{"id":6986,"date":"2020-03-24T11:32:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T11:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986"},"modified":"2020-03-24T11:32:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T11:32:08","slug":"sex-in-times-of-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986","title":{"rendered":"Sex in times of the coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sex<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Social distancing is the order of the day, so it\u2019s not a good time for sexual contact. It\u2019ll be toughest for single people. But for couples, isolation could prove to be a second honeymoon \u2026 or hell on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coronavirus is changing everything, including our sexual relationships. The most obvious sign of that in Berlin was evident one Friday evening in mid-March: The doormen had disappeared from Insomnia, the German capital\u2019s famed club for swingers, fetishists and hedonists, along with the otherwise usual line of sexual libertines along the sidewalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, there was only a note on the door announcing that the Berlin state government had ordered all clubs to be shut down. On the club homepage, Insomnia manager Dominique and the team posted an optimistic message: \u201cStay healthy, protect yourselves, and hopefully we\u2019ll be able to party together in five weeks\u2019 time.\u201d<\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bad time to be single<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Berlin\u2019s clubs were already closed, restaurants and caf\u00e9s were still open in mid-March. As one young woman sitting with her friends outside a bar in the spring sunshine told DW with a laugh: \u201cThe coronavirus had to come in spring, of all times. Doesn\u2019t look good for us singles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon afterwards, all the dance schools, restaurants and bars in Berlin also shut down: all the places where singles usually get to know each other, either to fall in love or for a sexual adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author and couples therapist Wolfgang Kr\u00fcger offers a curt response: \u201cSingle people are generally left high and dry, coronavirus or no coronavirus. A married 60-year-old woman gets significantly more sex than a single 30-year-old. The quality of sex for single people is generally worse, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve their chances, millions of men and women look for the right partner on dating sites. So has virus anxiety set in among them? One such German dating agency, Parship, claims in its advertising that one person falls in love every 11 minutes thanks to its services.<\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parship spokeswoman Jana Bogatz says she has not yet noticed a fall in membership rates and even claims to see a benefit for the business in the current situation: \u201cEveryone is being called on to reduce social interaction to a minimum, which, of course, limits dating possibilities,\u201d Bogatz says. But, she says, people can stay in contact online and even make new contacts, since \u201cmeeting people offline is only partly possible at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the question is whether people will be satisfied with what could be months of writing messages, or whether they might not risk infection for a brief tryst after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As ever, though, one person\u2019s poison is another\u2019s tonic. As single people are now forced to provide for themselves, the demand for pornography and sex toys is booming. Sex shops have switched to online trading, with the more entrepreneurial ones even offering a taxi delivery service, which offers at least a little income for taxi drivers who have seen their own businesses crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couples have home advantage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not having to find a sexual partner makes things easier for couples. For some, pausing normal life and staying at home might be a source of sexual reinvigoration, seeing as there isn\u2019t much else to do \u2014 gyms, cinemas, theaters are all shut down. Football, too, is something that belongs to a past world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the pendulum might also swing the other way, as was the case for Rolf. For many years, work has meant that Rolf has had to live apart from his wife during the week. So, initially, he welcomed the chance to work from home: a good opportunity to finally live together properly, not just at the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week later, and nerves were fraying for both of them. Joint tasks, such as cleaning the windows, occasionally ended in a full-on marital row. Rolf decided to move his self-isolation back to Berlin: \u201cForced cohabiting is like a forced marriage. And sex isn\u2019t fun then, either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couples therapist Kr\u00fcger isn\u2019t surprised. \u201cTheir distance rules have been scrambled,\u201d he said \u2014 the partner is always there and always available. \u201cErotic desire arises from an alternation of proximity and distance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But couples who have mastered the game of proximity and distance could well be in for a good time. \u201cIn times of panic and fear, sexual desire can also rise,\u201d Kr\u00fcger said. \u201cSexuality is the best way to drive away angst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coronavirus baby boom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if people do find new inspiration for their sex lives, it might have fruitful consequences. Kr\u00fcger, looking nine months into the future, is certain, anyway: \u201cMore children will be born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u2014 what a pity! \u2014 there is no scientific statistical evidence for this, though the question is raised whenever there are blackouts or longer periods of bad weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social distancing is the order of the day, so it\u2019s not a good time for sexual contact. It\u2019ll be toughest for single people. But for couples, isolation could prove to be a second honeymoon \u2026 or hell on Earth. The coronavirus is changing everything, including our sexual relationships. The most obvious sign of that in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSex in times of the coronavirus » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Health\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=6\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sex in times of the coronavirus\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sex in times of the coronavirus » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=6986#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Health","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=6"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sex in times of the coronavirus"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=6\" rel=\"category\">Health<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Social distancing is the order of the day, so it\u2019s not a good time for sexual contact. It\u2019ll be toughest for single people. But for couples, isolation could prove to be a second honeymoon \u2026 or hell on Earth. The coronavirus is changing everything, including our sexual relationships. The most obvious sign of that in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6986"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}