Sex In Brave New World Essay
How close are we to living in a society just like the one in Brave New World? Was Brave New World truly prophetic, or was it just a far-fetched dystopian novel written by a drugged fueled author in 1932? It’s seems as though the society depicted in this book couldn’t be more relevant in any other time than it is today in scientific advancements, religious views and education, but mostly in personal relationships.
One thing that has definitely changed in our world over the last few years is our attitudes towards sex and relationships in Brave New World, everything is out in the open. What really is even considered “private” these days? Our attitudes haven’t completely reached the point that it did in the book, but we are headed that way. One example of this can be found in our media. Concepts like cheating, promiscuity and divorce have become so normalized and children see it through ads, television shows and movies. “In fact, by the time a child reaches puberty, she or he has likely been exposed to thousands if not tens of thousands of messages” (Ed.D., 2011). Parents or adults aren’t always there to answer the questions that children have about these very adult subjects. Children aren’t getting the proper information they need AND they are being desensitized, no wonder sex and relationships aren’t special or taken seriously anymore, it’s …show more content…
almost as if “everybody belongs to everybody”, just like in the book. (Huxley, 1932). If people can see sex at literally any time they want, with no restrictions and no questions asked, it’s no longer sacred.
Which brings us to another factor in this, something called instant gratification. Instant gratification is being able to get anything you want, whenever you want it. After a while of getting everything you want whenever you want it, nothing is exciting, there’s no journey or any achievements to be made, and there’s no being proud of what you worked so hard for. With that being said, we are a very material society and everyone is constantly wanting more than what they already have. In Brave New World, they have the idea that if something isn’t working you should just throw it away instead of fixing it, that they need to keep consuming and spending money, and that activities are “better” if more money is spent on it. Is that too unfamiliar from our world now? Take a minute and think about in our world today how many people who obsess over the latest phone or ridiculously priced shoes that won’t even last 6 months until they have to get a new pair, not too different from how things are done in the book. So, how close are we to the society described in Brave New World?
Of course we are not yet completely seeing all the outrageous things depicted in the book, not yet anyways. With all the topics I’ve addressed in this essay, such as promiscuity, lack of privacy regarding anything in our daily lives, instant gratification, and materialism, it seems as if it will only take a few generations down the line we will see a society that is similar, if not identical, to Brave New World. There is hope, though. If we can learn how great patience can be, and how we shouldn’t solely rely on materialism to make us happy, this can be
reversed.
One thing that has definitely changed in our world over the last few years is our attitudes towards sex and relationships in Brave New World, everything is out in the open. What really is even considered “private” these days? Our attitudes haven’t completely reached the point that it did in the book, but we are headed that way. One example of this can be found in our media. Concepts like cheating, promiscuity and divorce have become so normalized and children see it through ads, television shows and movies. “In fact, by the time a child reaches puberty, she or he has likely been exposed to thousands if not tens of thousands of messages” (Ed.D., 2011). Parents or adults aren’t always there to answer the questions that children have about these very adult subjects. Children aren’t getting the proper information they need AND they are being desensitized, no wonder sex and relationships aren’t special or taken seriously anymore, it’s …show more content…
almost as if “everybody belongs to everybody”, just like in the book. (Huxley, 1932). If people can see sex at literally any time they want, with no restrictions and no questions asked, it’s no longer sacred.
Which brings us to another factor in this, something called instant gratification. Instant gratification is being able to get anything you want, whenever you want it. After a while of getting everything you want whenever you want it, nothing is exciting, there’s no journey or any achievements to be made, and there’s no being proud of what you worked so hard for. With that being said, we are a very material society and everyone is constantly wanting more than what they already have. In Brave New World, they have the idea that if something isn’t working you should just throw it away instead of fixing it, that they need to keep consuming and spending money, and that activities are “better” if more money is spent on it. Is that too unfamiliar from our world now? Take a minute and think about in our world today how many people who obsess over the latest phone or ridiculously priced shoes that won’t even last 6 months until they have to get a new pair, not too different from how things are done in the book. So, how close are we to the society described in Brave New World?
Of course we are not yet completely seeing all the outrageous things depicted in the book, not yet anyways. With all the topics I’ve addressed in this essay, such as promiscuity, lack of privacy regarding anything in our daily lives, instant gratification, and materialism, it seems as if it will only take a few generations down the line we will see a society that is similar, if not identical, to Brave New World. There is hope, though. If we can learn how great patience can be, and how we shouldn’t solely rely on materialism to make us happy, this can be
reversed.