Or, at least, more information than you probably want. All over the Internet today are articles, blogs, etc. about the latest Kinsey Survey on sexuality in America. It was a massive survey conducted by several staff at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, funded by Church & Dwight (makers of Arm & Hammer baking soda and Trojan condoms).

Part of the study is now available (with more to come) in a free download from the Journal of Sexual Medicine, which you can reach through the Kinsey site. It is filled with information.

http://www.nationalsexstudy.indiana.edu/

Americans are far more diverse in sexual practices than many would like to believe. While neither castration nor eunuchs appear in the materials published to date, the download is 150 pages of fascinating information.

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I find it hard to give a lot of credence to surveys on personal subjects. Even if people are told their answers are entirely private, I expect they are still warped by what people think they should say.

For example, things that are embarrassing are probably under-reported. Like only 81% of 19 year old guys masturbated in the past year?

And things that people think they should be doing are probably over-reported. Like 69% of guys aged 39 have given a woman oral sex in past year? -- I like giving oral sex and have a wife that likes it but that still seems like over-reporting: there are lots of "terminally single guys", divorced guys, ill guys, gay guys, guys married to asexual women, guys in marriages where relationship is too bad to be sexual, etc. That's gotta be more than 30% who don't even have an opportunity to give oral sex to a girl.

While these surveys are meant to be non judgmental, I think you probably have to adjust some answers based on other answers. For example, if an unattractive guy who is poor and single and doesn't report using prostitutes is saying they've been having sex with women then that should be taken with a grain of salt. So should any young guy's answers.

Also, I think you have to weight the information based on number of partners each has in order to double-check the math. For example, 33% of 16 year old guys received oral sex from girls, but only 7% of girls gave oral sex to guys. Now it is very possible that a few girls are giving lots of oral sex, but it would be a lot easier to confirm if those 7% of girls that gave oral sex were also claiming to have significantly more partners.

I also realize that orientation is hard to compartmentalize, but it would be worth knowing more about it. Orientation is still the most important part of sexuality -- the details of how many guys masturbate with a sock type facts is only of minor importance.

I'm glad they do these surveys as they get people thinking. But I also worry they can create false expectations themselves -- the lonely single people are going to look at the fact that 70% of people in their age group are supposedly having all this great sex and will be unfairly worried.

Anyway, this kind of survey always just brings up more questions than it answers.