Young women are having sex...it's true!

The yearly survey of “how much sex are young women really having” came around mid-September.

Once again, it had nothing to do with male sexuality—can’t figure out for the life of me why it’s always gal’s sexuality that’s under scrutiny. Maybe because people keep that old tired, “men can have lots of sex and women can’t…because she’ll get pregnant and get labeled a ‘whore’” dogma subconsciously in their heads.

This time, thank goodness, no mention of how immoral and over sexualized our young women have become—perhaps that headline has been beaten to a pulp and can’t dragged out anymore.

I won’t bore you with my usual tirade of how scientifically inaccurate these sex surveys are and how much damage they do over the long term to a woman’s sexuality. But I digress—oops, almost got on that soap box of mine.

This survey zeroed in on women 18 to 24 and showed that they’re having sex. Does this shock and surprise you? Me neither. The ‘spin’ in the press release is that they’re taking the birth control pill and only talking to their friends—rather than her doctor.

The press release states, “…which found that more than 50 per cent of Canadian women between the ages of 18 and 24 are regularly sexually active, almost all women know about birth control options, but only four per cent speak to their mothers the most about contraception.”

The press release tried to rally a shard of interest by saying Vancouver gals were having more sex than Toronto. Yawn! And by dragging the moms in and sharing how they can talk to their daughters about sex and birth control.

Honey, if you haven’t had a talk to your daughter by the time she is 18 (even 13) about sex, then you’ve missed the ‘sex talk’ bus. That talk should have started, oh, about 18 years ago.

Sooooo, please explain to me again what’s newsworthy about this?

I did a few interviews when the press release came out. One radio show asked me, “So do you think these sexually active women take into account stay-at-home moms?”

There was a VERY long pause as I was so stunned by the question. Did this announcer not read the press release that said it was women 18 to 24? Not too many young ladies I know are settling down and having babies.

Calmly as I could muster, I replied neutrally, “I believe if women want to have sex one, four, ten times a week then having kids would, probably, not be their best way to do it.”

The announcer, who must have been a mom, gave me a conspiratorial laugh and said, “I completely agree.”

Let’s wait another six months until the next survey on “young women and their sexuality” is once again gracing the cover of McLean’s magazine.