The Data on Diversity


I mentioned a massive Kinksey study early. It’s known as The 2009 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB). Conducted by the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, sex researchers surveyed roughly six thousand people, ages 14 to 94.

Skeptical as I am about small-scale sexuality studies, the Kinsey data sample is sufficiently large to make their results compelling. Even if some of the percentages are slightly off, there’s nonetheless a large enough sample size to establish quantitatively that, yes, these are genuine trends, and things we should factor into our way of thinking about sex.

So, for example, I am gratified to know that their study offers data that backs up one of my contention that people need a range of stimuli in bed, and not just intercourse, to feel satisfied. The research showed “enormous variability in the sexual repertoires of U.S. adults,” and recorded descriptions of 41 sex combinations.

Relax – this does not mean that everyone studied reported they had sex in 41 different ways. Nor does it mean that there are only 41 ways to have sex. It means that when they tried to categorize the different ways all 5,865 participants had sex, they were able to catalogue 41 different ways that adults combined masturbation, oral sex, vaginal intercourse and anal sex to achieve orgasms. Hypothetically, one combination might be mutual masturbation and vaginal intercourse; another combination might be oral sex and vaginal sex; another combination might be oral and anal sex; and so on.

The acknowledgement that people have sex in at least 41 different combinations contradicts the popular notion that most people derive full satisfaction from man-on-top vaginal intercourse. When added to reams of supporting data from previous studies, the Kinsey study proves that a varied, sensual and uninhibited model of adult sexuality is the true norm.

I was especially delighted that the researchers specified what they meant by sex (rather than assuming sex was vaginal sex). It never occurred to me that one could count combinations for the acts I think of as MOVA/MOA. Nor am I sure how the math worked to derive 41 combinations from 4 basic acts but it’s a wonderful new base-line for the typical range of ways couples have sex.

Better still, since we know there are thousands of sexual variations people include in their repertoires which were NOT included in these statistics (from young lovers’ frisky games to hardcore fetish sex), the math then suggests that, all told, there are likely thousands of possible erotic combinations that adults routinely enjoy.