God Is Love

Does religious fervor lead to a richer sex life? Maybe so. Redbook magazine's September issue reports on a computer analysis of 18,349 responses to a professionally prepared questionnaire on sexual attitudes and practices published in the magazine last fall. While scarcely representative of all American women--most of the responses came from young, white, middle-class mothers--the survey does show that "strongly religious" women report more sexual satisfaction, more orgasms and better communication with their husbands than "fairly religious" women. At the bottom of the happiness scale are non-religious women; they are the least satisfied with the frequency and quality of intercourse, and the least likely to take an active role in lovemaking. Redbook editors admit to being "astounded" by the correlation between religion and successful lovemaking. The magazine's theory is that more and more "enlightened" clergymen have been teaching that sexual pleasure is "a necessary element in a good marriage."

Among the survey's other findings: 80% of the women questioned and 90% of those under 25 report having had premarital intercourse. Twenty percent have had intercourse "often" or "occasionally" while under the influence of marijuana, and 61% of these said that they enjoyed it that way. Nearly all women--89%--have experienced oral sex. Close to one-third of all married women, and half of those who have jobs, have had extramarital affairs. Less than 4% have participated in mate swapping, but 24% say they would like to. Redbook says that the survey shows women rejecting the sexual double standard, but one response indicates that the old D.S. is still alive and kicking hard: while only 12% of the women would object to a son's having premarital intercourse, 24% would oppose it for their daughters.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.