The One Thing You Never Suspected About College Students’ Sex Lives

We’ve been wrong all along.

We do a lot of talking on behalf of college students these days. We comment on what they study, what they wear, even rush to lightheartedly mock them when they slip over onto the wrong side of the law. But what we don’t often do is let them speak for themselves, especially about their sex lives. Such is the premise of New York Magazine’s weeklong study on college students’ perspectives of sex. 

From cam girls to budding BDSM enthusiasts to asexuals, the article features interviews that plainly take the emphasis off of what we think of them and onto what they think about themselves, their bodies, their lives. But a pantheon of varied habits and behaviors is nothing surprising. College has almost always represented a psychosocial moratorium for young adults to try out new things.

What was new information was the staggering amount of participants in the study who reported to be virgins. In over 700 students at 9 colleges and universities across the United States, “nearly 40 percent” were virgins, NY Mag reports. Perhaps a little less surprising considering that includes freshman as well as seniors, but it certainly goes against the Animal House-esque visions of college students that most of America still cherishes. 

So instead of saying one more thing about them, I’d rather say something to them: however it is you’re having sex, stay safe, and have fun doing it.

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