A Setting Where 'Everyone has Lots of Sex'

So my constructed setting happens to be pretty sex-positive (mostly due to the fact they have very effective widespread birth control and STD prevention and most major religions are totally cool with consensual unmarried sex) so there's the implications that Everyone Has Lots of Sex (not to orgy-Love Dodecahedron levels) People aren't fucking every single waking moment of the day, but having casual sex with someone you will probably never see again isn't particularly uncommon or frowned upon. (this goes for both men and women) People aren't shamed for choosing to be celibate or getting married. Sure there are a few characters who are essentially Ethical Sluts and/or are openly poly-amorous (only one so far in the case of the later)

• But do I run the chance that the characters being openly promiscuous could make them unsympathetic?

You could start by making their characterization include more than just their sex lives. Springhole just posted a nice little article on this.

What kind of setting is this? The future, Alternate Universe, or constructed? If it's a constructed universe, you can just write your own morals. If it's a setting where there is no apparent difference in sexual mores, and thus no justification for the trope, the reader may instead apply real life morals to the characters.

I think if the characters treat their sex partners decently (e.g. only engage in kinky or humiliating sexual practices on them based on prior agreement, and so forth), and don't commit to anything they'll later run away from, and don't treat the sex partner as disposable, then the only ones who might regard those characters as unsympathetic will be religious fanatics and other puritans. And why would you care about their opinion?

Interestingly, one of the world I'm trying to build has this as a setting too. But I keep focusing on the sex, and not what the people do otherwise.

This is more of a World Building thread, isn't it?

Probably, but we're generally more responsive on stuff than worldbuilding.

I think a good place to start would be Brave New World, not for the setting obviously but for the attitude. Sex is a casual topic. People know what the rest of their social circle looks like naked. It's just not a big deal, and the usual drama that can be extracted from it (who's sleeping with who and who knows) is reduced or absent.

Actually, now that I think about it, a setting where everyone has lots of sex could actually contain less titillation than a normal one just because sex isn't a noteworthy event in the characters' lives (unless you're writing porn, of course.)

"Unless"

Depends on how much of the story you want revolving around the characters' sex lives.

You probably do want to set some ground rules. For example, even though it's sex-positive, your setting isn't a "random hook-up" culture. Sex is something you do with your friends as part of your emotional bonding; fucking some stranger you just met is anywhere from being over-friendly to outright shocking.

The Muslim afterlife?