Between the sheets
Photo Illustration by Carly Piersol
Percent of students who:
The Basics
Have sex daily: 15 percent
Have sex weekly: 43 percent
Are virgins: 17 percent
Have had more than seven partners: 20 percent
Have had between two and four partners: 21 percent
Extra credit
Know of someone (in some cases themselves) who has slept with a professor or teacher’s assistant: 41 percent
The morning after
Leave after sex: 17 percent
Have done a ‘walk of shame’: 47 percent
Wired
Have met a hookup online: 25 percent
Have used a webcam for sex: 26 percent
Have viewed porn on a laptop in class: 29 percent
Are in a nude picture on someone’s camera phone: 34 percent
Have ‘sexted’: 49 percent
Courting
Have gone on dinner-and-a-movie dates: 73 percent
Back door
Have had anal sex: 47 percent
Have tried it only once: 17 percent
Routinely have anal sex: 13 percent
Goodies
Use sex toys either on themselves or a partner: 46 percent
Acting out
Have faked orgasms: 34 percent
Safety dance
Rely on condoms for birth control: 53 percent
Rely on ‘The Pill’ for birth control: 21 percent
Pleasure principle
Percent of college kids who masturbate:
Almost daily: 29 percent
‘Whenever my roommate isn’t home’: 7 percent
Never: 9 percent
Guys who admit to masturbating in the communal shower: 18 percent
Manscaping
How coeds think a guy should be groomed:
Bare: 20 percent
Natural: 21 percent
Trimmed: 59 percent
Shaping
How men prefer a woman to be groomed:
Brazilian: 37 percent
Full: 14 percent
Triangle: 5 percent
Landing Strip: 18 percent
Doesn’t matter: 26 percent
The age-old stereotype that college students are promiscuous is again exposed in Playboy’s 2009 College Sex Survey. The survey polled 5,000 students on playboy.com, asking questions about everything from birth control methods to porn surfing during lectures.
Abi O’Donnell, a publicist for Playboy magazine said that while the survey was geared towards college students the fact that it was conducted online makes it hard to tell exactly who took the quiz and how truthful the answers were. But the reason for the online format was to provide a platform for students to have the opportunity to be open and honest with their answers under the shroud of anonymity.
‘Co-ed college experiences have always been an early site of sexual experimentation and activity,’ said Carol Faulkner, associate history professor who teaches History of Sexuality (HST 222) at Syracuse University.
While Faulkner said the results weren’t shocking overall, there were some results that were surprising like the fact that only 21 percent of people polled said they relied on birth control, compared to the 53 percent that relied on condoms.
‘When the (birth control) pill first came out in the 1960s, women embraced the chance to use a form of birth control that they can control as opposed to the condom,’ Faulkner said. She credited the renewed emphasis on condoms, ‘I think because of the combination of AIDS awareness and egalitarianism put the emphasis back on condoms.’
Faulkner also noted that the influence of technology now plays a part in the sexuality of today’s college students, though she said that she isn’t sure whether or not technology makes students more sexual.
‘It doesn’t seem that students are more open or exhibitionist,’ Faulkner said. ‘When I teach about 17th century prostitution, the students seem shocked, but apparently 30 percent of them look at porn on their computer in class so there may be a disconnect.’
Faulkner also said, perhaps students feel that they have some sense of privacy when it comes to webcams, since they themselves control it.
O’Donnell said that she found the high percentage of students who said that they have been out to dinner and a movie surprising.
‘In the early 20th century, an activity like this would be expected to be followed by marriage, but that has definitely changed over the years,’ Faulkner said.
Playboy does several other surveys throughout the year and conducts its annual list of the Top Party Schools and its ‘Girls of . . .’ list.
Published on September 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm
