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Love & Passion Quote by Emma Thompson

"The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not"

About this Quote

There is a kind of bracing, parent-at-the-kitchen-table bluntness to Emma Thompson's line, and that is exactly the point. As an actress who has spent a career toggling between charm and steel, she delivers an argument that refuses the comfort of euphemism: sex isn't a scandal to be managed, it's a reality to be planned for. The opening, "The fact is", plants a flag in the ground before anyone can retreat into morals-as-mood. She's not negotiating values; she's forcing a concession to reality.

The second-person jab - "whether you like it or not" - is the sentence's engine. It identifies the real audience: not teenagers, but adults, policymakers, school boards, and anxious parents who would rather treat adolescent desire as a problem that can be shamed into silence. Thompson's subtext is that a lot of sexual "concern" is really about control and discomfort. By framing youth sexuality as inevitable, she flips the burden of responsibility back onto institutions: if you can't prevent it, your job is to reduce harm.

This works because it punctures a recurring cultural fantasy: that abstinence rhetoric or censorship can freeze time at innocence. The line also smuggles in a moral claim without preaching it. Acceptance here isn't permissiveness; it's pragmatism with an ethical edge - comprehensive sex education, contraception access, and honest conversations. Her intent is to drag the debate from purity to public health, from wishes to consequences.

Quote Details

TopicYouth
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Thompson, Emma. (2026, January 15). The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-fact-is-that-young-people-are-going-to-have-141325/

Chicago Style
Thompson, Emma. "The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-fact-is-that-young-people-are-going-to-have-141325/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-fact-is-that-young-people-are-going-to-have-141325/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959) is a Actress from England.

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