Just Do it?

According to a Durex.com survey the Chinese have the highest number of sexual partners – 19.3 per person.

Don’t know about you, but this surprised me. Brazil, famous for bikinis, waxes for bikinis, and sexual freedom, was a distant second with 15.2. The USA, we’re at a prudish 10.3 partners.

I spent the month of June in China, and while I did get propositioned by multiple hookers on the way to grab a McDonald’s ice cream cone, I had no idea China was so sexually liberated.

I would have guessed the exact opposite to be true – that we’re twice as promiscuous as the Chinese. China, while modernizing at an alarming rate, seems to be a very traditional culture that is heavily concerned with face. It doesn’t seem like a culture where a father would permit little Lou-Lou from romping in the hay with the neighbor boy, his brothers, his brothers’ friends, and his brothers’ friends’ brothers, etc. Or in the interest of sexual fairness…Where a mother would permit her strapping son Lucky from getting…well… lucky with the neighbor girl, her sisters, her sisters’ friends, and her sisters’ friends’ sisters, etc.

This seems like the kind of thing that would bring shame to a family.

But what do I know? When I visit a country I don’t really have my thumb on the sexual pulse. Of course, this does explain the mini-bars of lubricants, man lotion, condoms, and sex toys at the hotels.

(Note: In case you are wondering why I was perusing Durex.com… I was reading The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs and he was explaining that some people think that part of the reason Africa is ravaged by AIDS is because Africans are amoral and promiscuous. He pointed out that this wasn’t the case and, in fact, most countries in Africa average less than five sexual partners. This led me to Google “average number of sexual partners” and eventually to Durex’s website. The website doesn’t list any African nations, although there most surely is a need for condoms in Africa, I doubt there is much money to be made there. This, undoubtedly, is a contributing factor to why Africa has an AIDS crisis.)

 
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Melissa says:

So…what does Africa need to be “condemns” on?

🙂

The very first thing I noticed after I turned in my MS thesis for binding was “excising females” instead of “exercising females”…

Kelsey says:

Oops. Thanks. Who can’t spell condoms? I corrected it.

Rachael says:

That’s the longest most passionate justification I’ve seen in a long time;-)

Kelsey says:

What can I say…when you quote research from a rubber site you need to justify why the heck you were there in the first place.

Joel says:

Doesn’t surprise me, even though I have my doubts about the reliability of that research (no special reason… i’m just a suspicious guy, esp. about research).

Just remember there are “many China’s” – it has everything from the overly-liberated (some people think America really is like in the movies) to the opposite extreme. I’m still amazed at the differences expressed in the sexual health classes we’re connected with here. There’s everything from the unapologetically gold-digging big city girls to kids like one this week from the countryside who asked in a ‘personal sexual boundaries’ class, “Do we *have* to have sex when we’re married?” And despite the traditional outward show of general sexual repression, prostitution has a long tradition.

Does that research go into detail? A society where men and women both have numerous lovers is not near the same thing as one where single men and husbands are more likely to visit a relatively high number prostitutes while most of the wives are out of luck.

Kelsey says:

Joel, it doesn’t really go into any detail about the survey’s specifics. I posted about this topic on the bootsnall forum and a fella told me that few of the Chinese people would have internet access to participate in the Durex survey. And that the ones who do aren’t representative of the overall population. Apparently, Chinese with internet are horn dogs.

I don’t think it would be hard to poke holes in the condom companies research and give birth to a litter of doubt.

Let your voice be heard!

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