Not taking sides here but I believe that there may have been a good news/bad news side to sexuality in the olden days.

1) Just like in today's Christian community, sex of old may have been generally confined to hetero marriage. As such, it was probably "sexy" for those within, with a sort of built in devotional quality and with perhaps few restrictions for those lucky ones. The "rules" may have fit a kind of "survival mode", in which population numbers were threatened (like right after the 1350 Plague). Those outside marriage may have been viewed with undo suspicion and had a difficult time.

2) In todays world, there are far more opportunities for sex outside of hetero marriage, and population numbers do not seem threatened.

A sort of Anthropological view, I suppose.