That’s a pretty good variety of samples and age groups. Let’s recap the overall patterns: Oral sex was stigmatized. The stigma has faded. Oral sex is becoming more commonly reported, through some combination of increased activity and decreased stigma. Nevertheless, vaginal experience remains more universal, and vaginal sex is far more frequent. Furthermore, as we learned from the timing data in Wednesday’s piece, teens aren’t starting with a “basic” oral stage followed by an “advanced” vaginal stage. They’re losing both kinds of virginity around the same time.
So, this notion that everybody’s been going down on everybody all along, and that nobody’s been embarrassed or secretive about it, and that it’s obviously elementary and vanilla, is baloney. Yes, oral sex is common, and strikingly so among adolescents. But that trend is a novelty, and a story.
— Was oral sex always normal? - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine
