Shortly after Bill Clinton’s now infamous statement in 1999 that he “did not have sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky, the Kinsey Institute, part of Indiana University, undertook a study to find out what “having sex” meant to the local college student population. It seems, like Bill, the students considered the term to be open to interpretation and provided conflicting answers.
A decade later, undeterred by this initial lack of success, the Kinsey Institute has revisited the subject matter in another attempt to find out what “having sex” means to the average person. The results however, published in the international journal Sexual Health are according to the researchers, even more confusing than the first time around.
In this latest research, Kinsey researchers conducted a telephone survey of 486 Indiana residents, ranging from 18 to 96 years of age. The group consisting of mainly heterosexual individuals (of which 204 were men and 282 were women) were asked, “Would you say you ‘had sex’ with someone if the most intimate behaviour you engaged in was …,” The idea was to examine whether asking more detailed questions about specific sexual scenarios, such as having vagina, oral or anal sex, would lead to a more uniform response by the respondents. But alas, it seems not:
Most surprisingly, only 95 percent of respondents considered penile-vaginal intercourse to constitute “having sex” – and the number fell to 89 percent if the man didn’t ejaculate. Even odder is the fact that 23 percent of older men didn’t consider penile-vaginal intercourse to be sex at all. All I can imagine is that they misheard the question…or maybe they’re of the same opinion as Crazy Larry in the film Layer Cake, “Fucking females is for poofs!”
When it came to anal sex, 19 percent didn’t consider that sex either. And again, the older they were, the less likely they were to consider it sex. According to the researchers, only 50 percent of men and 67 percent of women over the age of 65 would consider that they’d had sex if Mr. Johnson entered through the back door.
But what about the Clinton factor? How many of the respondents still wouldn’t consider a blow job to be sex. Well…29 percent – regardless of whether it was given or received.
One of the study’s co-authors, William L Yarber, was quick to point out the significance of the new research. “If people don’t consider certain behaviours sex, they might not think sexual health messages about risk pertain to them.” Likewise, Brandon Hill, another key researcher in the study pointed out that doctors, parents, teachers and the like should not assume that their own definition of “having sex” is necessarily the same as that of their patients, children or pupils.
It seems that the debate about what constitutes “having sex” is far from over and the ambiguity that can arise from the lack of agreement can be a dangerous thing. It reminds me of an old joke: A child asks his teacher, “What does oral sex mean?” The teacher replies, “Erm….it’s when you talk about sex”. After school, Mum asks, “What did you do today Dear?” Child replies, “Oh…just had oral sex with my teacher”.
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