Close-Up: 5 Schools

Few Areas of modern sociological inquiry are as filled with conjecture, not to mention prior interest, as is the question of whether or not there has been a sexual revolution on campus. While statistics showing an increase in sexual activity are available, some sociologists and journalists are inclined to long debates over sampling procedures, the labeling of categories and the differences between the terms sexual evolution and sexual revolution. All the arguing is done with an eye toward trapping the national campus sexual psyche—a formidable beast.

Being of a more pragmatic than academic turn of mind, we've noted that discussions of broad national samples bear little relation to what is really going on at a particular school. It also seems clear (as the preceding chart indicates) that at one school the student body may be frolicking on the verge of a sociosexual frontier while another's is still groping in dimly lit caves. An all-encompassing survey, indiscriminately combining the statistics from both schools, would produce a middle-ground figure applicable to neither.

To avoid this pitfall, Playboy sponsored a new, in-depth survey of five campuses—each representing a specific type of college—selected from the 25 that are listed on our chart. We chose an Ivy League school, Brown/Pembroke; a Southern school, the University of Alabama; a large Midwestern school, the University of Illinois; a Western school, San Francisco State; and a girls' school, Bryn Mawr. We received a 30-percent return on our mailed survey, which is above average for this kind of sample. Assuming that women students are a better indicator of sexual-behavior patterns on campus than men—because the males traditionally have found their sexual outlets off the campus, among "townies" and prostitutes—we surveyed twice as many female students as males. We also concentrated on sophomores, juniors and seniors, because they had already become acclimated to college life, and their behavior is more representative than freshmen's. In the interest of student objectivity, the questionnaire contained no reference to Playboy—the name of the study group and its address were anonymous and innocuous. In a departure from most surveys, which tabulate past as well as present sexual activities, we limited the most significant sexual-behavior questions to student conduct during the past school year (fall 1968 to spring 1969), so that our figures represent the most recent campus behavior that it was possible to obtain. The subjects included in the questionnaire (continued overleaf) ranged from dating habits to religion to frequency of intercourse. The most significant findings are reported below.

Sexual Behavior: Intercourse

The results of a three-year survey of unmarried junior and senior students analyzed and reported in 1968 by Dr. Eleanore Luckey of the University of Connecticut for Vance Packard's The Sexual Wilderness revealed that 58 percent of the men and 43 percent of the women had engaged in coitus. Other recent studies have shown statistics in a comparable range: In a survey of sophomores by Professor Keith E. Davis at the University of Colorado, 60 percent of the men and 42 percent of the women reported that they had had premarital intercourse; and a study at Oberlin showed that 40 percent of the unmarried women there had engaged in intercourse. Studies a generation ago by Dr. Alfred Kinsey showed that 50.6 percent of college men and 27 percent of college women 21 years of age had engaged in premarital sexual intercourse. These figures will provide a basis of comparison with those obtained in our own survey.

The unmarried students on the five campuses were asked if they had engaged in sexual intercourse during the past school year. The following percentages answered yes.

Women

San Francisco State .....57%

Pembroke .....47%

Bryn Mawr .....45%

University of Illinois .....28%

University of Alabama .....19%

Men

San Francisco State .....62%

Brown .....51%

University of Illinois .....39%

University of Alabama .....47%

What is most revealing about these figures are the disparities between the highs and the lows (particularly among females), clearly indicating that changes in campus sexual behavior—though rapidly accelerating in some areas—are yet to arrive in others. Most observers would agree that the changes reflect the sexual emancipation of the female student, and that this phenomenon generally occurs where other forms of emancipation from traditional values have either preceded or accompanied it. Thus, the women at San Francisco State, where the "new morality" is deeply entrenched, revealed a higher percentage of coital activity (57 percent) than either the national average (43 percent) as evaluated in the sample made by the University of Connecticut or the other schools in the survey. The figures for the women at Pembroke and Bryn Mawr were slightly higher than the national average, while both Illinois and Alabama women scored well below it. The figure for Illinois (28 percent) was almost the same as the figure released for college-age women by Kinsey over 20 years ago. The figure for Alabama (19 percent) was decidedly lower than even the Kinsey figure.

On the male side, San Francisco State led all the schools in this survey, and the men there were similarly the only ones to have a higher percentage of intercourse than the national average. The male percentages for Brown and Alabama showed a small drop-off from the national average.

Sexual emancipation appears to be barred from Alabama. The girls, as already noted, show less coital activity (19 percent) than the national average of the 1940s, while the men are only just below the current national average (47 percent) Compare this with San Francisco State and Brown/Pembroke, where a nearly equal percentage of men and women engaged in intercourse. This would indicate that the double standard—the elimination of which is a barometer of female sexual emancipation—is probably dead at those schools, but very much alive at traditionalist Alabama.

Sexual Behavior: Age at First Intercourse

Age at initial sexual intercourse is generally considered to be an indicator of sexual permissiveness. The percentages below indicate a sharp distinction between the women at San Francisco State and Bryn Mawr (where a significant number had engaged in coital activity before age 18) and the other schools. Bryn Mawr demonstrated a definite precocity, with 29 percent of the total number of nonvirgin girls having had intercourse before the age of 18. On the other hand, none of the girls at Alabama or Pembroke had engaged in intercourse before the age of 18.

The men at each school showed a more consistent pattern of early activity, as nearly 50 percent of all the male nonvirgins had coitus for the first time before 19.

Those students who affirmed in an earlier question having had sexual intercourse were asked, "At what age did you have intercourse for the first time?"

Sexual Behavior: Number of Partners

In the debate over whether the colleges are undergoing sexual revolution or sexual evolution, the following figures would seem most important. Premarital intercourse with one or a few partners would indicate that sex has become a part of courtship behavior among college students—a natural outgrowth of "serious relationships." (See Dr. William Simon's statement in The Playboy Forum Newsfront, April 1969.) On the other hand, a high incidence of sex with many partners would mean an increase of casual sexual activity, unrelated to intentions of marriage, and would indicate a true revolution. San Francisco State and Bryn Mawr in the tables below showed a notable percentage of women who had had intercourse with eight or more partners. Seventy-five percent or more of the women at the other schools had limited their sex relations to three partners or less, which would tend to deflate the tabloid notion of rampant promiscuity on all the nation's campuses.

The figures for San Francisco State (where a nearly equal number of men and women had eight or more sex partners) and the University of Alabama (where none of the women and 47 percent of the men had had eight or more (continued on page 220)Close-Up: 5 Schools(continued from page 198) partners) again indicate that the sexual double standard is a thing of the past at the West Coast school, whereas it is an ongoing institution in the South.

Those students who affirmed having had sexual intercourse in an earlier question also were asked, "How many different, sexual partners have you had intercourse with?" The following percentages for both men and women were obtained:

Sexual Behavior: Oral-Genital Contacts

Oral-genital activity carries a traditionally high social stigma. In his study of the human female, Dr. Kinsey wrote that oral-genital activities "are the last of the petting techniques to be accepted by males or females, for there are males as well as females who consider such activities biologically abnormal and perverse." The Kinsey data generally indicate low incidence of oral-genital activity; for example, only 15.5 percent of the college men surveyed had had oral contact with female genitals. The Playboy survey, on the other hand, showed a significant amount of oral-genital activity among both men and women with the exception of the coeds at Alabama. The figure for Bryn Mawr (48 percent) is extraordinary because it is slightly higher than the percentage of girls there who had sexual intercourse during the same time period. The figures for the women at Pembroke, San Francisco State and Illinois supported a liberalizing trend, as do those for the men at all schools. However, the figures for Alabama again indicated a vast difference between the behavior patterns of men and women there: 48 percent of the men, as against 9 percent of the women, have had oral-genital contacts. These figures confirm a consistent trend of high male but low female sexual activity at Alabama. It is an obvious speculation that the men at Alabama are not sexually involved with the women at that school, and are far more likely to be engaging in sex with off-campus townies and prostitutes than are the male students at the other schools surveyed.

We asked the students whether or not they had engaged in oral-genital contacts during the past school year. The following percentages of men and women answered yes.

Women

San Francisco State ......41%

Pembroke ..................37%

Bryn Mawr ................48%

University of Illinois ......22%

University of Alabama ......9%

Men

San Francisco State .......53%

Brown ........................51%

University of Illinois ........46%

University of Alabama ......48%

Sexual Attitudes: Respect

Contrary to the behavior questions, which placed San Francisco State on the sexual frontier, with Bryn Mawr and Brown/Pembroke slightly behind and all three a goodly distance from Illinois and Alabama, there was surprising unanimity on this question of sexual mores.

When asked if they thought that a girl would lose the respect of a boy with whom she went to bed before she married him, the following percentage of all the girls queried answered no.

San Francisco State .......87%

Pembroke ...................84%

Bryn Mawr .................88%

University of Illinois ......82%

University of Alabama ....56%

Although the 56 percent of Alabama girls who were not afraid of losing respect is low when compared with the high affirmative response of girls on the other campuses, it indicates that the new morality—with its emphasis on motives rather than actions—has made substantial inroads in the female attitudes on this campus. The question is: Will future behavior conform to these new attitudes?

Sexual Attitudes: Love

The response to the previous question strongly indicates that sex, when related to courtship, is quite permissible among today's college women. Consistent with that response, a majority of the girls reject sex when love is removed from the relationship.

The women students were asked if they thought it was permissible for a girl to have intercourse with someone she did not love. The following percentages (notably lower than for the question above) of all girls queried answered yes.

San Francisco State ......39%

Pembroke .................44%

Bryn Mawr ...............35%

University of Illinois ....16%

University of Alabama ..12%

Sexual Attitudes: Fidelity

Though they are much more permissive than their mothers were, the girls of this college generation hold almost unanimously to the traditional romantic ideal of the right man for the right woman.

When asked if they thought it was possible for a woman to be satisfied with just one man for her entire life, the following percentages of all girls queried answered yes.

San Francisco State .......82%

Pembroke ...................88%

Bryn Mawr ..................80%

University of Illinois ........93%

University of Alabama ......93%

Sex and Happiness

A prevalent attitude expressed in sociological studies of the Thirties and Forties was that women who engaged in premarital intercourse were prone to greater emotional conflicts and underwent more psychological stress than those who remained chaste until marriage. "This was attributed to the fact that girls engaging in sex were doing so in conflict with pervasive social and religious values and, therefore, felt lingering guilt and anxiety about their behavior. The following figures show that a large majority of the women who engaged in premarital sex did not feel beset by anxiety, indicating that attitudes, in this instance, are catching up with behavior.

The following percentages of women students who had engaged in coitus during the past school year described their emotional state as one of contentment.

San Francisco State .........76%

Pembroke .....................89%

Bryn Mawr ...................81 %

University of Illinois .........82%

University of Alabama .......93%

An even more decisive blow against the belief that unhappiness results from premarital sexual activity was struck by the girls at Bryn Mawr and San Francisco State who had had eight or more lovers. Asked how they would describe themselves, 100 percent of these females at Bryn Mawr and 82 percent of them at San Francisco State, all of whom could be presumed to be quite sexually active, said their prevailing emotional mood was one of happiness.

Dating Behavior: Frequency

We studied the dating habits of the women students in an attempt to correlate sociability with sexuality. What we found was that frequent dating is at best an unreliable indicator of sexual activity and may even go hand in hand with chastity.

The women students were asked how often during the school year they dated. Those percentages were:

Dating Behavior: Number of Partners

The women students were asked how many persons they had dated since coming to college.

The University of Alabama, where the rate of sexual activity has been shown to be unusually low throughout our survey, indicated a high degree of social activity. That school seemed to demonstrate an inverse relationship between frequent dating and sex relations. This inverse relationship also can be seen at San Francisco State, where the rate of sexual activity was high and the girls generally dated less than at the other schools. The San Francisco State figures seem to show that dating, as a formal institution on that campus, is dying. Pembroke was the only sexually active school that also revealed extensive formal dating.

Church Attendance

We questioned the students about churchgoing, in an attempt to gauge their attitude toward one of society's more traditional institutions.

The students were asked if they had attended church at least once in the past month. The following percentages answered yes.

Women

San Francisco State .........36%

Pembroke ....................58%

Bryn Mawr ..................32%

University of Illinois ........55%

University of Alabama ......81%

Men

San Francisco State ..........41%

Brown .........................45%

University of Illinois ........41%

University of Alabama ......62%

Here, Alabama maintained its position as the bastion of tradition. But more noteworthy is that San Francisco State was the only school where the women attended church less often than the men. It was part of a pattern at that school: The women generally seemed to be less conventional than the men.

Sex and Church

We had thought there might be a negative correlation between sexual activity and churchgoing, but regional mores proved a more powerful determinant of religious observance than sexual behavior. At Alabama, where churchgoing is generally high, women who had had coitus showed nearly as strong an inclination to attend church as did virginal coeds. Yet at San Francisco State, where churchgoing is rather low, the number of women who had engaged in intercourse was significantly lower than the churchgoing average for that school. The most obvious conclusion to be drawn from these statistics is that churchgoing per se is not a reliable indicator of sexual behavior.

Women who had engaged in intercourse during the past school year were asked if they had attended religious services during the past month. The following percentages answered yes.

San Francisco State ........21%

Pembroke ...................44%

Bryn Mawr .................29%

University of Illinois ......50%

University of Alabama ....78%

Political Self-Imagery

Although the campuses showed wide divergence in sexual and social behavior and attitudes, there is a preponderance of liberal political self-imagery among the students. Even Alabama mustered over 40 percent of both men and women who would identify themselves as liberal. Also notable is the fact that about as many students testified to being politically indifferent as would consider themselves radical.

The students were asked to rate themselves politically on a scale from very conservative to radical or indifferent. Those percentages were:

Political Behavior: Demonstrations

The low incidence of radicals in the previous tables seems to bear little relation to campus unrest and student demonstrations. Whereas none of the men surveyed at San Francisco State defined themselves as radicals, 59 percent of them have taken part in demonstrations. The single highest percentage in the following tables was registered by the girls at Pembroke, 74 percent of whom have taken part in demonstrations; yet again, only 5 percent of the Pembroke women had defined themselves as radicals. It would seem to the college students, then, that the word liberal has a far more active meaning than it does to their elders. There may also be a definite reluctance on the part of students to identify themselves as extremists, either of the left or the right.

Students were asked, "Have you ever participated in student demonstrations of any kind?" The following percentages answered yes.

Women

San Francisco State .........46%

Pembroke .....................74%

Bryn Mawr ....................38%

University of Illinois .........11%

University of Alabama .........4%

Men

San Francisco State .............59%

Brown ............................55%

University of Illinois ............19%

University of Alabama ...........14%

Sex and Politics

It is widely believed among college men that politically active girls are more sexually active than less involved girls. In testing this belief, we found that girls who had engaged in intercourse were, indeed, more likely than virgin coeds to take part in political demonstrations. At San Francisco State, Illinois and Alabama, the coeds with sexual experience were more than twice as likely to be politically active as were virgins.

Of the women students who had engaged in intercourse during the past school year, the following percentages had taken part in a student demonstration.

San Francisco State .......55%

Pembroke ..................89%

Bryn Mawr .................53%

University of Illinois ......18%

University of Alabama ......7%

Virgin coeds were asked if they had taken part in a student demonstration. The following percentages answered yes.

San Francisco State .......24%

Pembroke ...................50%

Bryn Mawr ..................23%

University of Illinois .........7%

University of Alabama .........3%

Marijuana

Pot smoking, perhaps because it is an illegal activity, seems to be one of the most significant rites of the young generation in its conflict with the old; and our survey showed a definite correlation among sex, political activism and grass. Just as San Francisco State, Brown/Pembroke and Bryn Mawr showed high proportions of students who had engaged in sexual intercourse and political demonstrations, those schools were the only ones where a significant number of students smoked marijuana. One anomalous comparison was the extraordinary difference between the high percentage of women who smoked pot at San Francisco State and the relatively low percentage of men. We have already noted the demise of the sexual double standard at that school, but these figures may further suggest that the women at San Francisco State are socially far more adventurous than the men. This is quite the opposite case at the more conservative schools (Alabama and Illinois), where the women showed a strong aversion to marijuana while the men seemed to be somewhat less cautious.

We asked the students if they had smoked marijuana and intended to continue doing so. The following percentages answered yes.

Women

San Francisco State .........42%

Pembroke .....................37%

Bryn Mawr ...................34%

University of Illinois ...........2%

University of Alabama .........2%

Men

San Francisco State .......17%

Brown .......................41%

University of Illinois .......9%

University of Alabama .....14%

Conclusions

Brown/Pembroke reflects the liberated but not promiscuous attitudes and behavior that are traditionally associated with exclusive liberal-arts colleges. Bryn Mawr is somewhat further along the permissiveness scale and shows a definite inclination toward increased casual sex. Illinois is cautious by comparison with both Eastern schools and, in some areas (oral-genital contacts, marijuana smoking), reflects a thorough conservatism. Alabama seems almost to be functioning in another time: the double standard flourishes; women are chased but rarely caught; sex is not a proper activity for college-age girls. San Francisco State, on the other hand, may be one of the first schools of the sociosexual avant-garde. It is a school where sex does not necessarily seem to be a part of serious courtship, where the double standard and formal dating have both been dealt body blows and where more women smoke marijuana and take part in political demonstrations than go to church.

Finally, although there are pitfalls to making sweeping conclusions on the basis of limited data, the information in this survey, combined with the findings of other sociologists and observers of the college scene, justifies certain judgments about the nature of the sexual revolution. We've known since the publication of the Kinsey reports that sexual behavior in this country was, in the post—World War One era, more permissive than sexual attitudes. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the latter began rapidly to catch up with the former; it seemed obvious to many observers, however, that it was only a question of time before the liberalized attitudes would spur another move forward in behavior. Apparently, such a move has already begun—resolutely in some places, tentatively in others and not at all in yet others. In spite of the behavioral changes, however, there is no evidence of the unchecked trend toward promiscuity that had been predicted by many conservatives. We would speculate that the rationale for the increased sexual behavior, where it occurs, is provided by the new morality, with its emphasis on the quality of relationships and its deemphasis of inflexible moral yardsticks. As sexual behavior increases, it becomes less of a preoccupation. Sociologist John Gagnon has said: "Sex means less and less to this generation. There's a kind of cooling off of sex as an important organizing tendency in life." At the same time, an increase in morality has accompanied the increase in sexuality; students on the most permissive campuses are the ones who have taken strong moral positions on the most compelling issues of the times: the racial problem, the war in Vietnam, etc.

As for the future of the campus sexual revolution, our guess is that it will continue strongest in those areas hit by the student revolution, weakest on the quiescent campuses, since both revolutions seem to be motivated by similar qualities: respect for individual judgment, rejection of authority for its own sake and elimination of double standards and hypocrisy.