What's Really Happening on Campus

For the Past few years, we've been hearing disturbing rumors that all's quiet on the college front. According to most sources, the sexual revolution had ground to a halt; the battle between the sexes had declined into a cold war in which virginity and lesbianism were the weapons of choice. All traces of the counterculture had disappeared; students no longer dropped acid to see God--they drowned themselves in Coors and saw Gerald Ford. Social activism was dead; crime had made the streets unsafe for demonstrators. We decided to look for ourself. And discovered that we should have known better.

Here is the harsh truth we found: It is actually possible to go through four years of higher education without getting laid, though why you'd want to is beyond us. Fortunately, the odds are against it. What makes it so hard to go through school unscathed is the coeds. In 1970, about 49 percent of female students graduated with more than their brains intact. The figure has fallen to 26 percent in 1976. At the same time, the percentage of male virgins has gone up from 18 percent in 1970 to 26 percent in 1976. This magical equality of percentages means that students have arrived at that promised land--a sexual utopia where the women are just as active sexually as the men.

Our findings reveal that the three out of four coeds who get it on, get it on with a vengeance. Their activities equal those of men in every form of sex--except masturbation (college women apparently would rather make love than masturbate). In past years, men earned their stripes with a few overworked, cooperative ladies, or as one survivor put it, "Never were so few so fucked by so many." Now they are making it with their companions-in-arms, either in fairly monogamous relationships (55 percent of the women and 47 percent of the men had a lifetime total of three or fewer partners) or through a fairly active, casual sex life (29 percent of the women and 38 percent of the men had six or more partners). Only 14 percent of the women still think you should save it for marriage. A few women want to save it for other women. (Fourteen percent of the women have thought about having a homosexual relationship. A full four percent have actually tried lesbianism.) In short, your chances are better than ever. Pass that graduate school catalog. Jack.

If you're wondering why parents are footing the bill so that their kids can play--don't worry about it. Our statistics reveal that initial experiences with sex may cause a drop in grades, but the longer you have been having sex, the more likely you are to be an A student. A full 67 percent of the people who made A's have been making love for more than two years. Smart little fuckers.

Politically, too, the kids had some surprises for us. This is an election year and nearly every candidate in the country is running an anti-Government campaign. The Federal bureaucracy, they say, is too big. In sharp contrast to the politicos, students want more Government intervention in almost every area of life: 90 percent think Uncle Sam (text continued on page 160) On Campus (continued from page 128) should be stricter in his enforcement of air- and water-pollution laws. Like other citizens, students worry about violent crime. The majority (70 percent) favor handgun control, and almost half want to restore the death penalty. And students generally favor stricter laws, heavier penalties and mandatory therapy for all the so-called hard drugs, including cocaine and the psychedelics. (The only drugs escaping this prohibition are alcohol and marijuana.)

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Last spring, Playboy hired an independent research organization to conduct the 1976 Student Survey. The researchers chose 20 colleges and universities and polled a random sampling of students from school directories. In all, 3700 students responded to the study. This sample checked out as representative of the sex, age, class level, family income and grade-point average of students across the country.

Playboy's 1971 Student Survey asked the question: Is there a sexual revolution on campus? Today we're not even asking. The revolution has been fought and won, the territory secured. Most students view college as a boot camp, where new recruits are inducted into a standing army of the sexually liberated. The morale is incredibly high. Most undergrads on campus are satisfied with their love lives, if not with their brand of tooth paste. They enjoy what they do. They get better at it the older they get. They do not feel guilty. Indeed, they are having the time of their lives.

The prime indicator of happiness is simply: Are you getting any? Of the students who aren't currently dating. 81 percent express dissatisfaction with their sex lives. (That makes sense. They may be dumb, but they're not stupid.) Three out of four of those who have not had intercourse in the past 30 days are discontent. In contrast, four out of five of those who have made love in the past month say that their sex lives are great.

Are you Satisfied with your Sex Life?

The closeness of students' relationships seems to have the most effect on the quality of their sex life. Couples who are living together, going steady or engaged express greater satisfaction than those who are just going out with anything that walks. The dating game on campus is not exactly like musical chairs, but it's close. If you don't move fast, you can get left out. Most college couples are monogamous--they don't sleep with more than one person a month. The majority of people who have gotten it on in the past month have gotten it on with just one person.

How many Sexual Partners have you had this month?*

How Many Sexual Partners have you had in your life?*

The numbers tend to support the professed attitudes of the student body. There is an overwhelming acceptance of what used to be called premarital sex: 89 percent of the student body are willing to engage in intercourse before the wedding night. A small percentage of the students we interviewed will do it at the drop of a book. If the book happens to be The Joy of Sex. For example, seven percent of the women would go to bed with a casual acquaintance (compared with 27 percent of the men). If you meet a girl and she says that she just wants to be friends, don't be discouraged. Twenty-nine percent of the women consider simple friendship sufficient grounds for sexual intercourse.

How Close Should a Sexual Partner be?

The change in attitude is astonishing: Both sexes agree almost unanimously that women want sex as much as men. With equal unanimity, they disagree with the old idea that "a woman should never take the lead in sexual activity." The Erotic Rights Amendment has been passed on campus. Still, if women are taking the initiative, why are there more male virgins now (26 percent in 1976, compared with 18 percent in 1970)? It's the end of the double standard--the women can and the men don't have to. Male students seem less preoccupied with losing their virginity per se. They do not seek out the aid of professionals for a corrective operation. In fact, only 16 percent of our male sample have ever visited a prostitute. (This figure rose to a percentage almost twice as high in the South, where 30 percent of the students had paid to ring a belle.) It seems that both men and women are willing to wait until they find someone they like, or love--then they take care of each other. Virginity loves company.

Also, some of the students seem to realize that college is a testing ground. Conservatives may become alarmed that the behavior shown on campus proves our moral fabric is unraveling, that society is doomed. But the majority of the students do not anticipate carrying over their experimental lifestyle into married life. A full 60 percent disagree strongly with the statement "I hope to have an open marriage which would include extramarital sex." Another 57 percent disagree strongly with the statement "I'm not interested in marrying. I hope to have a varied sex life, including a number of affairs."

Almost all students are sexually active in some way. Nearly three fourths of the male students masturbate once a month or more. Ten percent (still afraid of going blind or growing hair on their palms?) refrain, Do-it-yourself sex still hasn't caught on with women. As mentioned earlier, the percentage of women who have never masturbated is actually higher than the percentage who have never had sexual intercourse. (An interesting side light: Almost 75 percent of the people who have never masturbated expressed satisfaction with their sex lives. Either they don't know what they are missing or they are getting something on the side--i.e., two in the bush are worth one in the hand.)

What Turns You on?

Comparing the frequency chart with the sexual-preference chart reveals one thing: Although students have fairly conventional tastes, they tend to do what they like and like what they do.

How Often Do You do It?

For instance, students express an across-the-beds disinterest in such exotic forms of sexplay as bondage and discipline, master-slave role playing, inflicting or receiving pain during sex and homosexuality. Only a tiny fraction have engaged in these behaviors. More students are willing to try group sex and anal sex or to include a mechanical aid in their lovemaking, but again, most haven't gotten around to it. (Another interesting but perhaps obvious side light: More than twice as many male students as females express interest in group sex--that's why there are too many guys at orgies.) College is the time when couples tend to focus on the basics: Three out of four have tried oral sex and mutual masturbation. The better the partners know each other, the better the sex. For example, 63 percent of those dating for variety enjoy oral sex. The figure rises slightly for those going steady (72 percent) or engaged (76 percent). An astonishing 93 percent of those living together enjoy oral sex. (Apparently, that's why they live together: They started having oral sex and liked it so much they couldn't leave the room.) Upperclassmen also seem to enjoy oral sex more: Experience is its own reward. (continued overleaf)

The sexual fantasies of college students tend to reflect their actual behavior. Most men and women daydream about past experiences (63 percent) or people they know (76 percent). The next most popular fantasy is one in which the student watches others make love (22 percent). A fairly high percentage have fantasies about homosexual affairs. Women fantasize slightly more about members of their own sex (in the preference chart, 14 percent said they might try a lesbian relationship, four percent actually have had one and most of those liked it). Only 13 percent of the men fantasized, and seven percent expressed interest in trying a same-sex relationship; 12 percent have actually tried it. Three out of four of the women liked their lesbian encounters; half of the males enjoyed their homosexual experiences. Gals make better gays than guys.

Women are more likely to have sadomasochistic fantasies, while men are more into spectator roles. Only 14 percent of the students daydream about orgies. Oddly, the couples living together give group-sex fantasies a 23 percent Nielsen rating. They also score high on same-sex fantasies.

What Kinds Of Sexual Fantasies Do You Have?

We discovered an interesting connection between the tendency to fantasize about sex and attitude toward masturbation. We presented the students with a list of various sexual-fantasy themes and told them to indicate all those that recur in their daydreams. We compared these responses with the replies to our question about masturbation. It turned out that the people who enjoy masturbating have more varied kinds of fantasies than people who don't masturbate or who don't enjoy it. To a certain extent, the number of fantasies a person has also indicates how much he or she enjoys oral sex. Fellatio and cunnilingus melt in your mind, not in your mouth.

The single most important finding of the survey is the equality between the sexes. In every form of heterosexual behavior--mutual masturbation, oral sex and intercourse--the women are full partners. They participate on equal footing, or bedding. Past surveys have always revealed the symptoms of the double standard: Men are expected to be experienced: women are expected to be virgins. Our findings reveal that there have been shifts in the way men view their own behavior. For example, male students are more willing to confess an occasional failure. About 35 percent claim to have had difficulty in attaining an erection at some time; 68 percent have suffered from premature ejaculation at one time or another. Yet most students are secure about their own sexuality. A full 96 percent of the males feel that their penises are large enough to satisfy their mates. Another 81 percent feel that they are skilled as lovers. Approximately two thirds of the men claim that they can tell when their partners have had an orgasm.

There may be some truth to their claims of skill: Two thirds of the women report that they reach orgasm with some degree of regularity. When it comes to the question of whether or not the size of a man's penis increases the woman's satisfaction. 33 percent of the women say that a larger penis does not increase satisfaction, 55 percent say that it sometimes does, ten percent say that it usually does and two percent that it always does. But what do they know?

More than half of the women report that they have faked an orgasm at least once in their lives. Their motives seem to stem less from ego building or mischief than from a simple "to each his own" principle of sex. The majority of our sample disagree with the statement "It is a man's responsibility to make sure a woman has an orgasm during, intercourse." Women are more adamant on this point than their partners.

How Often Do You Drink?

Many of the reports on college life in the Seventies make comparisons with the silent Fifties, when students weren't just quiet, they were unconscious. Alcohol, the Big A, is supposedly making a comeback. We doubt that it ever went away. Students still like to think that they attend the hardest-drinking school in the world, and some cite as proof a famous Playboy study that supposedly gave their school top honors. (We hate to break it to you, but Playboy never made such a study, for the simple reason that we never argue with drunks.) Actually, there is not a great trend toward bottle feeding. When we asked students how many times in the past two weeks they'd drunk an alcoholic beverage, many hadn't touched a drop and many drank very little.

Marijuana is the only drug that comes close to alcohol in popularity. The number of men and women who have tried pot has increased steadily over the years. Our 1970 Student Survey found that 47 percent of the student population had tried pot. The total of veteran heads is now 70 percent.

Have You Ever Used Marijuana?

Almost half of those who have used marijuana say they are not using it currently. This points up two things: that it is relatively easy to quit smoking marijuana and that the drug scene on campus appears to be fading rather than flourishing. There are probably more Scientologists than acidheads and more Flat-Earthers than heroin users. Those who have tried and stopped using drugs other than marijuana far outnumber (concluded on page 169) On Campus (continued from page 164) those who currently take them. Amphetamines are a bit more popular than barbiturates, probably because they promise that magical ability to go without sleep that every college student dreams of. Interest in the fuels of the counterculture seems to be declining. The only drug with a future appears to be cocaine: A full ten percent of the sample want to try the white lady at the first opportunity, and probably haven't only because it costs so much. There are no important differences between the sexes in use of any of these drugs.

What Drugs Do You Use?

Students recognize the risks involved in trying such drugs--the surprising thing is that they are willing to increase the risks. We gave students a list of problem drugs, ranging from heroin to uppers and downers, and a choice of possible legal remedies for their abuse. The range of choices went from making the laws harsher and increasing the penalties, as was done in 1971 in New York State, to a middle-of-the-road approach, mandatory therapy at Government expense, to various humane or permissive reforms. These included the so-called British system, which provides registered addicts with safe doses of drugs on prescription; the removal of penalties for possession for use, retaining penalties for sale; regulated sale, as with tobacco and alcohol; and removal of all restrictions.

Students favor a hard line with the hard stuff: many checked more than one of the possible approaches. Most often, these multiple answers included harsher laws and penalties and mandatory therapy. Presumably, the harsher laws would apply to the sellers of drugs and the therapy to the users.

Attitudes toward drugs are determined more by politics than by any other factor: Half the conservatives want harsher laws and penalties dealing with hallucinogens and cocaine, while only 40 percent of them feel that strongly about uppers and downers. About a quarter of the leftists favor regulated sale of LSD and cocaine, but only 15 percent are that liberal about pills. Flog my back and I'll flog yours.

How Would You Treat Drug Offenders?

Despite all the horrible examples of the past decade, and despite all the anti-Washington rhetoric of this year's campaign, students seem to think the Government can actually solve problems. On a list of statements about political and social questions, 90 percent agreed that the Government is not being strict enough in restraining those who pollute our air and water. On economic questions in general, they lean somewhat to the left. A plurality of 41 percent agreed that we need a more collectivist economy to survive economically, while 27 percent passed on this one. (Students are as puzzled by economics as the rest of us.) On gun control, 70 percent agreed with the proposition that "stricter control of handguns will reduce the number of homicides in the country." This may reflect their worry about crime, as does the fact that nearly half favor the restoration of capital punishment. They ranked crime fourth in a list of vital issues.

What Issues Concern You Most?

On the two most important women's issues. 94 percent support equal economic and political rights for women, while 79 percent oppose any move to restrict women's right to abortion. Showing the change of attitude among educated Catholics, 67 percent of Catholic students oppose the so-called right-to-life amendment.

Today's youths are tomorrow's middle-aged. Can we predict the future of America based on the students of 1976? Perhaps: Only 58 percent of those we polled were optimistic about the future of the country. Three out of four adopt the popular view that there has been a shift toward conservative attitudes and behavior on campus. But judging from the statistics, most students have a different definition of conservative--it seems that the New Morality of the Sixties has become the dominant moral code of the Seventies. Just as the popular musical trend is still rock, blue jeans are still the official uniform (at least when anyone bothers to wear clothes). The 58 percent who expressed optimism for the future are probably the same group who admire the idealism and activism of the Sixties' students. Only 14 percent of the students today agree that there is no reason to engage in protest demonstrations. We've still got four years to go in this decade. Our guess is that things will heat up on campus--after all, most of the 26 percent who still have their virginity are going to lose it someday.