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April 09, 2006
Sex Toys Survey
Toying with sex surveys
I've always been somewhat dubious about the authenticity of telephone sex surveys.
"Hello sir, I'd like to ask you some questions about your sex life. Like how often do you have sex in a week? Twice a day? Right. Thank you."
Surely asking about someone's sex life over the phone can lead to exaggeration (mostly men) and reluctance or understating (mostly women). The result is misleading information, deliberate or not.
That being said, there are, of course, some sex surveys that tell us fascinating details and facts about our sex lives, and survey companies will swear their results are correct to within a small percentage.
My scepticism extends also to university studies on sexuality done by phone survey. Odd conclusions can be had from such studies because of a wide variety of factors and the angle of questioning.
A case in point is a recent study on sex toys conducted by the University of Michigan School of Public Health. They claim it is the "first research study done on sex toys."
However, the startling conclusions they came to from this study was that people who use sex toys are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviour, including the use of recreational drugs for sexual enhancement and non-monogamous sex and also have more sexually transmitted diseases.
Do what? How did they come up such a sweeping and disturbing idea?
For a start, how did the survey work? The researchers say they interviewed 1,114 sexually active people, but how many people did they have to go through before they found those willing to discuss their sex toy use on the phone with a total stranger?
PERSONAL USE
For instance, since a large number of sex toy buyers nowadays are single women buying for personal use, it's unlikely many would agree to this.
And surely if they were comfortable talking about this sexual activity, wouldn't such openness indicate they'd be more likely to be aware of safer sex issues?
As for the use of drugs and alcohol when it comes to sexual behaviour, especially the use of sex toys -- what were the questions here? And was the STD history of the participants taken into consideration?
I'm not alone in my scepticism. Cory Silverberg, co-owner of the respected Toronto sex store, Come As You Are, and sex educator in the retail sex toy industry for more than 15 years, is incensed by such generalities.
"There are a number of serious flaws with this study," he says. "For a start, it lacks a social context and the implications are that sex toys users are a homogenous group of people, a claim for which there is no research and it doesn't ring true."
He also points out that the research does not consider the actual STD status of the participants so there's no way for them to say how this constellation of behaviours (using sex toys and having non-monogamous sex) plays out.
"The fact is that people can engage in all sorts of non-traditional sexual behaviours in very safe ways, and sex toy usage is just one of the options."
Dr. Petra Boynton, a U.K. sex and relationship psychologist, felt compelled to comment at length on the results on her blog at drpetra.co.uk.
Her view is that the random study lacks analysis and incorrectly correlates sex toy use with promiscuous behaviour or risky sexual practices.
"In fact, the research simply could have shown that those who're open about sex may admit to a wider range of sexual behaviours. We must be careful not to negatively label participants."
I also feel basing negative findings from surveys that involve intimate and complex issues such as sexual behaviour on a bunch of random telephone calls is open to misuse and misinterpretation.
And, that, to my mind, is irresponsible research
Posted by ronnie at April 9, 2006 04:34 PM