movement”—add “virgins” to the Goths, jocks, nerds,
preppies, and rappers. When pledgers did have heterosex-
ual intercourse, they were far less likelyto use contraception.
Another survey of 527 never-married heterosexual stu-
dents at a large Midwestern university found that 16 per-
cent had taken virginity pledges but that 61 percent of them
had broken their pledge before graduating from college.
Pledgers were less likely to use condoms, although they were
just as likely to practice oral sex as nonpledgers (Lipsitz,
Bishop, and Robinson, 2003).
Because abstinence-based programs are often used
instead of actual sex education, few people really know
exactly what “counts” in keeping your pledge. In one recent
survey of 1,100 college freshmen, 61 percent believed they
were still abstinent if they had participated in mutual mas-
turbation; 37 percent if they have had oral sex; and 24 per-
cent if they have had anal sex. On the other hand, 24 percent believed that kissing
broke their abstinence pledge (Bearman and Bruckner, 2001, Lipsitz et al., 2003).Rape and Sexual Assault
Although women’s and men’s sexualities are becoming more similar, there remain
some important differences. One of the most important is in the area of nonconsen-
sual sexual activity, a form of sexual assault. On many college campuses, more than
half of all sexual assaults take the form of “date rape,” in which a woman is assaulted
while on a date with a man. Some studies have estimated the rates to be significantly
higher. Some men may take advantage of a woman while she is intoxicated and unable
to resist, or they may simply be unaware that she “really means it” if she says no:
They have been raised on media images of women who violently resist a man’s
advances, only to melt into his arms at the last minute.
While women comprise the largest proportion of victims of sexual assault, male
victims are not uncommon: About 23 percent of women and 4 percent of men state
that they have been forced to have sex against their will. Male perpetrators are more
common in assaults against women (21.6 percent were assaulted by men, and 0.3 per-
cent by women), but in assaults against men, the gender balance is about equal (1.9
percent were assaulted by men, 1.3 percent by women).What Else Affects Sexuality?
Gender may be the most central force shaping our sexual identity and behavior, but
other identities shape them as well. For example, Blacks hold more liberal sexual val-
ues than Whites and have slightly more sex partners, but they also masturbate less
frequently, have less oral sex, have less anal sex, and are slightly less likely to have
same-sex contacts than Whites (Laumann et al., 2000). Hispanics are also more
sexually liberal in their attitudes than Whites, and they masturbate more often than
both Whites and Blacks (Laumann et al., 2000). Yet they also have less oral sex and
have fewer sex partners, either same sex or opposite sex, than do Whites or Blacks
(Centers for Disease Control, 2005; Laumann et al., 2000). Of all the large ethnic
groups in the United States, Asian Americans are the least sexually liberal, masturbate
less often, and have fewer sex partners of either same or opposite sex (Laumann and
Michaels, 2000).334 CHAPTER 10SEXUALITYJOn America’s college cam-
puses, more than half of all
sexual assaults take the form
of “date rape,” in which a
woman is assaulted while on
a date with a man. Getting a
woman so drunk that she
cannot consent—or say no—
to sex is a prelude to assault,
not lovemaking.