Sex in the US

I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's Comment is free America about the newly released results of Indiana University's National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior:

"The surprise we found in this survey is the variability and diversity of the way people conduct their sex lives," says [Logan Levkoff, a New York University sexologist].

Frankly, I'm more surprised by the surprise with which the findings – that teens are sexually responsible, sex lives are varied, and people view themselves on a sliding scale of sexuality – are being met. The shock that Americans are not puritans is not only outdated – surely, we've all known Americans aren't doing it missionary-style through hole-punched fuck sheets ever since Dr. Kinsey got a boner staring at gall wasps – but, ironically, seems indicative of the false puritanism that guides much of the US's public discourse about sex and sexuality.

We insistently believe ourselves to be puritans despite all evidence to the contrary, an intractable myth periodically punctuated by the findings of some sex researcher or another, who reveals to us the true nature of our naughtiness – and, oh, how we love to gasp at our scandalously sexy sexbusiness!

But even the actual Puritans weren't puritans. (This lady knows what I'm talking about.) And despite the collective apoplexy about the appearance of a boob at a football game or a naked butt in primetime, what happens behind closed doors has never had any relationship to the public sanctimony about sex and sexuality peddled by pecksniffs who parade a contrived virtue to bored busybodies.

The profound disconnect between who we are and who we regard ourselves to be would be amusing if it weren't so dangerous.

Read the whole thing here.