Draft #3

Stephanie Silvestri

English 1000C

As said by Swami X, “Sex is not the answer, sex is the question, yes is the answer!” Or is it no? A survey was conducted in Donovan Hall at St. John’s University about sex with both male and female students as the targets. Some base their decisions on religion and religion alone. However, the majority does not seem to care anymore, and just want to have fun during their college years. What will truly change a college student’s mind about having sex? Falling in love? Getting drunk at a Fraternity party? Or just simply following something seen on television or heard in the new hip-hop song? In the survey, 75% of males in Donovan Hall have had sex and only 40% of females have. The real question is, how are college students truly treating sex at this point in their life? This survey addresses the diversified answers about sex of both male and female virgins and non-virgins. .

Although a good percentage of male and female college students have already had sex, there are some who have not. The survey asked students if they were virgins or not, and why they chose this path. 60% of women are virgins and only 25% of men are. Out of that percentage, 38% of the woman and not even one male, claimed it is a religious standpoint, going by what the Holy Bible tells them what to do. Then, half the woman and all of the men say that they just simply have not met the right person yet but only 10% of women truly want to wait until marriage. There was only one male who said he wanted to wait until marriage or at least he was “hoping for it.” When asked about how many times a day they thought about sex, nearly all of the women replied, “Only when I’m with my friends.” When asked if they believed sex was an act of love, 75% answered yes. The rest just believe that sex can never be about love anymore. One girl even stated, “I think it should be an act of love, but it just isn’t anymore because of all the things on television and dirty talks across the country. This totally changes my opinion about sex.” Men on the other hand, had quite different replies to this question. Some common replies were, “once or twice,” “hardly ever,” and “daily.” Also, all of them believed sex was an act of love, not just something done when they’re drunk. Another question asked was, “Do you believe television and radio have any affect on your decision?” 25% answered yes. However, it seemed like no one really thought about the little things such as the amount of sexual appeal in music, or that all the pornographic material on the Web or television, would have any affect on their decision to have sex. Another interesting statistic about the men and women was that every one of them claimed they drank and that it gave them no added pressure to have sex. Is there a reason why there are many more many female virgins than male virgins? Some may say that women have higher morals, or that men are just dumb jerks who only care about sex. The fact remains that most college males, particularly students at a Catholic School, have no care for any religion or moral standpoint; the ones that do, seem to be very insecure about themselves. And girls seem to just want to wait until they fall in love. On the other hand, some college students have already had sex, and are very open with their answers.

Although there were some virgins accounted for at this Catholic school, there are still many non-virgins. 40% of the women asked were no longer virgins along with 3/4 of the males. 70% of those women have been with more than one man. In contrast, 72% of male non-virgins have been with more than one woman, half of them have been with more than five, and 22% have been with more than ten women throughout their lives which are at most nineteen years. This makes one ask the question, how many women will it be by college graduation? Apparently most women took that fact into consideration and decided to get tested for an STD. The men however, were not so smart. Only 40% have been tested, but that is a high percentage contraire to what most people assume about teenagers and getting tested. All of the women asked view sex as an act of love, while only half of the men shared that thought. What seemed to be interesting while surveying the woman was that all women who have not had sex drank. But, most woman who do have sex, do not drink. So, alcohol really does not have an affect on peoples’ sex lives. While surveying the woman was boring and awkward, surveying the men, seemed to very interesting to say the least. Unlike the girls, the men agree that television and the radio increases thoughts about sex. “We see sex all the time and it makes us want to,” said a student living on the third floor. More popular responses erupted after the question, “How many times a day do you think about sex?” Most men looked down and laughed at this answer, not knowing what to say. Some hilarious answers included, “there’s only a couple minutes I don’t think about sex,” “you lose track after noon,” and “how many seconds are there in a day?” But, surprisingly the most common answer was simply, “five.” Whether that was the truth, no one can ever be certain. The women always make sure they are using protection. Men however, found this question to be quite comical. They replied, “Sometimes,” “only on special occasions,” “no glove, no love,” and “is pulling out protection?” Men seem to take sex as a joke, and girls seem to take it more seriously. There was however, a common trend between both male and female non-virgins. They all seemed to have lost their virginity at the same time in their lives: their freshman year of high school.

Men and woman have conflicting views about sex. After answering questions about sex, most men laughed and played it off as a joke. But, women were rather shy and took longer to answer questions. The main point of this survey was to try to get young college students to open up about how they felt about sex. It brought upon interesting comments, and results out of the norm. Everyone always assumes that drinking influences college students decision to have sex, that people are not getting tested for STD’s, and the stereotype for most teenagers is that they lose their virginity on prom night during their senior year. This survey brought out the truth and put together a new light of what college students believe about their sexual lives.