Author: Jacob Goldstein, Lizeth Castillo and Margie Camarda
On the whole, Occidental students seem to be satisfied with their sex lives on campus,” wrote a student in the Dec. 3, 1976 issue of the Occidental Weekly. Thirty-two years ago, some long-forgotten Weekly reporter conducted a survey about the sex lives of Oxy students, the results of which were the foundations for a features article entitled “Sex on Campus.” The article has no by-line, and the anonymous reporter’s work has lain fallow for three decades. But now, in 2008, his or her work has been rediscovered. The survey has been redistributed, and students can now compare their lives to those of the Oxy generation that came before them.
In addition to uncovering some of the more entertaining lingo used by our parents’ generation (like “going steady,” and “making it” with one’s crush), the survey and article did yield some useful information. In many segments of the survey, there were significant differences between current Oxy students and those from 1976. These differences probably do not stem from any kind of essential change in sexuality among college age students. But they do reflect changing standards, and provide insight into the changes in attitudes toward and treatment of sexuality by young adults.
Getting’ Busy: How We Did It
Our survey methodology centered on two facets: preserving the intent of the original 1976 survey, and assuring that current respondents would remain anonymous. We consciously resisted the urge to bring the survey “up-to-date.” The only major change we made was to remove the answer option of “homosexual” from question 5, “What turns you on?” We felt that this question implied that homosexuality is not a sexual identity but rather a deviation of “normal” heterosexuality, amounting to something that respondents could “try” just like oral sex or group sex. This omission proved somewhat contentious. “[Removing the question] was a serious mistake,” Toni Ballinger (senior) said. “Many people on campus who are gender queer/homosexual/bisexual may have felt disenfranchised by this omission and not completed the survey.” However, many other students approved of the change. “I believe [the change] demonstrates a better and deeper understanding of sexuality and its function and place in society,” Kyle Bruin (junior) said. “Even if heterosexuals are turned on by homosexuality I am not sure it would be properly construed or interpreted if it was posed in the manner the original survey was.” Sonia Castaneda (junior) echoed Bruin’s sentiments. “I think it was a good call to remove the choice, as it is disrespectful of people’s sexual orientation,” she said. “The choice places homosexuality as exotic and not a normal lifestyle.”
We then used surveymonkey.com to post the survey online. (Our 1976 predecessors conducted their survey using paper questionnaires.) We chose to post the survey online because it allowed the responses to remain completely anonymous, and we also felt that this particular format would garner the highest response rate. In order to attract a wide variety of respondents, we advertised the survey through the Oxy email digest and also on Facebook. In the end, 104 males and 188 females took the survey. We aggregated the data by gender (totaled male and female responses separately), so the percentages listed here do not reflect this unequal proportion of male and female respondents.
While we were excited to see how the sexual behaviors of current students would compare to their 1976 predecessors, it is important to note the limitations inherent in any sex survey-or any survey in general. “Surveys are always biased because questions have to be chosen and phrased and there is no perfect set of questions and no objective way to phrase them,” Sociology Professor Lisa Wade said. Wade’s areas of expertise include the social construction of the body and sexuality as power. “Important things can be learned from surveys, but it’s a mistake to think that you’re somehow getting at ‘the truth.’ You’re always getting at a version of the truth.” This is especially true of surveys that relate to sex or sexuality. A “perfect” sex survey would require a researcher who is completely unbiased, as well as respondents who are capable of separating their sexual behavior from the cultural and historical meanings constructed upon these behaviors. Furthermore, as researchers Julia A. Ericksen and Sally A. Steffen argue in their book, Kiss and Tell: Survey Sex in the Twentieth Century, “. . . even with the best intentions, researchers have managed their surveys in such a way as to produce findings reflecting their own beliefs about gender and normality . . . Responsible researchers adopted techniques to neutralize the effect of their biases, but their very choice of research topics assumed a certain view of sexuality.” This is not to say that our survey is invalid or worthless; it does provide a balanced look at the sexual behavior of Oxy students. However, it would be incorrect to assume that our survey represents some greater “truth” about college-student sexuality.
Let’s Talk About Sex
Individuals have been concerned with analyzing people’s sexual habits ever since people have engaged in sexual intercourse. Sex has always been a controversial subject in our society, and was brought into the mainstream public consciousness through the research of sexologist Alfred Kinsey. Kinsey founded the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. The Kinsey Reports, a controversial two book series published in the late 1940s and early 1950s, sought to explain human sexual behavior in men and women. It was one of the most monumental sex surveys taken in America because it challenged social ideas about sex and sexual practices.
Years after Kinsey, surveys that seek to reveal the sexual practices of mainstream society are still controversial. As Ericksen and Steffen reveal in Kiss and Tell: “Sexual behavior is a volatile and sensitive topic, and surveys designed to reveal it have both great power and great limits. By revealing the private behavior of others, they provide a way for people to evaluate their own behavior and even the meaning of information that surveys produce . . . And the ‘truths’ surveys reveal have enormous implications.”
With just under 300 students participating in our sex survey, it’s clear that Oxy students, too, are wondering how sexual practices on this campus have changed.
One striking difference between Oxy students of the present and those of 30 years ago is the decrease in the number of virgins on campus. The 1976 writer evidently equated sexual experience with general maturity, and found the number of supposedly wizened non-virgins on campus odd, given the constant debauchery he or she witnessed on campus. “The next time you see students throwing food in the union, festooning their dorm corridors with toilet paper, putting Ex-lax in the chocolate sauce, or driving their cars into the lobby,” the reporter wrote, “don’t call them na’ve youngsters unless you’re leaving out their bedroom conduct. They’re probably not as innocent as you think.”
While we cannot say whether Oxy students have become more mature, the data does reveal that they have become less virginal. In 2008, 14 percent of males and 26 percent of females reported being virgins, compared with 25 percent of males and 34 percent of females who reported being virgins in 1976. Reactions to this statistic varied among current students. Some, such as Phillip Allen (senior), were surprised that there are still so many virgins. “I am surprised that many women are virgins,” Allen said. “The liberal discussion and availability of sexual conversation makes me think more people, both men and women, have had sex. I would have expected a reduction in the number of virgins as conservative sexual values have changed dramatically over the years.”
Other students were shocked by the number of virgins in 1976. “The original percentages do surprise me because the decade was big on women’s
lib and equal rights,” Castaneda said. “I’m not surprised by the current percentages, as low as they are. People now-a-days are bombarded with sexual images and songs that make sex seem a more casual carnal pleasure, rather than something sacred.” Sarah Berkoff (sophomore) agreed. “The first numbers surprised me,” Berkoff said. “Seeing as it was coming during and right after the hippie heyday of free love and what not.” Yet, while the 1970s are often categorized as an era of sexual liberation, others are not at all surprised by the percentages recorded in ’76. “Students were engaged for a long time before graduation in the 70s,” Ballinger said. “There was also more social pressure to abstain from sex in the more conservative environment on and off campus.”
However, what accounts for the differences in the number of sexual partners students have had in their lifespan, and the amount of sex students are having? “Society has become more liberal in regards to sex,” Sarah Esquivel (junior) said. “Although it’s still considered taboo, more and more people are becoming sexually active, although they may not always admit to it. I also don’t think the numbers are solely representative of just Oxy students. If you conducted the survey at a larger university, the numbers [would] probably be the same. I think these results reflect the college atmosphere and our society in general.” Others feel that the data is reflective of Oxy’s small student body. “Committing yourself to one person in a small-school environment is more serious than doing so in a large university,” Tyler Phillips (senior) said. “By ‘settling down’ you are willing to limit yourself socially, and, should anything go wrong in the relationship, social pressures can make you even more isolated. However, it’s tough to say if this behavior is truly specific to smaller schools.”
Student responses also reveal changing attitudes toward the significance of sex, and how close two individuals should be before engaging in sex. In 1976, a combined 19 percent of male and female students believed a couple should be married before having sex, while a combined 9 percent believed they should be engaged. Today, a combined 5 percent believe in strictly marital sex and only 1 percent believed a couple should be engaged. “Those who responded that a sexual partner should only be a spouse are probably waiting for marriage for religious, or other personal reasons,” Esquivel said. “However, our society has become more secular and Oxy is a non-denominational school where traditional values aren’t imposed. We aren’t expected to follow any formal rules so we have more liberty to do what we want. Whatever choice we choose-whether to wait for marriage or not-I feel that choices are respected and not openly judged.”
A final surprising statistic revealed by the survey was a significant rise in the number of students who fantasize about “inflicting or receiving pain.” In 1976, 3 percent of both males and females (uncombined) reported having this fantasy; in 2008, this percentage has jumped to 6 percent of males and 14 percent of females. While it is difficult to make any guesses as to why more female students have this fantasy, this overall rise in desiring “violent” sex is consistent with the eroticization of power at the societal level. “I’m not surprised to see a rise in how many students report this fantasy.” Wade said. “We learn that power is sexy. How do you know that sex is hot? You know because somebody throws somebody on the bed, throws somebody up against a wall, rips off somebody’s clothes, etc. Equality is just not sexy. So we’ve learned to associate dominance and submission with sex. In this sense, today is very different from the 1970s, which was in the heady days of second wave feminism-a far cry from today’s raunch culture in which women revel in their objectification.”
[Lack of] Dating Life at Oxy
In 1976, only 32 percent of females and 30 percent of males were single, while others were either dating, in a relationship, or living with a partner. Now, 52 percent of females and 54 percent males indicated they are single. What does this data reveal about the dating scene at Oxy, and do students feel that the survey results are indicative of Oxy’s social scene? “The dating scene at Oxy is very confusing,” Bruin said. “It is difficult to be involved in the scene for four years unless it involves long term relationships . . . While I believe there is a prevalent ‘hook up’ scene, there are a number of long term and strong relationships at this school and I don’t think one form of dating is any more prevalent than another.”
Some students noted the complexity of dating and having long-term relationships at a campus as small as Oxy. “Many people, I feel, steer clear from Oxy dating since there are the ramifications of going to a small school and what that does once people break up,” Berkoff said.
Others seem to feel that dating in general has taken a different turn but is still prevalent at Oxy. “Here, the term ‘dating’ means that the two students are exclusively ‘hooking-up’ and spend a considerable amount of time with one another,” Phillips said. “On some level, there is something wrong with this behavior because it puts feelings aside; it assumes that people are supposed to detach themselves when being intimate, and thus puts more weight on a relationship in which both partners have genuine feelings for one another.”
How Far Have We Really Come?
In the end, what kind of conclusions can we draw from this survey? We are wary of making any sweeping claims, as the numbers can be exploited to support any number of different conclusions. However, the data does seem to show that current students are more sexually “open” than their 1970s counterparts, in terms of their desire and experience trying masturbation, oral sex, and group sex. And students are definitely having sex, as demonstrated by the decreasing virginity rate. However, contrary to popular discourse-which portrays the 21st century as a period of unprecedented sexual freedom-current students are not having any more sex than students in 1976. A look at the data reveals almost identical statistics in terms of the number of sexual partners students have had and how often students have sex.
Perhaps Wade best puts these contradictions into perspective. “The idea that college students today are experiencing an era of sexual freedom that is unprecedented is certainly false.” Wade said. “History isn’t a linear trajectory from less repressive to more repressive. Instead, we see peaks and valleys. So in terms of sexual freedom, especially for women, we see a peak in the 1920s, in the 1970s, and the 2000s. This presumes, of course, that more partners, more sex, and more variety in sexual behavior is the same thing as freedom. It’s not. Freedom is the ability to choose to do something or not to do something, without pressure either way.”
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
