Sex in the city

This is more of a topic that my friend Jackie Passey covers, but I arched an eyebrow reading today's New York Post on the ride home. (Article is free online but requires registration, use bugmenot.com.)

THE SEX QUEENS

September 13, 2005 -- Sex in the city is as hot as ever.

Nearly one-quarter of New York City women say they're doing the deed several times a week, according to a new survey, far outstripping the competition.

Twenty-three percent of Big Apple gals say they're regularly steaming up the sheets, compared with 18 percent of women in Los Angeles, and 17 percent in Dallas, Miami and Chicago, the Trojan Survey of Women and Desire found.

But don't expect to see the city's nickname changed from the Big Apple to the Big Ohh anytime soon — only 22 percent say they have an orgasm during sex.

The survey found that as far as sex is concerned, New York is the safest city in the country, with 93 percent of respondents saying they use condoms the first time they get down with a new partner. By comparison, it's 87 percent in L.A. and 85 percent in both Dallas and Chicago. But New York women are willing to take more chances in some regard, with 68 percent admitting they have had a sex partner whom they don't consider "relationship material," but whom they consider "thrilling" anyway. Only 58 percent said the same in the rest of the country.

Big Apple feminine sexuality was more on par with the rest of the nation in several areas, though. Both in New York and across the country, 42 percent of respondents said they considered themselves "very sexually confident."

And while 72 percent of women in other parts of the country said experimentation was an important part of sexual fulfillment, only 68 percent of Gotham babes thought so.

And most still want guys to make the first move, though barely so. While 96 percent of women say they love it when men approach them, 51 percent say they never turn the tables and approach a man, according to separate survey done by the global dating service It's Just Lunch....

The print edition's large-font excerpt clarifies that the "several times a week" is "regularly steaming up the sheets." There's also a sidebar with six women providing lurid details, such as one who claims to have sex five times a week, and two who claim to have sex "six or more times per week." One of the two said that Trojan's survey "is definitely believable. The majority of my friends are just like me, we're having a lot of sex."

In my best Spock imitation, I say, "Curious." Something inside me, though, wonders if their claims are, shall I say, falsies.

Some food for thought, with the caveat that, yes, some will argue it's not necessarily correlated. In 2000, the last year for which I have statistics (via the CDC, which got it from the NYC Department of Health), there were 94,466 abortions in New York City. Subtract the 6% that reported living outside the area, and that's still 88,797. I'm not surprised that so many abortions are performed when so many New York women are apparently having sex so often. Perhaps 93% of the surveyed women use condoms when with a new guy for the first time, but that doesn't mean they necessarily do afterward.