Study unravels mystery of sex
Life is like a ... like a ... oh.
excuse me. 1 was thinking about
sex.
Don’t look so shocked. I wasn't
thinking about real sex. I was
looking over an article in Monday's
issue of Time magazine about sex.
In a study to be published next
week, some 3,500 Americans ages
18 to 59 were asked, among other
things, how many sexual partners
they have had since age 18, how
many times in the past year they
have had sex and what varieties of
sex they preferred.
Now surveys about sex are
nothing new; any Playboy or
Cosmopolitan reader knows that.
But these polls have been skewed
because of all the sex fiends who
feel the need to brag about their
fantasies on a piece of paper.
Until this year, the most recent
major attempt to find out just what
Americans have been doing in the
bedroom was done in the 1940s and
'50s by Alfred Kinsey.
Kinsey was a wasp specialist —
the connection between wasps and
sex is lost on me — who inter
viewed people in mental wards,
boarding houses and prisons about
their sex lives.
The Kinsey report makes those
magazine surveys.look like the
Theory of Relativity.
So for the past 40 years, Ameri
cans have had to guess if they are
getting as much sex as the next
person, or if they’re enjoying it as
much as the person next to them.
Enter Edward Laumann. Robert
Michael, Stuart Michaels and John
Gagnon — a team of social scien
tists. They selected households at
random. They picked, at random,
which people in those households
they would interview. Then they
discussed sex with these people.
Where was 1 when all this was
happening? I guess I’m just not
Compare the study with the steamy
media messages in our society and
you get the locker-room scenario: We
think about and talk about boinking
more than we actually boink.
random enough.
Because of all this randomness,
the study has been hailed as major
breakthrough in finding the real
sexual pulse of the nation.
For me, the mystery is gone.
Warning: Readers who are easily
shocked or prone to uncontrollable
giggling at mention of the words
“boink” or “twiddle” should stop
here. >
I’d always assumed that every
one around me was getting more
sex than I was. That wouldn’t be
hard — I haven’t boinked with a
guy for quite some time.
Sure, go ahead and laugh.
Actually, not having sex for a year
or more is perfectly normal.
According to the study, 32
percent of the women and 23
percent of the men out there are
doing — or, 1 guess, not doing —
just that. And another quarter of the
population is only doing it a few
times a year.
Some of you sex fiends from the
fifth paragraph might be asking:
“What arc they doing — twiddling
their thumbs? Or maybe they’re
twiddling something else? HAR
HAR HARDY HAR!”
All right, knock it off. You're
wrong again. The study found that
people who have sex often arc more
likely to twiddle than those of us
who have forgotten what sex is.
I'm kidding. I couldn't possibly
forget what sex is; I’m reminded of
it on every page of my Cosmo. Sex
is in television, radio and maga
zines — everywhere except in our
bedrooms.
Compare the study with the
steamy media messages in our
society and you get the locker-room
scenario: We think about and talk
about boinking more than we
actually boink.
With the spread of AIDS and
other assorted diseases — such as
babies — thinking and talking
about sex aren't such bad ideas
after all.
In fact, if we open up our sexual
dialogue, maybe we could figure
out why 22 percent of women report
being forced to do sexual things but
only 3 percent of men said they had
forced women to do these things, or
why 54 percent of men said they
think about sex on a daily basis,
while only 19 percent of women do.
Until now, sex had simply been
left in the dark because no one
wanted to talk about it.
This study sheds light on a
complex and confusing subject —
one that we should think about
more often.
No matter how you slice it, life
without sex is like ... like ... oh,
damn. Sorry.
Paulman is a senior news-editorial and
history major and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist.
Focus on prevention, not cure
Many times I wonder what is
going on in this country. Where are
our priorities, what happened to
responsibility, and when did lunacy
become standard?
While reading the paper. I came
across yet another story of disre
spect for human dignity and life. A
woman was sentenced on Friday to
a maximum of 70 years in prison
for the kidnapping and sexual abuse
of two women.
The woman, Wanda Butler, 33.
and her husband, Peter. 50, were
accused of kidnapping, rape, sexual
degradation and beatings in the
cases of two Minneapolis women.
Peter was not sentenced because he
killed himself with a gunshot to the
head. It gels worse.
Peter was a convicted murderer
who had been paroled from a New
York prison. Wanda had worked as
a prostitute in Minneapolis, and she
may have known the women she
abducted, because they also were
prostitutes.
I’m not sure if Wanda and Peter
were working while they traveled
between Sioux City, Iowa, and
Minnesota, but he owned a truck
with a sleeper cab, which is where
they kept the victims bound with
plastic garbage bag ties. Amaz
ingly. both women managed to
escape to safety.
So now the state of Iowa has to
spend $40,000 or more a year to
support Wanda for the next 35
years at least. That comes to $ 1.4
million, and that’s the low end. a
conservative estimate at best. What
docs society get for all that money
spent? My guess is a psychotic
woman who will be 68 when she is
released. No skills, no money, no
home.
She’ll either do something to -
ensure she stays locked up (which
costs the taxpayers more money),
live in a retirement home and
collect welfare and Social Security
or become a homeless person.
Something is seriously wrong with
the way we do things.
I personally donTt think a cretin
like Wanda deserves that kind of
Our schools are overcrowded and in
some cases broke, yet we keep
throwing money at the problem by
building more priso)is and putting
more cops on the street. Then we
support these criminals for life.
money and altcntion. but I know
someone who does.
A few weeks ago, a 22-year-old
woman by the name of Candice
Cup from Bloomington, Ind., was
arrested after she tried to sell her 7
month-old baby for two cartons of
cigarettes and a quart of Budwciscr.
She told police she proposed the
swap because she couldn't take care
of the child.
Two cartons of cigarettes and a
quart of Budwciscr. That comes to
less than $40
The child is now in foster care,
and I hope these people will take
better care of the baby than its own
mother did
So why not find a way to spend
$40,000 a year on this child?
Educate it; love it; allow it to grow.
(I apologize for referring to a child
as Mit,” but the sex of the baby was
not released.) To spend that money
and time and energy on Wanda
would be a great waste. Perhaps by
transferring our attention to a
newborn, we can prevent fools like
Wanda and Peter.
We also could prevent things
like the tragedy that occurred in
Houston in June of 1993.
Two teen-age girls were savagely
raped and murdered when they
were on their way home from a pool
party and accidentally stumbled
upon a gang gathering in the
woods. The girls were raped
repeatedly, then strangled and
finally stomped in the heads with
steel-toed boots. The girls were 14
yCar-old Jennifer Lee Ertman and
16-ycar-old Elizabeth Pena.
Within the past month, five
members of the gang were con
victcd of murder and sentenced to
death. Another member, tried as a
juvenile because he was 14, was
given the maximum sentence of 40
years. He’ll probably be out in 20
years or less because of the over
crowded prison system in Texas.
Now the state has to pay for _
these murderers to live. I can’t say
the price lag, but I’d be willing to
bet it will be more than it would
have cost to prevent this sort of
thing. If money was spent to
educate these kids and give them
things to do besides join gangs, this
country wouldn't be in such
turmoil.
Our schools arc overcrowded
and in some cases broke, yet we
keep throwing money at the
problem by building more prisons
and putting more cops on the street.
Then we support these criminals for
life.
If you ever want to know where
your tax money is, go down to the
Nebraska State Penitentiary.
Nebraska certainly isn’t as bad as
Texas or New York, or most states
for that matter, but it won't stay
that way. Omaha is no Green
Acres, and it isn’t getting any
smaller. Don’t think it can’t
happen here.
We should all pay more attention
to our grandmothers' advice,
especially those involved in making
legislative decisions:
“An ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure.’’
Jiutkr U ■ nrws editorial and broad
casting major and a Dally Nebraskan
columnist.
a
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