Riesz: America’s Sex Scene

Well, now we know exactly what kind of sex our friends and parents are having. Ew. Recently, the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior released the largest survey on American sexual behavior since 1992, the same year Madonna shocked the world with her risqu?, slightly pornographic book Sex, way before the sex lives of our favorite celebrities were often leaked in video form. Yes, in the 18 years since that survey, we’ve become much more desensitized to sex. As a result, our high school teachers are afraid of us and the infamous parental “sex talk” is more of a warning than a cutesy metaphor on where babies come from.

So how have things changed? Well, contrary to popular belief, teens are actually using condoms more than any other age group, including adults. That’s the only surprise of the study: men are still having more orgasms than women, women want to cuddle (men not so much, they just want you out of there) and oral sex is more prevalent among young people. Get it while you can, frat boys, “cause your time is running out!

All kidding aside, though, such a large survey has a lot of good implications. It looks like “Teen Mom” is frightening high school kids enough to the point that guys are willing to take an extra 30 seconds to slip on a condom and girls are willing to have that awkward conversation with their doctors about birth control. There should be some sort of nationwide pizza party dedicated to the show’s resident crazy, Amber &- thanks for frightening the sexually active population into using protection better than any health teacher could! You’ve done a service to your country!

But while the results have helped to analyze and make clear the progression of America’s sexual behavior, they’re not as in-depth as they could have been. With only 5,865 participants, this is the biggest survey on sex we could muster? Don’t most people vocalize the details of their sex lives these days? I mean, it’s all I hear about on the T on Saturday mornings. Disgustingly, the government cut funding for the 1992 survey, which otherwise would have made the results truly representative of the entire nation. The same goes for the 2010 research. Sex surveys aren’t number one on the list of the government’s priorities. The state of the economy is, but the one thing people care about just as much as money is sex. So why is it blatantly treated as unimportant?

Much of America is unabashedly lacking in intelligence on a number of topics these days, so I’m confused as to why sex education is left up to the how-to books. I don’t trust people to employ the basic common sense principles sex requires. So I propose more research, more publicized surveys . . . just more, so that in at least one area of their lives Americans can be happy, healthy and competent.