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Sexuality at Hillsdale College
By Cheryl Heitzman
Collegian Reporter
Hillsdale's marriage and family seminar, a
sociology course, offers the opportunity for students to explore
some of the issues that face modern families.
Seniors Anna Haynes and Rachel Rock decided
to use the opportunity to poll college students about their
sexuality. Armed with an anonymous poll that asked personal
questions, they found some unique ideas among some typical results.
"We learned about sexual activity and
STDs in the first part of the class, and it was interesting,"
Haynes said. "So we decided to do something fun and different
for this project."
The poll revealed that 49 percent of the subjects
were not virgins, while 51 percent were. But 58 percent of the
subjects said they practice oral sex, while 44 percent said
they do not. Of the non-virgins, only 20 percent are currently
celibate.
Eighty percent of the sexually active participants
practice safe sex, which Haynes and Rock defined as, but did
not limit to, the use of condoms.
The average age of the first incidence of
sexual intercourse was 16.5 years old.
"A surprising number of sexually active
people did not think oral sex was OK," Haynes said. "And
one person remarked that if you wanted to have sex, you should
go for it…that is a foreign concept to me."
Of the students polled, 49 percent said sex
is OK when the participants are in love, and 15 percent said
it was acceptable if there was only trust involved.
Overall, Rock said the class was interesting
and informative.
"We have done personality testing and
in-depth family trees, and I think that is something that you
always want to have but won't do on your own," she said.
"Also, I think it allows discussion in areas that are not
typical to classrooms, like drug and alcohol abuse, physical
abuse, different forms of love, etc. It's a change of pace."
The husband and wife team of Drs. Chuck and
Madelyn Johnson, teach the class, and Madelyn said the survey
raised surprises and concerns.
"I was concerned at the number of people
having sex and concerned at the number not even practicing safe
sex," she said, "I would have expected the number
to be lower."
Chuck said he thought the average age the
respondents had sexual intercourse for the first time was actually
a little high compared to the national average.
"We showed a video by Dr. Phil that showed
many junior high kids involved in oral sex, so I thought that
16.5 years old was maybe high compared to the national average,"
he said.
He was also concerned about the effects of
a sexual relationship on young couples.
"If a relationship moves to sexual involvement,
it tends to move the importance of friendship to the perimeter,"
he said.
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