KATHERINE TOMASONE
Possibly the most intriguingly taboo word for a high school student. If you’re not having it yourself, you definitely know someone who is, and, whether you condemn or condone it, it seems to show its face in every juicy bit of gossip you hear…
…or so we thought.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, there was a “Sexual Norms” survey handed out with every copy of Graffiti just before the winter holidays. Some students never received one, some were too embarrassed to fill it out, and some were afraid that their teachers would read it right after they handed it in. It’s rumoured that some teachers actually went as far as making rude comments when students handed in their surveys like “Don‘t worry, you don‘t need to hand it in. You won‘t be having sex for a long time”. Not only were teachers not taking this survey seriously, but neither were some of the students. Among other inappropriate answers, when answering the question “What is your gender?”, one student actually made their own option box and answered “Lady Gaga”. We’re also sceptical to believe that more grade 9 boys are sexually active than grade 12 boys, and that the number of sexually active grade 10 boys is twice that of grade 10 girls. This cannot be true. Either people lied on their anonymous surveys, or the grade 9 boys need to give the grade 12 boys some tips, and the grade 10 girls are extremely promiscuous.
One of the other major issues with this survey was that the terms it used weren’t clearly defined. What does it mean to “have sex without protection”? Does the birth control pill count as “protection”? It certainly doesn’t protect against STI’s. What does it mean to be “sexually active”? Is it oral sex or just intercourse? There are many definitions, depending on who you ask. The same goes for the word “virginity”. For instance, I personally think that anyone who engages in sexual behaviours cannot call themselves a perfect virgin, even if they’ve never had intercourse. As we (the Graffiti staff) were tallying the surveys over the Christmas break, we found a lot of interesting answers, and we even started debating the meanings of these terms ourselves. Is it possible for someone to identify themself as a non-virgin, yet also identify themself as not sexually active? Is it possible to be sexually active without losing your virginity? We all had very different opinions.
Speaking of very different opinions, let’s talk about Graffiti heads Alex McRobert and Paniz Moayeri who both had very different opinions of NT’s sex life. While going through the Graffiti Archives (a.k.a. banker’s boxes full of Graffitis that date back to the 80’s) one day, the 2005 issues caught Alex’s eye immediately. “All three issues from one school year have Sex headlines and cover stories – one reporter suggested that condoms had been found in the stairway to nowhere while another anonymously published an article called “Confessions of an NT Hoe.” Alex recalls that “during that year, there was actually a section, believe it or not, called “Sex and Scandals.” It turns out that Graffiti was a bit like a gossip magazine back in its day which really surprised me because I thought that our generation was the most promiscuous of all.” Eventually she came across the results from a sex survey that the 2005 Graffiti staff published in their May issue. Alex and Paniz thought that it would be cool to compare the change in sexual normalcy over the last five years – and so the 2010 Sexual Norms survey was born. Even with all of those sexually themed articles, the percentage of sexually active students in 2005 was only 18%. So while Alex was thinking, “Only 18% of the students were sexually active? Times have really changed since then”, while Paniz was thinking “18% is a very high percentage for NT… perhaps the survey wasn’t conducted well.” After the creation of the 2010 sex survey, every Graffiti meeting ended in playful debate around who would end up being right. I’ll admit, I sided with Alex in thinking that the percentage of sexually active NT students would be much higher than 18%.
After the Graffiti staff tallied the results and they were translated so that we could read them quite plainly, it turns out that neither Alex nor Paniz was right. The average hasn’t changed in the last five years – 18% of the NT student body is sexually active. Wait…Is it really possible that we’re a massive 10% below the average? One NT parent commented, “I think it has something to do with all of the extracurriculars… with fashion show and band and things like that, I guess NT students are busier and it keeps them out of trouble.”
Keeps us out of trouble, eh? Looking at this year’s Fashion Show Afterparty (which is not associated with the school in any way shape or form), some might find it extremely hard to believe that our school is less sexually active than the other Canadian teens. I wasn’t there, so I can’t provide you with facts, but the rumours I heard were unbelievable like people engaging in oral sex on the dance floor, six (or more!) “hook-ups” in one night, and people dry humping on the benches. In my opinion, these crazy sexual binges are actually the by-product of our excessive stress and school involvement. Rather than letting lose once in a while and living like average teenagers, NT students would rather drown themselves in orchestra rehearsals, scholarship applications, and tutoring sessions… and then go crazy only a few of times a year: be it at Afterparty, in Punta Cana, or Semi (2006 anyone?). Based on the other results of the Sexual Norms survey, I’d say that these crazy work vs. play schedules are confusing a lot of NT students.
Although there are no Canadian statistics for teenage bisexuality to compare our results with, our survey shows the increasing popularity of female bisexuality. A whopping 29% of grade 10 girls claim to be bisexual while statistically only 3% of all Canadian women claim to be bisexual. I understand that many teens experiment with their sexual orientation before they become adults but 30% seems to be over-the-top. It’s also possible that since bisexuality is seen so commonly in the media that teens don’t understand that one same-gender encounter doesn’t make you bisexual and neither does simply being attracted to the same sex – the same way that neither one makes you homosexual. Many psychologists blame the media for the recent spike in teenage bisexuality saying that the media puts outstanding pressures on young girls to “swing both ways” in order to be more appealing to men. From Britney and Madonna to Lindsay and Sam, to shows like the Tila Tequila show and the movie Jennifer’s Body, female bisexuality seems to be everywhere these days and by the looks of the survey, it’s really affecting NT girls.
We had a lot of fun doing the survey with you, NT, and we hope that after the initial laugh you’ll re-read this article and perhaps take some of the lessons to heart. Who knows, maybe in five years someone will dig up with very issue from the “archives” and NT will be hit with another sex survey to butcher.