How Normal Are Your Sex Habits?

As I was perusing Buzzfeed this weekend, I stumbled across a quiz that I found to be extremely interesting and relevant to Brown et. al.’s article “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and Sex Ed.” The quiz is titled “How Normal Are Your Sex Habits?” and it asks a number of questions ranging from “How old were you when your parents gave you “the talk”?” to “How often do you masturbate?” (The full list can be seen below). After each question and once the user responds a “poll” is revealed that shows him/her where he/she stands in relation to others who have taken the quiz (a sample is seen below).

List of Questions

1. How old were you when your parents gave you “the talk”
2. What age did you loose your virginity?
3. How many sexual partners have you had?
4. Do you watch porn?
5. How often do you masturbate?
6. How long do you typically spend on foreplay
7. How often do you climax during sex?
8.  How often do you have sex?
9. Which one of these is your favorite position?
10. Does size matter?
11.   Have you exchanged racy photos?
12. When performing oral sex do you spit or swallow?
13.   Do you use protection?
14.   Have you ever tried anal sex?
15.   How long do you wait to have sex with someone?
16.  How would you rate yourself in bed?

    Example of poll

This quiz offers potential for both positive and negative effects for young people trying to navigate their sex life much like most new media outlets, new media being defined as “digital media, include text messaging on cell phones, MP3 players (e.g., iPods), blogs or chat rooms on Web sites, and Internet social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook or MySpace, where many users can simultaneously create and communicate on the same Web pages” (Brown et. al., p. 12, 2009).

The positives

Brown et. al.’s article states that, “Most teens (and youth advocates) agree that the Internet is a valuable place to turn for answers to embarrassing sex-related questions, to learn more about uncomfortable topics, to familiarize themselves with intimate body parts, and to gain perspective on conditions and sexual practices” (Brown et. al., p. 12, 2009). This quiz covers topics such as penis size, masturbation, skill level in bed, and favorite sex position, many of which are uncomfortable topics that can be hard to gain information about in the real world or through traditional media that is generally more censored. After taking the poll myself, and looking at the polling numbers on particular questions, I found the answers to a few of the questions to have the potential to positively affect the user. One such question deals with protection. The answer poll suggests that 47% of people always use protection. While this number isn’t as high as most educators would like it too be, it does send the message that many people use protection all the time. Therefore the user might be more inclined to use protection in their own sexual endeavors after being exposed to this information. The question “How often do you typically spend on foreplay” also has the potential to aid a user in navigating his/her sex life and sexual pleasure. Those who are well versed in sexual knowledge know that foreplay plays a major role in sexual pleasure. This question serves as a platform for discovery as a user who may not be familiar with the term might be more likely to look into it further and potentially use his/her newfound knowledge to enhance his/her own sexual pleasure.  Lastly, the quiz also serves as a center for sexual self-expression. By responding to these questions, even though it is anonymously, users are sharing their experiences and contributing to the masses. Brown et. al.’s piece states that “In fact, it has been repeatedly argued that sexual self-expression on the Internet can be functional for adolescents. The Internet provides a relatively safe space for teens to explore and define themselves as sexual beings” supporting the notion that a quiz such as this has the potential to positively influence its users due to its ability to act as a safe space for sexual expression (Brown et. al., p. 14, 2009).

The negatives

While a quiz like this has the potential to positively influence its users it seems to have an even greater potential to negatively influence them in a number of ways. First of all, the shear title of the quiz has the ability to make a user whose responses do not line up to the majority feel as though their sexual life is “abnormal,” even if it isn’t. Questions like “Does size matter?” “While performing oral do you spit or swallow?” or “How many partners have you had?” also have the potential to make people feel inadequate and insecure about their sexual ability and experience. Furthermore, this quiz is not necessarily a representative sample and therefore the “norm” cannot be accurately quantified by the responses given, even though the quiz presents itself as though this is the case. This is particularly concerning when looking at some of the responses that I saw when taking the quiz myself.  One such example can be seen in the response to the question “Do you watch porn?”The poll shows over half having watched porn. This “finding” potentially has users believing that most people watch porn, proliferating and encouraging the viewing of porn especially by adolescents who are presumably a large portion of the Buzzfeed audience. This is an issue because the viewing of porn by adolescents has proven to be harmful to society as, “Longitudinal studies have found that such exposure predicts less progressive gender role attitudes and perpetration of sexual harassment for males, and sexual uncertainty, uncommitted sexual exploration (i.e., one-night stands, hooking up), earlier oral sex and sexual intercourse for both males and females” (Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006, 2008a, b). Another example can be seen in the response to the finding, “Have you exchanged racy photos” where a majority of the users said that they had. The first problem with this question is the definition of “racy.” As its not explicitly defined the ability for interpretation of its definition is vast. Therefore people might believe that the majority of people are sending “racy” photos even if they are not, because of sampling error. Perpetuating “sexting” as this quiz does is another potential issue for society as studies have shown that it increases self-objectification in women and can lead consequences as Brown et. al. states, “Reputations are harmed, relationships broken, and friendships shattered when receivers of naked images violate senders’ trust by sending the images on to others” (Brown et. al., p. 15, 2009).  Therefore, this quiz is potentially encouraging behavior under the veil of normalcy that creating a potential for major societal implications.

Overall, while this Buzzfeed quiz does have the potential to positively affect its viewers through providing them with sexual education, encourage them to seek out more information about sexual topics they have little knowledge about, and allow for sexual self expression, it does so under the false pretenses that the responses given reveal what is “normal,” leading to a great deal of potential negative outcomes for users and society at large.

References

Brown, J. D., Keller, S., & Stern, S. (2009). Sex, sexuality, sexting, and sexed:Adolescents and the media. Prevention

Researcher, 16(4), 12-°©‐16.