Has anal sex gone out of vogue? What does this mean for HIV prevention?

via the HIV MSM blog

So the Advocate recently reported the findings of a large-scale survey on sexual behaviors.  Apparently, only 37.2% of over 24,000 gay and bisexually identified men indicated that their last sexual encounter consisted of anal sex.   The most practiced activities were kissing (almost 75%) and mutual masturbation (73%).

The survey, entitled  ‘The Gay and Bisexual Men’s National Sex Survey’ was sponsored by Manhunt,  its sexual health affiliate Manhunt Cares (see my past post here about them) and  its research partners, present the findings in a cutesy interactive graphical form which can be accessed from clicking on the picture on the left (i.e. I found out that 80.8 % of surveyed men have eaten cum at some point in their lives!) The abstract of the study, which appears in the Journal of Sexual Medicine can be found here.

Now before we give up our lube and condoms and other devices we find makes our anal sex experience more comfortable, there a few things to keep in mind.  For some reason, the majority of respondents in this latest conducted by researchers from Indiana University and George Mason University were Caucasian males.  Perhaps results would be changed if there was some diversity in the subject pool.  Also, one should note that the respondents were “self identified” gay or bisexual.  Perhaps if behaviors of non-identified men who have sex with men, (i.e. heterosexual identifying men) were recorded the results would also show a higher indication of anal sex.  However, I like the point that one of the commentators made:   Anal sex does require a lot of effort (much like vaginal penile sex as well) and perhaps people don’t want to go through such effort simply to get off.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Hard Core Porn's Pervasiveness and Evolving Sexual Behaviors

via The Atlantic, by Natasha Vargas-Cooper

Excerpt:

Porn’s new pervasiveness and influence on the culture at large haven’t necessarily introduced anything new into our sexual repertoire: humans, after all, have been having sex—weird, debased, and otherwise—for quite a while. But pervasive hard-core porn has allowed many people to flirt openly with practices that may have always been desired, but had been deeply buried under social restraint. Take anal sex: in a 1992 study that surveyed sexual behaviors, published by the University of Chicago, 20 percent of women ages 25 to 29 reported having anal sex. In a study published in October 2010 by the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, the instances of anal sex reported by women in the same age cohort had more than doubled, to 46 percent. The practice has even made its way into the younger female demographic: the Indiana study shows 20 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds have had anal sex at least once.

One of the Indiana study’s co- authors, Debby Herbenick, believes that Internet porn now “plays a role in how many Americans perceive and become educated about sex.” How this influence actually works is speculative— no one can ever really know what other people do in their bedrooms or why. Some experts postulate a sort of monkey-see, monkey-do explanation, whereby both men and women are conforming to behaviors they witness on their browser media players. But in many ways this explanation doesn’t account for the subtle relationship between now-ubiquitous pornography and sexuality. To take anal sex again, porn doesn’t plant that idea in men’s minds; instead, porn puts the power of a mass medium behind ancient male desires. Anal sex as a run-of-the-mill practice, de rigueur pubic waxing for girls—and their mothers—and first-date doggy-style encounters (this is but a small sampling of rapidly shifting sexual mores) have been popularized and legitimized by porn. Which means that men now have a far easier time broaching subjects once considered off- putting—for instance, suburban dads can offhandedly suggest anal sex to their bethonged, waxed wives.

Read the rest.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]