Back Breaking News: You May Not Know What Sex Is

Alfred Kinsey and Shere Hite blazed the trails so you don’t have to be in the dark about your parts or your lady’s parts. We like to let you in on all sorts of information related to what’s going on down south. Let’s just say we’re carrying the torch for education.

You may not know what sex is. And no, this is not a joke that it’s been so long that her hymen has grown back or your dick has dried out. It’s about what we mean when we say we have “had sex.”

We often refer to different kinds of sex by which hole is being penetrated: oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex… even manual sex. Well, the Kinsey Institute has done a study on how you define sex when you say, “Mary and I had sex last night.” (We really hope you’re not into announcements.)

It probably won’t surprise you that a study conducted by Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute (in conjunction with the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention in IU’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation) found that there are vastly differing conceptions of “sex” among different genders and age groups. Why is this important? Well, imagine that you were collecting data about whether or not an STD was contracted through “sex.” Well… what kind? What activity has to take place in order for the person to state that they have indeed “had sex?”

Here are some factors that influence maybe yours and others’ definitions:

• Whether or not ejaculation ocurred
• Whether the penis entered the vagina
• Whether a penis entered any orafice
• Whether a penis entered any orafice below the belt

(This, of course, excludes sex between females. This gets hairy — no pun intended. We know a penis isn’t needed for sex to occur in this situation, yet we usually assume that sex is defined by penetration.)

At some point in our development, we’ve all come to the realization that there were a couple more holes available for enjoyment other than the baby-making one. But at that time, did your definition of “sex” shift? Are those sex holes or just “messing-around holes” in addition to “having sex?” Let’s propose this: Does your girlfriend say you’ve had sex if she’s just given you a blowjob in the car? What do you think? Let’s say her pants/panties stayed on, and only your parts got the action this time. Did you get or have sex, and she did not? Did she give sex while you had sex?

By now, you must have heard that a surprising number of teenaged females give away the starfish before they give away the clam, in order to preserve their virginity. Many in that young demographic define “having sex” as vaginal penetration, conveniently drawing a line in the sand, and allocating the bum for the plundering instead.

So what’s the verdict by science? Well it varies depending on who you are. The who is the most interesting part.

Stay tuned for a little video tutorial below these stats:

• Responses of men and women were surprisingly similar. The study surveyed 204 men and 282 women.
• 95% considered penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI) as having had sex. But wait — if there was no ejaculation, only 89% say penis-in-vagina means having sex.
• 81% overall considered anal sex as having had sex. That number drops to 77% if you’re a guy aged 18-29.
• Maybe old people don’t buy into the butt: only 50% of men and 67% of women aged 65 and up believe that anal sex means having sex. We might conclude that the definition of sex becomes narrower as we age, or that the narrower definition belongs to an older generation and not necessarily an age bracket.
• 71% and 73% considered oral contact with a partner’s genitals (OG) as having had sex. This applies to either performing or receiving.

Here’s something amusing:

While 95% of the study group considered penile-vaginal intercourse to be “having sex,” only 77% of males over the age of 65 did. So what do the other 23% of these older guys call it? All Guy.com can do is consult their generation. Let’s face it… They’ve had more time to get creative.

Your grandfather invented this stuff, you know.

Source

From the official study: Sanders, S., Hill, B., Yarber, W., Graham, C., Crosby, R., Milhausen, R., (2010) “Misclassification bias: diversity in conceptualisations about having ‘had sex,’” Sexual Health. 7(1), 31-34.