> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colin Clark [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 6:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Radical Statistics: special issue on sexuality (2003)
It is a great idea to have a special issue of the journal on sexuality.
The area of sexuality is of considerable interest both statistically and as
an important human rights topic.
For many decades discussions were dominated by, and inhibited by, Kinsey's
surveys that revealed what was for many people at that time an unspeakable
variety in human sexual orientation and behaviour. Kinsey's findings were
dismissed as unrepresentative by statisticians and many other members of the
scientific establishment of the day. The implicit criticism was that only
perverts and exhibitionists would have been willing to confess to their
sexual proclivities in such detail.
The myth was created that it would be impossible to conduct a proper sample
survey of sexual behaviour because respondents would not reveal detail with
any reliability.
Then came AIDS and the realisation that even governments need to know
something of the sexual behaviour of the population to support public health
policies. The first large scale social survey using proper sampling was
conducted in 1991 - see Wellings et al (1991) 'Sexual Behaviour in Britain',
Penguin.
One outcome of this study was to destroy the myth that people are unwilling
to talk about their sexual attitudes and activities. There are even
indications that in an interview situation people are *more* willing to talk
about sex than to talk about other aspects of their lives. The explanation
may be that it is not easy for many people to talk about their sex life with
a friend or relative. Respondents talk more easily about their sexual
experience and aspirations to a trained interviewer who asks sympathetic
questions and who listens in a non-judgmental way.
One side effect of this is to give some respectibility to the many surveys
conducted that do not attempt to draw a representative sample. People who
volunteer sexual detail don't seem to be substantially different from those
who are asked in a representative sample.
Ray Thomas, Social Sciences, Open University
Tel: 01908 679081 Fax 01908 550401
Email: [log in to unmask]
35 Passmore, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY
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