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How adventurous are we, sexually?

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Let's be honest: we South African’s aren’t exactly renowned for our sexual prowess. We might be good at rugby, braaing and kudu drol spoeg, but our reputation pales compared to that of certain particularly libidinous nations, say the French or Italians. And when it comes to sexual open-mindedness we look positively prudish and straitlaced in comparison to, say, all of Scandinavia.

Times are changing, though. Younger generations of South African's clearly have much more liberated attitudes towards their sexuality and a number of statistics from Health24’s Great South African Sex Survey of 2010  bear this out:

  • Some 35% of men and 32% of women have engaged in sexual-role playing to spice up their romantic liaisons. It’s interesting to note that the propensity to role-play is correlated with a person’s income, especially in the case of women. About 44% of women who earn more than R30 000 per month use sexual role-play, while the figure drops to only 30% among those who earn less. What? Have prices of French maid outfits and leather dominatrix suits become too pricey for the non-executive labouring masses? We sure hope not.
  • About 17% of all the women and men polled in the survey say they have engaged in or watched pole-dancing.
  • Some 25% of men and 14% of women say they’ve had group sex. Among women, the percentage tends to increase with age until they reach the age of 45 to 50 among whom some 16% have indulged in a team sex experience.
  • Some 41% of men and 39% of women say they’ve had anal sex.
  • Around 7% of all respondents - 8% of the men and 4% of the women - say they partner swop. So those are the suburban swingers we hear so many rumours about, hey!

Perhaps we're not such a stuck-up nation of sexual prudes after all. Keep working at it folks. Explore, experiment and have fun. We have a national reputation to improve.

(Andrew Luyt, Health24, February 2010)

Read more:

Sisters are starting it themselves

But is it sex?

Any questions? Ask the Sexologist


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