Has women’s sexuality joined that of men? Has the frequency of intercourse increased in our seemingly hyper-liberated society? The last major survey on sexuality in France (CSF 2006) provided answers. First surprise, the frequency of sexual intercourse has not changed since the beginning of the 1970s. In 2006, women declared themselves more easily to indulge in masturbation than in the previous surveys of 1992 and 1970, in this respect coming closer to men. . Likewise, young women visit dating sites on a par with men. Above all, we observe a trivialization of oral sexuality (fellatio, cunnilingus), but not of anal penetration, excluded from the ordinary repertoire of the couple. Swinging remains very little known and mainly concerns men.
As the survey also reveals, there is still a “male sexuality”, where lifelong masturbation and the consumption of pornography (films, specialized sites) hold a good place.
To cite also a more modest but very revealing survey, “The sexual habits of French people aged 40 and over” (1). To the question: “In recent years, do you think that sexual habits have changed? “, The people questioned answer overwhelmingly” yes “, but when asked if they have changed their own sexual habits (swinging, bisexuality, sadomasochism, multiplication of partners, etc.), they overwhelmingly reject the most extreme experiences. Conclusion: there is indeed a gap between the idea that we have of the sexuality of others and its practice, more conventional, even if it can be diversified. (1) Pfizer / Louis Harris, 2003.
Blowjobs in the college toilets, sodomy in high school, hot homemade videos, chain fuck-friends … If we are to believe the media, the sexuality of the youngest, even teenagers, is totally unleashed. The fault lies with television, and more particularly with porn movies, which the younger generation is fond of. But what about in reality? What is certain is that the age of first sexual intercourse has fallen (it is 17.6 years against almost 21 years in the 1950s), and young women today are much less numerous than ‘formerly to marry their first partner: they are currently 20% among 20-24 year olds, and men only 6% in this case. This implies that they have several partners in their life. For all that, do they make a collection of lovers? Not really, since according to the 2006 CSF survey, less than one in four young women aged 18 to 24 declares having had “at least two sexual partners during the past year”. Are they more liberated, is their sexuality more torrid? In recent decades, there has been an increase in oral sex, sodomy (to a lesser extent), but nothing that makes the over 40s, or even the fifties, blush with shame, who were young in the 1970s and experienced the sexual revolution. Admittedly, young or very young women have attitudes and ways of dressing that are often suggestive, ultra-sexual and provocative, but it seems that the freedom of morals stops there, and that questions, doubts, worries, are always the same. At the same time, boys are “brought up to porn” which gives them precise images of sex before they even practice it. According to sex therapist Catherine Solano, this desensitizes them from their natural sensual experience, and does not leave them time to progress in their discovery of sexuality. Girls, inevitably, adapt to these new behaviors, or try to do so, not always cheerful. Or they refuse them and “hold up”. Choices that can prove difficult …
