HOME > ARTICLES

Debunking the Teen Sex Debunkers
S. Robert Lichter Ph.D, May 22, 2008
Shocking news from the Washington Post: Sexually inactive teens not having oral sex! The media giveth and the media taketh.

On more than one occasion STATS has taken to task the “what’s the matter with kids today?” school of social commentary, which relies on study after study purporting to show that kids today are more likely to be doped up, tanked up, or shacked up than their more virtuous elders ever were.

One manifestation of this trend has been media reports claiming that large numbers of (female) teenagers are engaging in oral sex in order to remain “technical virgins.” That is, they can experience the joy of sex while telling their parents, their teachers, their boyfriends, and perhaps themselves that they are still virgins, since they haven’t had (genital) intercourse.

So in principle we welcome the media attention given to a new study whose results were summarized in unusual detail in the headline and subhead of the May 20 Washington Post:  “A Debunking on Teenagers and ‘Technical Virginity;’” “Researchers Find That Oral Sex Isn’t Commonplace Among Young People Who Avoid Intercourse.”

This finding comes from a study by researchers at the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, a former affiliate of Planned Parenthood that researches issues involving sexual and reproductive health. The Guttmacher researchers analyzed data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, reportedly the first large-scale federal government survey to provide such detailed information on varieties of sexual behavior among the young.

The “debunking” element of their analysis is the finding that among teens aged 15 to 19 those who had engaged in vaginal intercourse were vastly more likely to report having oral sex than were those who hadn’t – 87% of non-virgins vs. only 23% of virgins.

There is some ambiguity here – in their draft report, which will eventually appear in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the researchers note that the 23% figure is based on responses toa self-administered computer-assisted survey used to solicit the most “sensitive” information. In face-to-face interviews, a slightly higher proportion of virgins (26%) report having had oral sex.

In any event, the basic finding is clear – only about one in four teen virgins reported having oral sex, compared to seven out of eight non-virgins. What’s not so clear is what the big deal is about these data. Is it really surprising that oral sex is practiced more frequently in conjunction with vaginal intercourse than as a substitute for it? In age-appropriate parlance, the best response to this shocking finding is, “well, duh!”

Well, what about debunking the “technical virginity” phenomenon? That’s not so clear either. The only evidence for this in the Post article comes from a spokesman for the Guttmacher Institute, who decries “a popular perception that teens are engaged in serial oral sex as a strategy to avoid vaginal intercourse…. Our research suggests that’s a misperception.”

There is no evidence about the actual extent of this popular perception, however, and we certainly don’t know how many teens themselves believe it, because the survey did not ask whether they considered themselves to be virgins, non-virgins, or “technical virgins.” They were placed in these categories according to their reported sexual behaviors.

Finally, what about all those hysterical news stories? The only media account cited by the researchers is a 2006 Atlantic magazine article that itself debunks the moral panic of some parents over the thought of their teenaged daughters having oral sex, along with Oprah Winfrey’s discovery of an “oral sex epidemic.”

The only statistic the Atlantic cites is a 2005 finding by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics that over half of all teenaged girls aged 17 and over report having oral sex, which is consistent with the Guttmacher findings.

The Atlantic article also pooh-poohs the notion of a widespread “technical virginity” strategy among girls (and of course this controversy is really about girls and their social, medical, or moral stake in remaining either virgins or “virgins,” although the Guttmacher study finds only minor differences in the proportions of boys and girls practicing oral sex).

So the media hysteria and popular misperceptions may be out there, but they are neither measured nor documented by either the Guttmacher researchers or the Post’s write up of their study. Ultimately, the import of the new findings is a matter of expectations. If there had been no prior public discussion of oral sex among teens, and a new study came out with the finding that one out of four teenaged “virgins” is actually engaging in oral sex, it might be considered shockingly high, and even worthy of newspaper headlines. 

Don’t get us wrong – we’re all for hard data that debunk overwrought fears of moral decline among the young. As long as there have been kids, there’s been a market for the sentiment sung in “Bye Bye Birdie:” “Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way/ What’s the matter with kids today?” But even debunkers have to make the case that there’s something there to be debunked.  

View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry