Now for the Truth About Americans and Sex

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But the basic message of Sex in America is that men and women have found a way to come to terms with each other's sexuality -- and it is called marriage. "Our study," write the authors, "clearly shows that no matter how sexually active people are before and between marriages marriage is such a powerful social institution that, essentially, married people are all alike -- they are faithful to their partners as long as the marriage is intact."

Americans, it seems, have come full circle. It's easy to forget that as recently as 1948, Norman Mailer was still using the word fug in his novels. There may have been a sexual revolution -- at least for those college-educated whites who came of age with John Updike's swinging Couples, Philip Roth's priapic Portnoy and Jong's Fear of Flying -- but the revolution turned out to have a beginning, a middle and an end. "From the time of the Pill to Rock Hudson's death, people had a sense of freedom," says Judith Krantz, author of Scruples. "That's gone."

It was the first survey -- Kinsey's -- that got prudish America to talk about sex, read about sex and eventually watch sex at the movies and even try a few things (at least once). Kinsey's methods may have been less than perfect, but he had an eye for the quirky, the fringe, the bizarre. The new report, by contrast, is a remarkably conservative document. It puts the fringe on the fringe and concentrates on the heartland: where life, apparently, is ruled by marriage, monogamy and the missionary position. The irony is that the report Jesse Helms worked so hard to stop has arrived at a conclusion that should make him proud. And it may even make the rest of us a bit less anxious about what's going on in that bedroom next door.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: NO CREDIT

CAPTION: How often have you had sex in the past year?

In your lifetime, how many sex partners have you had?

How many sexual partners have you had since age 18?

Which of the following did you do in ther past year?

Have you had sex with someone of your own gender?

Are you sexually attracted to people of the same gender?