Gen Z is defined roughly as young Americans aged 13 to 28. This generation came of age with information about sex readily available to them, for better (the internet provides both sex education and community) and arguably for worse, too (in 2022, 54% of US teens reported first seeing online pornography at age 13 or younger). They are more likely to embrace non-traditional identities and are progressive on issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage – especially gen Z women.
But they have also seen the world shaped by pandemic-era isolation and two Trump presidencies that have celebrated the gutting of reproductive freedoms and LGBTQ+ rights. Sexual conservatives want gen Z to be straight, get married and have children, lots of them – but not to educate themselves about sex or venture across heteronormative boundaries. As a political gender gap emerges between young men and women, the right are urging gen Z men to fulfil their masculine destinies and gen Z women to fall in line, minding the home and hearth.
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Gen Z is defined roughly as young Americans aged 13 to 28. This generation came of age with information about sex readily available to them, for better (the internet provides both sex education and community) and arguably for worse, too (in 2022, 54% of US teens reported first seeing online pornography at age 13 or younger). They are more likely to embrace non-traditional identities and are progressive on issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage – especially gen Z women.
But they have also seen the world shaped by pandemic-era isolation and two Trump presidencies that have celebrated the gutting of reproductive freedoms and LGBTQ+ rights. Sexual conservatives want gen Z to be straight, get married and have children, lots of them – but not to educate themselves about sex or venture across heteronormative boundaries. As a political gender gap emerges between young men and women, the right are urging gen Z men to fulfil their masculine destinies and gen Z women to fall in line, minding the home and hearth.