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While I haven't watched the show yet, I've had a lot of exposure to the current collegiate environment and I do think that the current generation is a lot more open about sexual topics than my generation was, but it certainly isn't only the greeks and it certainly isn't all college students. I think attitudes toward oral sex, especially, are much more relaxed. In the early/mid 80's, oral sex was kind of a bigger deal than intercourse. There have been articles in magazines and on the TV "magazine" shows like Dateline and 20/20 about that. In general, there seems to be more acceptance of previously "taboo" subjects, such as girl/girl kissing at parties/bars, even when the participants are not lesbians. I think that we have had trends of more liberal vs. more conservative sexual openness and we are in a period of more sexual openness. Clearly, the 70's were more open. The 80's got more conservative with the discovery of AIDS and we have moved into a more open time again.
Some concrete examples: 1) I was a dueling pianos bar last night (at a college campus, although the patrons were from every generation) and once every hour or so, the piano players had the waitstaff come up and do dances for the patrons. Two of the waitresses got up on the pianos to dance and the others were in front of the piano. They did the song "I can mashed potato, I can do the twist..." and they changed the words at one point and said "I can do the breast stroke". The waitstaff on the floor mimiced the swimming stroke, but the waitresses on the pianos stroked their breasts. That kind of openness was very atypical in the mid 80's.
2) My son, when he was 9, asked me how lesbians have sex because they don't have the right parts. I think back to when I was 9 and I don't think I even knew the word sex, let alone the word lesbian.
3) The whole "friends with benefits" phenomenon. This one is the hardest for me to understand because, in my day, a friend was a friend and a boyfriend was a friend with whom you had a sexual attraction so it only makes sense to me that a "friend with benefits" is probably someone you should just be in a relationship with!
I'm not slamming the current generation at all either. I think, in some ways, it is better to be open about things. I'm glad my kids know what homosexuality is and understand that some people are just attracted to the same sex instead of the opposite sex. But, I think to a lot of older folks, it is shocking that the generation is so open.
In fact, the group of friends I was with last night were discussing the "bra strap" mania. Where we used to either 1) avoid halters/tanks/spaghetti straps or 2) wear strapless bras, it is now commonplace to see bra straps. Granted, some of them are clear to make them "invisible", many are color coordinated and actually incorporated into the outfit. Is that good? bad? I dunno, but it's the way things are right now! (and ironically, it's that way for a generation who think panty lines are a crime!)
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