Sex survey
What it really shows
Even if it's done properly, it measures a society's level of promiscuity more than virility. By Seah Chiang Nee
Nov 20, 2005

Red-blooded Asians who are proud of their sexual prowess are devastated by a world survey showing they are among the least sexually active people on this globe - way behind Westerners.

According to the Durex 2005 sex survey, they make love a lot less often than Caucasians, which should ring a bell that virility or libido is not the only issue.

The world average for sex is surveyed at 103 times a year, with many Western societies making whoopies as often as 120-130 times a year while many Asians lagging at 80 or so. In Japan, it's only 45 a year.

I have some consoling words to the wounded egos. Don't take the survey too seriously because it measures lifestyles more than sex capabilities.

What I'm trying to say is this: There is a big difference between active sex with spouse and an active one with anyone and everyone.

What the survey is saying is that extra-marital sex is more prevalent in the West.

In conservative rural Asia, sleeping with someone else's wife or daughter or sister can cost you your life, not a common thing.

Prostitution exists but not many can afford to go too often. The same cannot be said in the West, where casual sex is more commonplace, and partners more numerous.

It doesn't tell the entire story. There are other factors that temper the argument. More affluence, more leasire equals more sex; greater struggle against poverty equals longer, harder work equals less sex.

Besides in the Asian cities, sex attitudes are, of course, comparable to the West. Today's educated Asian youths are fast catching up on the prosmiscuity area.

But Asia is vastly rural, where sex is not rampant.

So between a man who has sex 130 times a year and another who does it only 60 times, the difference may be this - the former cheats more on his wife.

Besides, few Asian wives fool around as much as their Caucasian peers.

Nature's answer would make the claim look ridiculous. If it's true the that Westerners have sex more than Asians, their birthrates would surely be a lot higher - but the opposite is true.

The Chinese only have sex 80 times a year and the French 120 times it would indicate casual sex in China is lower. Don't forget the French have to give medals to procreators, while China has a one-child law.

If sex were counted only within marriage, then Third World countries - not the advanced West - will win hands down.

In my view, what the survey really measures is sexual liberalisation - not performance. It's just the West has more of it.
By Seah Chiang Nee