8B
Friday, October 7, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Survey says singles have less sex
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Most of America's singles aren't swinging these days — not unless they're living together.
Not only that but most people are having sex less often and in ways less kinky than experts had thought. And they're doing it — believe it or not — with their spouses.
The hotbed of sex in America turns out to be the marriage bed.
All this is according to a landmark study of the nation's sexual habits released yesterday by researchers at the University of Chicago and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
The study, billed as America's most comprehensive survey of sexual behavior, debunks many popularly held notions on who is doing what with whom.
Among other things, it found that married people have better sex and have it more often than single people who don't live with a boyfriend or girlfriend.
"The most striking finding is how conventional American sex lives are," said co-author Robert Michael,
dean of the university's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. "Unlike what we're led to believe by watching movies and reading novels, most people have few partners and have rather infrequent sex."
Of married couples surveyed, 41 percent reported having sex at least twice a week, while 56 percent of unmarried couples who lived together reported having sex twice a week or more. Only 23 percent of single people not living with a partner reported being that active.
"The media presents the image of everybody doing it—that people are having more and better sex than you are," said Debra Haffner, an expert on sexuality who did not take part in the study. "This material shows something very different—that married people are having the most satisfying sexual lives."
Among married women, 75 percent reported that they always or usually had an orgasm during sex, compared with 62 percent of single women and about 95 percent of all men.
Researchers based their findings on 90-minute face-to-face interviews
conducted in 1992 with 3,432 people, ages 18 to 59. The $1.7 million study was paid for by eight private foundations after conservative senators killed federal funding in 1991.
It differs from most previous studies in that respondents were randomly selected, providing a broad view of the population, said Wendy Baldwin, a deputy director at the National Institutes of Health.
Results of the study are being published on Monday in two books: "Sex in America," which is intended for general readership, and "The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States," which includes statistical analysis for academic readers.
Researchers found that vaginal intercourse was by far the most popular form of sexual contact among heterosexuals, while watching a partner undress and having oral sex were distant contenders.
Most married people reported being true to their spouses. Seventy-five percent of married men and 85 percent of married women said they were faithful.
Suicides on Golden Gate Bridge on the rise
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — After years of watching people strolling beneath the swooping outlines of the Golden Gate Bridge, Jerry Monge has come to know the type.
"They're just kind of sitting there for too long or standing there for too long," the California Highway Patrol officer said. "We'll approach someone and say, 'You look lost. You look confused,' and talk to them. ... You'd be amazed at how many people we intercept that way."
Lately though, the patrols, the video cameras, the checking of the parking lot for seemingly abandoned vehicles, don't seem to be enough. At least 30 people have jumped to their deaths off the Golden Gate bridge so far this year, six in the past three weeks.
"If you look at the five-year span there the number has tripled. As to what is drawing people to the bridge,
nobody knows," said Monge, whose job is to keep track of the jumps.
The 1.7-mile structure, a technological marvel when it opened, is one of San Francisco's most-recognized landmarks, drawing thousands of visitors who come to admire its graceful lines or have their pictures taken in front of the rust-red, often fogshrouded railings.
But some are drawn to the bridge for a darker purpose. Since it opened in 1937, there have been 971 confirmed suicides.
"There's no doubt that there's some mystique to the bridge," Monge said.
There were 11 suicides in 1990, 18 in 1991, 15 in 1992 and 21 in 1993, Monge said.
Over the years, only a few have survived the 220-foot leap into the Golden Gate. Those who make it suffer numerous broken bones and internal injuries.
"It's like hitting a piece of concrete."
Monge said.
Some make their exits quietly, slipping over in the night.
"In other instances, people are pretty bold. They just drive right into the middle of the bridge, exit their car and jump," Monge said.
Others try to explain. They are ill and cannot bear to watch their strength ebb; they are broke; they didn't get into the right school; their grade average was ruined by a B.
Some leave behind little but questions. One of those was Leonard W. Rothschild Jr., a 46-year-old lawyer, accountant and father of four. On Monday, he hauled himself over the railing and jumped.
"He was a smart, a helpful person. It's terrible. I understand what happened, but it's difficult to understand," Michael Shteynberg, one of Rothschild's clients, told the San Francisco Examiner.
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Informational meeting:
Tuesday Oct. 11, 9:00pm
at Applebee's Bar & Grill
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... AND AFTER BUYING ALL THE MUSIC THEY COULD, THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
COMPACT DISCS & TAPES
The Black Student Union
General Assembly Meeting Monday, October 10,1994 The Kansas Room in the Kansas Union 7:00 p.m.