Described as “one of the most expansive nationally representative studies of sexual behavior and condom use ever conducted,” research at Indiana University (underwritten by Trojan’s parent company) — that looks at the sexual activity and condom use of 5,865 people ages 14 to 94 — finds condom use among the under-40 set is far more prevalent than older folks. Basically, it’s one big piece of scientific research that says young people aren’t as sexually reckless as everyone thinks. Or at least less reckless than their parents.
While I work on getting a copy of the actual study (it’s published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine), it’s a little difficult to tell how condom usage breaks down between people reporting opposite-sex and same-sex experience. But some things worth noting:
• The study also found that while only about 7 percent of men and of women identified themselves as “other than heterosexual,” a much higher percentage reported having had sex with a member of the same sex. Among women in their 30s, for example, 14 percent said they had performed oral sex on another woman at some point in their lives; 13 percent of men over 40 said they had performed oral sex on another man. […] 15% of men aged 50-59 said they got oral sex from another man at some point [… as did] 10 percent of men aged 18 to 59.
• Condom use is higher among black and Hispanic Americans than among whites, and is lowest among people over 40, the nationally representative Internet survey of 5,865 Americans aged 14 to 94 found.
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• Only 14 percent of 14-year-old boys reported any kind of sexual interaction with a partner in the prior three months, but almost 40 percent of 17-year-old males did.
And my favorite breeder stat:
• Some 85 percent of men say their sexual partner experienced orgasm during sex, but just 64 percent of women say they did.
Where’s the gay data on getting off?!
And keep in mind: Some 800 participants in the study were under age 18, and as young as 14. So where are the conservatives freaking out about this massive piece of research, when they were losing it over another study that called for just 100 gay kids, no younger than 16, to chronicle their sexual experiences?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Being that on surveys relating to the Gays usually more than half give half truths to the answers we can guestimate that ’bout 15% of the population color within the Gay rainbow………..
And with all those not so Gay dudes havin some homo sex. The survey seems to confirm the old question, what’s the difference between straight sex and Gay sex??? A six pack ‘o beer………
Pygar
Duh. CDC researchers call these MSMs (Non-homosexual or non-bisexual identifying men who have sex with other men). Of all the things I’ve learned in my 40 years, this is one fact of which I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN.
kalifani6
“Condom use is higher among black and Hispanic Americans than among whites”…Can you hit me with that again? You wouldn’t no that listening to the MSM! Just like when it was scarcely reported that ‘low-income’ families actually weren’t responsible for the collapse of the economy due to faulty high-risk mortgages but wealthy investors abandoning mortgages intentionally to avoid property taxes.
http://tiny.cc/ukyzc
http://youtu.be/UEknzgvjTaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTbBTU-J8PA
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/bracing-storm.php
Non-sequitor, I know…but relevant to my point.
Also, I have a theory about the gay experimentation in regard to oral sex: Could it be that the cock worshiping & incessant lesbianism in straight porn is evoking same sex curiosity & desire? If so, what a perfect irony.
For the record though, I think all humans are a lil bi.
kalifani6
“Condom use is higher among black and Hispanic Americans than among whites”
…Can you hit me with that again?
You wouldn’t no that listening to the MSM!
Just like when it was scarcely reported that ‘low-income’ families actually weren’t responsible for the collapse of the economy due to faulty high-risk mortgages but wealthy investors abandoning mortgages intentionally to avoid property taxes.
tiny,cc/ukyzc
youtu,be/UEknzgvjTaY
youtube,com/watch?v=PTbBTU-J8PA
webofdebt,com/articles/bracing-storm.php
Non-sequitor, I know…but relevant to my point.
Also, I have a theory about the gay experimentation in regard to oral sex: Could it be that the cock worshiping & incessant lesbianism in straight porn is evoking same sex curiosity & desire? If so, what a perfect irony.
For the record though, I think all humans are a lil bi.
kalifani6
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: My dad (who raised me with classic all-American homophobia) had this gay ‘best friend’ back in the ’90’s that used to always accompany him to his boat every odd weekend. I can remember they always made sure there was some hard liquor & ‘wacky-tobaccy’ on board(dad w/ his Henessy & homie w/ his 40oz…blechh ).
I cringe at the concept of what went on in that boat.ewww x[
Maybe why I have such a strong sense of hypocrisy,lol.
Jon B
I wish they asked what age the blowjobs were at. It’s one thing to get into some healthy experimentation (hell, I blew half the kids in my bunk at sleepaway camp), but if you’re still sucking dick at 40, you call yourself whatever you want. As my friends and I say, a dick in the mouth is worth two in the butt.
TonyD
I know some guys and gals don’t factor blow jobs as “sex,” though it is oral SEX, not oral-almost-but-not-really-sex. Also, in some countries, as long as your the top or getting the blow job, you’re straight and “gay” means wearing woman’s clothes, being a bottom, and sucking cock.
eagledancer
A) When I was on faculty at the Kinsey Institute (located at IU), a survey was done right before Clinton hit the headlines with his statement of “I did not have sex with this woman,” where over ½ the adult population in the Midwest would have supported Clinton. They would only define “sex” as penile/vaginal penetration. In a fairly recent survey of adolescent females, we saw the same thing where of those that self-labeled as virgins, about 1 in 4 had experienced oral sex.
Given this sort of definition (penile/vaginal penetration) many men don’t feel any contradiction or hypocrisy self-labeling themselves as “straight” when they engage in erotic behavior with another man, since it isn’t conceptualized as “real sex.” Just so, (as the earlier poster commented on Daddy and Daddy’s best gay friend on their fishing trips) a married man doesn’t consider it “cheating” on his wife by having an erotic interaction with another man, since it would only be “cheating” to have “real sex” with another woman.
B) This is one of the challenges for those of us who actually do sex research, since the language we try to use to best convey behavior doesn’t always match up with the language of the “lay” (pun) community. That was my first reaction to the Queerty headline for this article—“Gay Sex” Different people define “gay” differently, and different people define “sex” differently. I’m not here to judge or to point fingers—I’m simply stating as a sex researcher, the reality of agreeing about baseline definitions. This then translates into real life, where one of the hardest groups to involve in HIV prevention are men who have sex with men, but will never step into a gay bar or bath house where they might receive HIV Prevention Education because they self-identify as straight. Ditto for them picking up a gay newspaper, or logging on to Queerty (which isn’t exactly known for regular HIV Prevention education anyway). Goddess, the screaming queens who came out in the 70’s who bitched about our not using the term “gay” for the CDC stats because “We fought so hard for the word Gay!” I personally got into a lot of heated discussions because of pointing out different cultures define homosexuality based on behavior (the “top” is not considered “gay,” but the “bottom” is) rather than gender. These groups aren’t in denial, but their cultures define sexual orientation differently then general American culture. You can imagine the blank stares I then got when I brought up the reality other cultures have more than two categories of gender. How is “same-sex behavior” defined within these groups that has 3, 4 or more categories of gender? We also see in the research the question determines the answer. In an L.A. based study of African-American men, when asked, “Have you ever had sex with another man? No one said “yes.” But when the same men were asked, “When was the last time you popped a sissy?” the response was quite different. In a number of Latino communities, if you ask, “Have you ever had sex with another man?” you’ll get a very different response than if you ask “Have you ever had sex with a man who was not a man?” or “Have you ever had sex with a soft man?” This is why sex researchers drink…
C) In Kinsey’s own classic study, he found it was so common for adolescents to have same-sex experiences, he didn’t count it when evaluating where a guy fell on the 0-6 Kinsey Scale unless the interviewee had had sex at least 3 times to the point of orgasm after the age of 16.
Samwise
“There’s a 10-15% Chance Your Straight Dad Got a Blowjob From Another Dude”
Why would you make me picture that? What did I ever do to you?
Off to wash out my brain with industrial-strength bleach…
B
No. 2 · Pygar wrpte. “Duh. CDC researchers call these MSMs (Non-homosexual or non-bisexual identifying men who have sex with other men).”
… the term MSM includes homosexual and bisexual men – the CDC is interested in what you do, not whom you are attracted to.
Tommy
What’s the big deal. I’ve had sex with women and it doesn’t make me straight or even bisexual.
It’s interesting that older people report more same sex relations than younger people. I think people were more sexually open in the past and less hung up on labels than they are now. I guess it’s because of AIDS and in general the more conservative climate today where people are less willing to experiment and have to stick to their gay and straight boxes.
Michael
There’s a 100% chance your straight dad will not admit to getting a BJ from another dude.
Tommy
@Michael:
Not true. There are some straight dads who are open about their past same sex relationships. I have a friend whose father told him about a guy he had sex with when he was younger. He’s even met the other guy who his Dad is still friends with.
There’s no problem. The worst thing you can do is ask ashamed of your past if you are parent. Kids always sense something so just be honest.
jason
This sex survey is crap. People rarely tell the truth, especially when it comes to their sex lives. For instance, a man is hardly going to tell a survey that he’s having an affair. He wouldn’t even tell his own wife, so why should he tell a fucking survey? A man who is homophobic – but who has dabbled with men – is hardly going to tell a survey that he’s blown another man.
Keep in mind that a lot of “research” that is funded by private enterprise, such as a condom company, is not very reliable. It’s junk science.
Treat this Indiana Uni survey with a grain of salt.
Pygar
@B: That’s what I meant. *sigh* No one ever understands me.
kalifani6
@Michael: Well Duh…& thank God, I don’t friggin’ wanna know that.
Dan
Obviously there are plenty of straight guys who appreciate talent and satisfaction. 😀
Giovannidude
There was a time in the U.S., years ago, when teenage girls were not available for sex; they were protected by their fathers and older brothers. Straight teenage boys who wanted something more than masturbation looked around, and some of them found what they were looking for in younger, good-looking, effeminate boys (like me, for example). Some of them would kiss and even reciprocate sexually a little, and some of them wouldn’t. Years later, they met girls and got married and had children.
I had two of these relationships, and both involved more than blowjobs. Years later, I ran into the mother of one of my former boyfriends, who knew about the 3-year relationship that her son had had with me. She approved of it for one reason only: “It was better than getting some girl pregnant,” she told me. His sister knew too, because she walked in on us one day when we were doing it, but was cool with it, and didn’t say anything.
So I’m not surprised that dads in an older age group are admitting to receiving a blowjob from another dude. But some of them got a lot more than that.
southpaugh
@jason: People answer surveys in line with their personality, and your repsonse to this story is quite revealing about the varacity you’d reflect answering such questions. People in general are much more open in private matters with people whom they’ll never see again than to those with whom they share emotional or, especially, physical intimacy. Please don’t make the mistake that you know others’ minds or behave as the norm. So called common sense isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and most people just ain’t got any. To determine others’ attitudes, indeed, is the point of such surveys. One’s disagreement with the results doesn’t in any way invalidate the survey’s significance.
eagledancer
@Giovannidude:
As a general standard, we interview a couple together, and then interview them separately (working as a paired team, so one interviewer goes off with one partner). This is precisely because an individual who is having an “affair” is more likely to discuss it with an interviewer when the partner isn’t present.
Having shared that, I should point out in my own study on Inter-Racial Same-Sex couple, gay couples were more likely to have an open relationship (with various rules)where calling “outside” involvement an “affair” isn’t exactly precise. In their study of over 100 White, Southern California male couples, documented in their book “The Male Couple,” McWhirter and Mattison found the longer a male couple was together, the more likely they were to have other partners. This led the authors to use the terms “Primary Partner,” where there was an emotional and committment tie along with a sexual involvment; “Secondary Partner,” which they considered a “boyfriend” where there were emotional and sexual ties without the committment (since it was clearly shared the committment was to the Primary Partner); “Tertiary Partner” where the tie was focused on sex (also called a trick). In these couples, the Primary Partner was aware of the other ones, as they were aware of him. I go into this much detail to illustrate why “affair”–which has overtones of “sneaking around so the spouse doesn’t know about it” isn’t always applicable in some gay couples. Indeed, some male couples (certainly not all) report a level of enjoyment about hearing the details of their spouse’s interactions with other sexual partners. As with some het couples, the idea of “my” spouse being desired/sought by another juices the primary relationship because a) my spouse is desirable; b) my spouse chooses me, which kicks up my own status. Another take on a “trophy” spouse.
Finally, with surveys, as opposed to the structured interview I discussed earlier, researchers rely heavily on numbers. We recognize that as Dr.House on his tv show intones, “everybody lies.” But that doesn’t mean everybody lies about everything, or about the same things. We also recognize some people lie to themselves. But if we work with a population of over 500 (as the original study Queerty is quoting does)the chances are much better we’ll have accurate information than if we were interviewing 15 people. The larger the population questioned, the more likely we’ll be able to sift out the misleading or dishonest individual responses. This is also why a question may be asked more than once, but framed in a different manner. I mentioned this before in my earlier post, where if you use “standard” English with a paricular group, you may get a different response than if you asked the question framed in that group’s vocabulary. Margaret Mead ran into the same problem with her research in Polynesia. Turns out the people she studied make a distinction (based on how the question is framed) as to answer you with an “ideal” (this is how my culture tells me I should behave) vs. a “real” (this is how I’m actually behaving) response. This would be equivalent to asking a Catholic Priest how a Catholic Priest behaves, while he knows as soon as the interview is over, he’s off to go down on a choir boy.
eagledancer
@southpaugh:
Again-my bad vision–I was trying to reply to your post but clicked on the “reply” next to yours–my apologies.
kalifani6
@Samwise:
Rotflmao!^_^…I know, right?
Kevin
@Tommy: I think the reason older people are more likely to report having had some sort of same-sex activity is because they’ve had more time to have that experience. I mean, if you’re interviewing an 18-year-old it’s pretty likely that there are plenty of things they’d like to do or will at some point experiment with but haven’t yet, while for a 58-year-old it’s more likely that they’ve done everything they have any inclination to do. So if 10% of 20-year-olds have had gay oral sex and 15% of 60-year-olds have, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a cultural shift, just that 5% of people have their first gay oral sex somewhere between 20 and 60.
woodin
Surveys also can’t really ensure the truthfulness of answers either. Case in point, many people claim or identify as christain, yet are more of the cafeteria type of christain….meaning they pick and choose aspects of faith/christain virtues they adhere to, yet still feel they are christain. So you can be a bad ass person by week and be redeemed of all personal and professional indiscretions on Sunday or thru personal prayer. We all know how the pro-christain GOP have made christain values so fluid for its purpose. Look at former senators Todd Courser, John Edwards and Strom Thurman on the fluidity of living the “christain” values life.