When faced with the issue of erectile dysfunction, only 43 per cent of Canadian couples said they talked to their partner about the issue, 12 per cent said they talked to their physician and 27 per cent said they didn't talk to anyone, according to a recent study by Eli Lilly Canada.
We may be unable to share our most intimate sexual secrets with our partners, but we seem more than willing to expose ourselves publicly.
In the last week alone, I discovered that one in four women would date a man 15 years older, 80 percent of married couples in America occasionally sleep apart because of snoring and that, given the choice between an extra hour of sleep or an extra hour of sex, most Canadian men want the sex and women want the sleep.
Recent research also revealed that the average woman spends three times more time with her computer every day than she spends with her significant other, most overweight American women have more sex than their skinny counterparts, redhead college girls are eight per cent more likely to have a threesome than blonde or brunette college girls, students with tattoos prefer the missionary position over cowgirl and vegetarians enjoy giving oral sex 2.5 times more than carnivores. Who knew?
Given the uselessness of much of this information why the obsession with everybody else's sex lives? I suspect it's our way of seeing if we're keeping up with the Joneses, exercising our voyeuristic tendencies ("I just wanna peek at what the Joneses are doing.") and gauging whether or not we are sexually "normal." ("Well, at least I'm as good/bad or not as bad as the Joneses.")
The big problem with all of this inquisitiveness, of course, is that honesty and sex go together like Vaseline and latex. We lie about it, brag about it, or, at best, are seriously deluded. To wit: In one survey, 31 per cent of men who live with a woman said their partner usually or always performs oral sex while only 15 per cent of the women said they always or usually do the deed. Someone's fibbin'.
As we all know, sex sells and putting out sex surveys is an almost surefire way of getting whatever it is you're peddling into the media (the ED survey was conducted by Eli Lilly Canada Inc, makers of Cialis). As such, all this number crunching needs to be taken with a fistful of salt.
In my personal experience, sex surveys are most practical and fun when used to conduct your own private bedroom poll. Having a hard time getting your partner to communicate about sex? Survey them. It's the modern way to spill your guts. And, by asking your partner the questions directly, you can press for details, and you can usually tell if they're making it up.