Stunning chart: the share of men under 30 who aren’t having sex has nearly tripled in the past decade https://t.co/0aazxCijYP pic.twitter.com/HVVmffy7Jc — Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) March 29, 2019

Today, The Washington Post shared an article entitled “The share of Americans not having sex has reached a record high,” analyzing the many different reasons why Americans have been feeling less sexy than usual lately. However, the part that caught our eye was one of the charts that the author of the article, Christopher Ingraham, shared on Twitter—and the collective reaction to it.

As you can see above, the chart details that men between the ages of 18 and 30 are having a lot less sex than those in that age range years before, in a steep decline that’s been going for about ten years. I’m sure that’s interesting for all kinds of reasons that Ingraham explains in his article, but there’s one particular detail about the chart that jumped out at us that may have some deeper meaning to it: women aren’t having nearly the same problem.

“Why?” the people (the men, anyway) asked! “Why?”

The article offers up a few suggestions for why men are having such a problem while women aren’t, including that a higher percentage of men in that age range live with their parents, and that labor force participation among men has fallen, which generally correlates with less stable relationships. That’s all very good and insightful and data-driven, but something literally isn’t adding up: Sex—the kind the article is talking about, that is—takes (at least!) two people.

Somehow, amid all the theorizing, never once does the subject even come up of who those women are having sex with instead.

We’re no experts, but the answer to that question may just explain the men’s problem! Women just don’t want to have sex with them. Whether it’s because the small number of not-terrible men are skewing things by having a disproportionate amount of sex, or more women are having sex with each other instead—or, more likely, both—for most of the men out there, she’s just not that into you. Even if the answer is that they’re just having more sex with men out of that age range, that’s not a great commentary on men ages 18–30.

In not-unrelated news, Ingraham also tweeted that he did ask a source whether there could be a “#metoo effect” in play, but the verdict was that no-sex trend predates that … as though the movement itself isn’t a result of years of men being terrible and women getting progressively more fed up with it. Wow, the world may truly never understand what this data could mean.

(image: Paramount Pictures)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com