Results of Girlfriend’s sex survey
GF cites their reasons:
- Waiting to be in love (56%)
- Not wanting to have sex (37%)
- Feeling too young (31%)
- No particular reason (26%)
- Waiting to be married (17%)
- Waiting to be the legal age of consent (14%)
- Waiting for their boyfriend/girlfriend to be ready (8%)
- Not being interest in ever having sex (1%)
In this pornified world, with sexual messaging hitting them in their faces the minute they wake up in the morning, and given the assumption that most young people are having sex and that those who aren’t must have something wrong with them, these findings are revealing.
More than half are waiting to at least be in love. Maybe they want more than a cold soulless hook-up that leaves them feeling used? Maybe they’ve seen what coerced, unwanted sex has done to their friends? (Research from W.A shows more than 80% of girls regretted their first sexual experience, characterised by drunkenness and force). It would be valuable if GF were to unpack this further – that the desire to be ‘in love’ survives in a culture which treats girls as merely sexual service stations and orifices to be penetrated (read Zoo lately?) is worthy of deeper investigation.
A quarter of GF readers are sexually active. Of those, 89% have had intercourse, slightly less – 85% – have had oral sex. Average age of first sex was 16. A concerning 47% have had sex under the influence of alcohol, 12% under the influence of drugs. This means that 69% of sexually active readers engaged in sex when they could not exercise proper informed consent (14% of these encounters were with complete strangers).
A quarter say they have felt pressure from peers to have sex before they’re ready (including a 16 year-old who is quoted “They say I’m really stupid for not having sex, but I don’t know if I’m ready”), 27% say they have felt pressured from a guy. Perhaps GF could look at how it could better help strengthen and equip girls who are feeling pressured, to resist sexual activity they don’t feel ready for?
