Just Do it?

According to a Durex.com survey the Chinese have the highest number of sexual partners – 19.3 per person.

Don’t know about you, but this surprised me. Brazil, famous for bikinis, waxes for bikinis, and sexual freedom, was a distant second with 15.2. The USA, we’re at a prudish 10.3 partners.

I spent the month of June in China, and while I did get propositioned by multiple hookers on the way to grab a McDonald’s ice cream cone, I had no idea China was so sexually liberated.

I would have guessed the exact opposite to be true – that we’re twice as promiscuous as the Chinese. China, while modernizing at an alarming rate, seems to be a very traditional culture that is heavily concerned with face. It doesn’t seem like a culture where a father would permit little Lou-Lou from romping in the hay with the neighbor boy, his brothers, his brothers’ friends, and his brothers’ friends’ brothers, etc. Or in the interest of sexual fairness…Where a mother would permit her strapping son Lucky from getting…well… lucky with the neighbor girl, her sisters, her sisters’ friends, and her sisters’ friends’ sisters, etc.

This seems like the kind of thing that would bring shame to a family.

But what do I know? When I visit a country I don’t really have my thumb on the sexual pulse. Of course, this does explain the mini-bars of lubricants, man lotion, condoms, and sex toys at the hotels.

(Note: In case you are wondering why I was perusing Durex.com… I was reading The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs and he was explaining that some people think that part of the reason Africa is ravaged by AIDS is because Africans are amoral and promiscuous. He pointed out that this wasn’t the case and, in fact, most countries in Africa average less than five sexual partners. This led me to Google “average number of sexual partners” and eventually to Durex’s website. The website doesn’t list any African nations, although there most surely is a need for condoms in Africa, I doubt there is much money to be made there. This, undoubtedly, is a contributing factor to why Africa has an AIDS crisis.)