wing. Prolly doesn’t gain or lose them many votes.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/10 "2024-02-28T17:16:11Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#):
>
> No masturbation, no gay sex, no finishing anywhere but in her hoo-ha. You damned well better not deny God the opportunity to make a baby if he feels like it.
God has established his ability to make a baby without PIV when he wants. It’s not our fault it was a one off.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/11 "2024-02-28T17:18:42Z")
No way to enforce it obviously. So all menopausal sex is out?
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/12 "2024-02-28T17:20:17Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> God has established his ability to make a baby without PIV when he wants. It’s not our fault it was a one off.
You make a good point. 😀
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/13 "2024-02-28T17:22:24Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> No way to enforce it obviously. So all menopausal sex is out? -
No. God made the woman infertile. The couple did nothing to prevent pregnancy.
Also, wasn’t there something about God making a barren woman have a baby?
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/14 "2024-02-28T17:23:29Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> No way to enforce it obviously. So all menopausal sex is out?
If my read is correct, menopausal PiV sex is fine, in that you’d clearly be open to a pregnancy miracle should God be feeling bored that day.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/15 "2024-02-28T17:25:22Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> God has established his ability to make a baby without PIV when he wants.
\*\* stares in Hebrew \*\*
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### Author:  [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/16 "2024-02-28T17:26:06Z")
I take it more as the now-normalized POV of certain “traditional” Christian Conservatives. The sort that extoll “tradwives,” and would work quite well in various dystopian post-apocalypse screeds. Basically, it’s more that _women_ shouldn’t have recreational sex. Instead, women should be married to men, and spend their entire lives supporting the man in the home. If the man needs sex, well, he has needs, it isn’t _recreational_ for _them_ - and certainly not for any disgusting (their words, absolutely not MINE) and if she should be pregnant, should enjoy it as God’s will.
Thus ruling out anyone who doesn’t fit this rigid defintion of sex and gender roles from expressing themselves, or _their_ God forbid, having chilcren or adopting.
Meanwhile, men will be off doing manly things, war, deep thought, piety now that they’ve been relieved of the burden of needing to do anything more that expell their seed to unleash their obviously superior intellect and will to dominate.
(metric ton of sarcasm in my analysis in case it wasn’t obvious _again_)
So more about reinforcing the roles they want rather than any actual attack on recreational sex FOR THEM.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/17 "2024-02-28T18:18:37Z")
No birth control sounds contraindicated to me. Wimmens going to have sex anyway, they want her to have a baby with no man around?
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### Author:  [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/18 "2024-02-28T18:31:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> but it’ll certainly get the attention of and motivate independents and fence-sitters.
Am I the only one who read this as face-sitters?
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/19 "2024-02-28T18:36:40Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> No birth control sounds contraindicated to me. Wimmens going to have sex anyway, they want her to have a baby with no man around?
Yes, the whole thing is a mass of contradictions.
Sex should only be for procreation, not recreation they say. Yet in the same breath they castigate women who actually did what they wanted, had a baby after sex, but then the other partner in the sex act subsequently abandoned them. Make up your mind, I say. Applaud the single mothers for procreating after sex.
It’s almost like they are giving the absent fathers a pass on this whole thing… (ya think?)
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-recreational-sex/998234/20 "2024-02-28T18:43:12Z")
Part of the belief structure is that no one should be having sex of any sort outside of marriage. Also, divorce should be more difficult.
It’s a horrible viewpoint, but it’s not all that self-contradictory.
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