Americans lag in safer sex

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Dec, 1996

The Durex Global Survey of Sex on the Planet reveals that, although Americans have the leading international reputation for practicing safer sex, they rank fourth in the actual use of condoms by those having casual sex. According to Judy Kuriansky, a clinical psychologist, sex therapist, author, and host of "Love Phones," a nationally syndicated live radio talk show on sex and romance, "Americans have a sense of omnipotence - a hardiness that comes from our heritage that leads many of us to believe that danger can't happen. We have intellectual understanding without practical application."

The London international Group, makers of Durex condoms, commissioned the research among 10,000 adults in 15 countries as an international benchmark on sexual attitudes and behavior. The survey confirmed that women fully have embraced the sexual al revolution. Not only are they as sexually active as men on average, but they are more selfish about their own sexual needs. Twenty-nine percent of females throughout the world put their partners, satisfaction as their top priority, compared with 38%. of males.

The most sexually active nation was the U.S., with Americans having 135 occasions of lovemaking each year, followed by the Russians, French, Germans, and British. The least active nationalities were Thais with a annual encounters and Spanish with 71.