Front Page
News
Opinion
A & E
Features
Sex
Campus Maps
Archive
Staff
Contact
Payton Jay Ebbtide Reporter All right. So I'm sure you've heard of the class called "Sex and Sweat." Many of you probably know that it is one of the most popular classes that Shoreline Community College offers. The course is in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and Diana Knauf and Carol Dyksterhius jointly teach it. If you've heard of the class, then most likely you have heard of the explicit survey that the students are asked to fill out. You probably think that it can't be that explicit, but believe me, it is! In the beginning of the class, the instructors ask the students to sign a "Human Sexuality Informed Consent" waiver. This informs the students that they will be "exposed to explicit sexual material both written and visual in nature. Should you become uncomfortable with the materials being presented, you may leave the room. You will be asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire." The consent goes on to discuss appropriate behavior for the class, gives the students a brief overview and thanks the students for "participating responsibly" in the class. So now let's talk about the sex survey. It was adapted from "Sex on Campus: The Naked Truth about the Real Sex Lives of College Students," by Leland Elliott and Cynthia Brentley. Each year, the results from the questionnaire are compiled and there is a master list of class statistics. The actual survey is seven pages long, whereas the list of statistics is only two pages. So obviously not all of the questions from the survey are covered in the statistics, but it is more a summary of the results. The first question on the survey is "Are you a virgin?" Students are asked to put their age and gender. The questions on the survey deal with a wide range of subjects, for instance body image, drugs, sexual orientation, masturbation, and of course, S-E-X! The class statistics for Spring Quarter 2001 inform the students that 31.5 percent of participants were men and 68.5 percent were women, a 17:37 ratio. The age of the students range from 17 to 37, 27.8 percent of them being virgins and 72.2 percent not. Out of the 54 people that took the survey, 75.9 percent of them answered the questions about sexual partners. For the number of sexual partners the students have had, 16.7 percent have had one, 5.6 percent have had two, 11.1 percent have had three, 3.7 percent have had four, 7.4 percent had five, 20.4 have had six to nine, 3.7 percent have had 10-14, 5.6 percent have had 15-19, and 1.9 percent have had 20-24. Out of those that took the survey, 52.9 percent of men had a one-night stand, whereas only 40.5 percent of women have. And how do they like to "get it on"? Well, 27.8 percent prefer the missionary position, 29.6 percent prefer the woman on top, and 14.6 percent said their favorite position was doggy-style. You've probably heard the rumors that many women fake orgasms. The results of this survey definitely reinforce this. As far as faking it goes, 59.5 percent of women have done it, yet only 17.6 percent of men have. Of course the survey doesn't just talk about sexual intercourse, but also oral sex. The statistics, when it comes to oral sex, seem to be very similar between men and women. Out of the men surveyed, 88.2 percent have performed oral sex and 88.2 percent have received it. Out of the women surveyed, 81.1 percent have performed oral sex and 89.2 percent have received it. One hundred percent of those who have given oral sex have received it as well, while only 33.3 percent of those who have not given oral sex have ever received it. Besides intercourse and oral sex, many of those surveyed have experimented with other things such as talking dirty, spanking, using bondage, role-playing, threesomes, and cross-dressing. As mentioned earlier, the questionnaire is seven pages long, so I was not able to include many of the questions and statistics. I have not taken the survey or the class, but I have heard many good things about the class. Although some of these numbers are pretty outrageous, keep in mind that this is only a survey on a sample of Shoreline Community College students and it is not meant to be a generalization on all the students. © 2002 Shoreline Community College™ |