Comments on: The Bill Clinton Syndrome

By: Scrivener

Scrivener — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 13:18:39 +0000

I find myself wanting to say that what these statistics seem to show, at least in the sense that they indicate a decreasing number of teens engaging in intercourse and an increasing number of them engagin in oral sex (whether the numbers are exactly correct or not, the trend seems to be indicated), is that there is a redefinition of oral sex and sexual intercourse going on. I would guess there’s always been some general disagreement among people about the specifics, but that in general we used to see oral sex as more intimate than intercourse, but that this is becoming less true nowadays.

The NPR story on the results focused extensively on methods used to avoid errors in the stats because people lie on polls and such. I tend to think, of course people lie but presumably the kinds of lies and the numbers of liars are probably fairly consistent over time. So what’s important is not so much the exact number as a representation of fact (OMG! 55% of teens engaged in oral sex!) but the statistic as an indicator of a trend (the number used to be 30% or whatever and now it’s 55%–neither number may be exactly accurate but the fact that a lot more teens are engaging in oral sex now than they used to is probably correct).

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:52:25 +0000

I think you’re both right on the money here, Heather and Mel. Trust is an angle I hadn’t thought about, but it makes sense. When you allow someone to give you oral, you are allowing them to see your genitals up close, smell you, taste you, take you in their mouth…that does indeed require a certain amount of trust. Same with the person performing the oral: is the person you’re doing this to clean? Do they have any diseases? Trust is what makes it intimate.

On the other hand, if we’re talking about oral between a prositute and a john, or two people who just met in a bar and don’t even know each other’s last names, then I’d agree with the good doctor, that’s not very intimate.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:33:09 +0000

This is pretty damn intimate, in my book. If you really don’t care, it’s pretty easy to just do penetration, get it over with, move on with life. Now, oral sex–I agree, a lot of it is trust. Nothing goes into most people’s mouths that they don’t want there. And it can be far more physically demanding. The planning, the stamina… Frankly, from my point of view, if I’m going to put that much effort into you, you have to be worth my time.

By: Mel B.

Mel B. — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 18:39:45 +0000

People also sometimes lie on polls to deliberately skew the results.

I don’t understand the perception of oral sex being different from penetration. It’s a lie kids might tell themselves, ala pregnancy, but you’re right… I consider that act to be far more trusting than simple penetration.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:45:40 +0000

Let me post an addendum to this story: I don’t trust these numbers. Any time you poll teenagers about sex, you have to take into consideration the impetus to make one’s self out to be more sexually experienced than one actually is. Now you might ask, why would a teenager lie on an anonymous poll? Well, I would ask in return, why do people lie to themselves? People want to feel better about themselves.