The proffered reasons for millennial abstinence? A culture of overwork and an obsession with career status, a fear of becoming emotionally involved and losing control, an online-dating milieu that privileges physical appearance above all, anxieties surrounding consent, and an uptick in the use of libido-busting antidepressants.
My brother is 21, and has been with 2 girls. Not super abnormal, but the thing is, they were fairly casual hook ups, more like friends with benefits that lasted a couple years each. Almost no one his age is in an actual relationship. As far as I can see, there is some truth to the 80's yuppie hardcore business comparison, where they really want to maintain control over their lives. Except, unlike the yuppies, there are far more pitfalls with consent now so navigating it is a lot worse. The guys literally don't want to approach in many cases because there is a social stigma toward not hooking up through an online site where people can be vetted without "rapey male aggressiveness" (Not kidding, one of my brothers friends literally said that when I asked if he met her at a school funciton or something..She explained guys just don't walk up to girls anymore, it's seen as 'kind of rapey').
That being said, my brother is like me, a gamer, who is happy staying indoors--his friends are from a select group of introverts, so that girl could have been just an oddball. But I have a feeling that attitude is prevalent. Between the easy access to online dating, which lets you simply cut contact if it becomes awkward, and the ever increasing sexual assault hysteria, most people are just saying fuck it. The only guys having some modicum of success are ones who could always attract women based purely on their looks (And so do well on dating apps).
But, as that one bunch of statistics showed from the match site, women do not view men in an even distribution on looks (Like men view women). For women, the number of 'good looking men" is incredibly small by looks alone. I have to imagine this is one of the contributing factors, the fact is, women are more motivated by social interaction than looks, while men are motivated by looks. For most women, in the absence of personal knowledge, most guys, except your top tier, just aren't attractive. So when society has plucked out a lot of direct social interaction? Well, there's less fucking.
