Half of Gen Z catch themselves ‘performing’ during solo pleasure

HUD — named the best new hookup app by Mashable — and sex toy site Girls Get Off partnered to release the Pleasure Census, an anonymous survey of over 2,100 participants from 63 countries.

While not a nationally representative sample (68 percent of respondents are female), the survey says a lot about where daters are at today, especially in terms of desire. Namely, how big a role performance and body image play in young adults’ sex lives.

Critics like to call Gen Z a “sexless” generation due to various reports of declining sexual activity over the years, but what the Pleasure Census found is that 73 percent say concerns about their appearance make it harder to enjoy sex or pleasure. Forty-four percent of respondents overall said this, too, so while it’s not just a Gen Z issue, it is more pervasive among them.