It seems quaint now that Douglas Coupland's 1991 book, Generation X, was subtitled "Tales for an Accelerated Culture". Decades later, Gen Z is driving it like they stole it.

With the top age of Gen Z now being 24 (yep, that old — you've probably been calling them millennials), anthropological interest is finally shifting away from the smashed-avocado set and onto the secret lives of Zeds.

Their habits are under the microscope in the new Netflix teen comedy, Sex Education, about the son of a sex therapist (the ultimate Gen-X actress, Gillian Anderson) who decides to dish out similar wisdom to his clueless peers at school.

In the process, the viewer also learns about putting on condoms, navigating an overactive gag reflex, revenge porn and scissoring … should they need to.

The takeaway seems to be that Gen-Z sex is complex and varied, rarely lacking in imagination.

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Hysteria over 'sexless' Gen-Z

That's at odds with the sudden interest in Gen-Z sex lives, thanks in part to recent reports and studies that find Gen Z is less likely to have sex than previous generations.

The message here is that Gen Z is too switched on to get off.

Such studies have prompted think-pieces like the Courier Mail's Gen-Z Needs To Party Like It's 1979 ("Why don't they have fun like the Baby Boomers?'), which is only marginally more polite than Louis CK's much-criticised comeback comedy set, where he claims kids today are old before their time and should be "finger-f---ing each other and doing Jell-O shots".

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Sex is redefined — and always available

So are Gen Zs really having less sex? Not if you accept that "sex" has been redefined, says Melbourne psychologist Dr Matthew Berry.

"Older people are defining sex in old money and Gen Z are defining sex in new money," he says.

"Think of a different topic — communication. Each generation is accused of writing fewer letters and making fewer phone calls, but actually our communication style has evolved.

"Similarly, Gen Z may be having less in-person sex, but engaging in more sexual activity.

"I would argue they're more sexual because they're Snapchatting nudes at 13, 14, 15."

Dr Berry identifies two types of arousal — the dopaminergic kind that is derived from visual stimuli, and the serotoninergic kind that is derived from emotional intimacy. "A lot of young people literally haven't experienced that kind of intimacy," he says. As a result, he sees many young male clients who experience erectile dysfunction in real-life scenarios.

Unlike in-person sex, online sexual stimulation is constantly available, whether that's Snapchatting nudes or zombie-scrolling through Tinder or Grindr profiles. But Dr Berry says our brains haven't evolved to handle the constant dopaminergic rewards, and the result is agitation and loss of focus.

Sex as personal brand

Scroll through Instagram and it's hard to square the hysteria around a "sexless" Gen Z with the hyper-sexualised profiles of many younger users, which owe much to Kardashian waist-trainers and pumped-up physical assets.

But a sexualised online presence doesn't always equate to offline sex.

Adolfo Aranjuez says sex is part of people's personal branding on social media. ( Leah Jing )

Adolfo Aranjuez, the editor-in-chief of sexuality and gender magazine Archer, says, "Neoliberalism is now so entrenched that your identity is part of your personal brand" — and sex is a primary part of Gen Z's brand.

"You need to cultivate this air of sexuality because sex sells," says Aranjuez.

"Gen Zs were born into a world of immediate feedback loops. Their parents were quick to give feedback, and when they're older there are comments and likes to validate them. And so, there's a performative aspect that's very prevalent."

Gigi Engle is a feminist sex educator. ( Supplied )

This concerns Gigi Engle, a certified sex coach and educator who has a weekly advice column.

"There is still such a widespread push for young girls to be these sex objects," she says.

"Validation is based on whether or not boys want to have sex with you. It's really quite depressing that we see such a powerful rise in feminist attitudes and a shift toward sex-positivity, but when you look at middle school and high school kids, they're still in this bizarre place where they think everything revolves around their sexual desirability."

'Are you into guys or girls?'

Only 66 per cent of Gen Zs aged between 16 and 22 consider themselves to be exclusively heterosexual — the lowest figure of any generation — according to the 2018 Ipsos MORI report, Beyond Binary: The Lives and Choices of Generation Z.

Researcher Hannah Shrimpton says these results will partly be down to the youthful desire to explore identity.

"But it's a reasonable hypothesis that the increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ in society means this younger generation have the space to have a non-binary view of sexual orientation, in a way that previous generations didn't."

Dr Berry says he has a lot of conversations about sexual fluidity with his clients. "I think they're less fearful of same-sex interactions," he says.

"The young people I talk to don't go to gay bars, because the question 'Are you into guys or girls?' has become as normal as 'Are you into redheads or blondes?'

Mixed messages on consent

But perhaps the foremost conversation around sex among Gen Z is how to navigate consent.

While Gen X is remembered in films such as Dazed & Confused and Kids for its "grey areas" of consent, and millennials got frat-boy movies like American Pie and entered a new era of revenge porn and unsolicited dick pics, Gen Z has grown up with #MeToo.

Consent is a key theme of dramas such as Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why and Big Mouth.

Then there are the young, self-professed sex educators who are feminist and queer-friendly, such as Bawse Kitty, a webcam model and dancer who writes a sex and dating column for Galore, and Eileen Kelly, who founded the inclusive sex-ed site Killer and a Sweet Thang.

Eileen Kelly is a self-styled sex educator who founded the sex-positive site Killer and a Sweet Thang. ( Killer and a Sweet Thang )

Columns on that site include "Parties — My Silence Was Not My Consent" and "The Condom Conversation (Hint: It Shouldn't Be a Debate)".

Yet, with online porn being frequently tagged "brutal", "ruined" and "choked", is Gen Z getting some seriously mixed messages?

Professor Alan McKee, from the University of Technology Sydney, researches the effects of pornography on audiences. He says the idea that men are more sexually aggressive now is ridiculous.

"You could only say that if your ignorance of history is so breathtaking that you are basically lobotomised," he argues.

"Until the 1970s it was legal for a man to rape his wife and it was common to see movies in which a man slaps a woman in a way that's normal.

"And sexual harassment — like slapping a waitress's bottom when she walked past — didn't even have a name."

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The vital thing, Professor McKee says, is that porn should not be the only source of sex education.

He's been working with Family Planning Queensland to create sex-ed in the form of entertainment.

Professor McKee's colleague, Crystal Abidin has found that girls get the majority of their information from social media influencers, while McKee says boys are piecing things together through adult cartoon shows such as Family Guy and American Dad.

So his team hired male comedians to tell filthy jokes with a sex-education component, then let the videos loose on the internet.

The kids are all right

Maybe it's time to pack away the monocle. After Generation X was published in 1991, Douglas Coupland complained to the Boston Globe, "We're tired of hearing about ourselves from others."

Professor McKee thinks that should apply here, too.

"I am deeply concerned with how obsessed some adults are about the sex that young people are having or not having," he says.

"It seems like they're always having too much, too little, or it's the wrong kind, or they're not doing it properly.

"People should pay attention to the plank in their own eye."

Jenny Valentish is a journalist and author of books such as Woman of Substances: a journey into addiction and treatment.