Comments on: Human Nature Rears Its Natural Head

By: Sas

Sas — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 14:44:06 +0000

Good job.

By: » The Best of Weblog Empire: week ending 18 September 2005 The Blog Herald: more blog news more often

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:43:51 +0000

[...] On Donklephant: A Prairie Home Prosecution, ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œUnder GodÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚? Overruled, Foreign Aid, Help Wanted and Human Nature Rears Its Natural Head [...]

By: Montag

Montag — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 18:00:07 +0000

From today's Daily Howler:

So there you have it. Slightly more than half of teens have engaged in oral sex! Unfortunately, Stepp omits another finding: Slightly more than half of teens have engaged in vaginal intercourse! In fact, the numbers for oral sex and intercourse are almost identical...

Which kind of spoils the conclusions drawn in the third block quote, "Many teenagers have fully accepted the idea..." Unless of course, the half doing oral is the opposite of the half doing intercourse. But alas, no. Also from the Daily Howler:

...the study shows that a fairly small percentage of teens have engaged in oral sex but not intercourse. . . . According to a chart accompanying the New York Times piece, the number seems to be slightly less than ten percent among girls.

The New Your Times piece is here: Nationwide Survey Includes Data on Teenage Sex Habits

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:46:31 +0000

I heard NPR coverage of this story, and the main points they emphasized were: 1) that more teenagers, girls and boys alike, are having oral sex because they do not understand (or acknowledge?) that oral sex can be just as risky as intercourse; 2) that the significance of any of these findings (i.e. – girls are not giving as much as receiving) will have to be replicated in other studies before we get too excited ;-) and 3) that we need to be cautious about these findings because teenagers are notorious for not really disclosing about their sex (and drug) lives truthfully – which is why replication is important because it will tend to show that the results are accurate.

By: Justin Gardner

Justin Gardner — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 05:08:54 +0000

Hmm…as Kaus suggests, the Wash Post removed the words “sexually confident.”

That’s certainly subjective editorial if I’ve ever seen it, but not one I disagree with. I think this does show that girls are becoming more sexually confident.

Will this spill over into womanhood? Only time will tell.

In any event, let’s hope this leads to more responsible behavior. On that point, I think we can all agre.

By: Callimachus

Callimachus — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:28:28 +0000

You're not the only one. Kaus also finds it odd.