'Clinton-Lewinsky Effect': Study Shows Students' Changing Views Of Oral Sex

Sex researchers point to former President Bill Clinton, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a notorious blue dress -- and perhaps a cigar -- for a recent study that shows college students are growing more hesitant to call oral sex actual sex.

According to the University of Kentucky study of sexual definitions, only 20 percent of students considered oral-genital contact to be "sex." That's about half the number who responded that way in similar "sex" classification studies in 1991 and 1999-2001.

Though researchers had a variety of theories about this shift -- including a change in emphasis on sex-ed programs and the desensitizing influence of sex portrayed on television and movies -- perhaps the most interesting explanation was called the "Clinton-Lewinsky Effect."

Sexual definitions, the researchers hypothesized, were inevitably shaped by President Clinton's famous "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" statement and the ensuing national discussion.

"Like President Clinton, adolescents and young adults often interpret these words with a degree of latitude, depending on whether they want to maintain an image of being sexually experienced or inexperienced," the report explained.

"Unlike respondents in the previous samples, our respondents were adolescents after the Clinton-Lewinsky era, which our comparisons of data over time suggest may have been a turning point in conceptualizations of oral-genital contact. The dramatic and sudden shift in attitudes toward oral-genital contact can therefore be termed the Clinton-Lewinsky effect."

The study surveyed 477 college undergraduates -- 328 women and 149 men.

Comments

[Merckx]

10:10 AM on 04/16/2010

This conclusion is a huge stretch and says more about the researchers than about young people.
Clinton's private business happened 14 years ago when these kids were in diapers.
Sex in movies and on the internet is everywhere and current.
People are still blaming Clinton for everything.
The only thing I'll blame him for was 8 years of peace and prosperity with a shrinking deficit, low unemployment and low crime rate.

[way2sunny]

10:42 PM on 04/16/2010

Agreed. It's ridiculous.

[trevor100a]

10:34 AM on 04/12/2010

Give me a break. Since when did anyone, especially teens and young adults, start listening to politicians about anything. They don't even listen to their teachers and their own parents for goodness sake. Most probably don't even know past presidents let alone Clinton. This is really reaching for straws here. Sex is not new, just new to some transient lives fleeting by with their heads in the sand. Howling at the moon has done little to prevent it but, like a court jester, makes for good entertainment. It reveals their naivety, especially among teens and young adults.

[Acleacius]

02:48 AM on 04/09/2010

Haha, whatever.

[MikeInCO]

02:52 PM on 04/08/2010

Who cares what college students call it?

Since they are voters and future taxpayers, I care more about what they think of laws and taxes.

Though with the way we designed the system, we need them to have sex so they have kids that can pay for all the hand outs we expect like SS etc.

Though with they way we designed the system, we need them to not have sex so they don't have kids so our govt expenses go down.

Perhaps they should just follow their urges and we can stay out of it.

[cdecisneros]

02:25 PM on 04/08/2010

So no one ever had Oral sex before Bill and Monica.

[JoeBlough]

02:44 AM on 04/09/2010

Look to the church hierarchy.

[chaz]

01:18 PM on 04/08/2010

Please. Here we go again blame President Clinton. Who by the way was a far better President than Reagan but of course the "liberally bias media" tells u otherwise.
Back to this new lie blaming President Clinton. I have spent the last nine years coaching and playing soccer with kids 12 to 22 years of age. During that time period I never heard reference to President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky but I did her tons of rap music describing sex, oral sex in particular all day every day as if it was the norm.
The girls starting in jr high commonly refer to themselves as ho's and can't wait to tell their friends who that gave oral sex too.
That behavior has nothing to do with President Clinton and every thing to do with rap music.
Have a clue!

[sixletters]

09:13 AM on 04/08/2010

Wouldn't it be the Ken Starr effect. It was Ken Starr who decided it was important for us to know how and with whom Bill Clinton has sex with.

[peterbeagle]

09:48 AM on 04/08/2010

spot on!

[blueballs]

08:09 AM on 04/08/2010

I'm pretty sure most of those interviewed in this study don't even know who Bill Clinton IS but if such is the case then do you suppose that Larry Craig has similarly loosened the nation's morals about cruising for dates in bathrooms?

Whew.

[HollisHoHo]

07:30 AM on 04/08/2010

Oh, Clinton has nothing to do with it.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

02:40 AM on 04/08/2010

Cigar Clinton and his wife -- what a pair.

[carly after]

12:52 AM on 04/08/2010

If this was a study of college undergraduates then the participants would have been 10 at the oldest at the time of the scandal (assuming that they surveyed the normal-age undergraduates, aka ages 18-22).

I'm a sophomore and I certainly wasn't paying attention to the Clinton scandal, seeing as I was 8. I don't think I even watched the news at that age (not that my parents banned me from it, I just had no interest), particularly news about sex scandals.

I think in general my generation is just more casual when it comes to sex. We were raised in a time of better birth control etc., and overall a more relaxed society in regards to sex.

[sempronia]

09:33 AM on 04/08/2010

True, but you're following those of us who were older at the time (14) who have gone to college in the years following. There's also the silliness which my Catholic roommates indulged in, namely, sexual acts without actual vaginal penetration. Maybe we didn't take our behaviors from hearing about Clinton's, but it definitely made it easier to talk about.

[shastaman]

11:19 PM on 04/07/2010

Likely the 20% in question were all dudes!
me too!

[shastaman]

11:17 PM on 04/07/2010

I wish my wife saw it this way!

[benji85]

10:28 PM on 04/07/2010

37?! You sucked 37?

[Shzron1946]

10:09 PM on 04/07/2010

Facts do not change because of popular opinion. Perhaps better education is the key.