A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

Number of sitting American presidents who currently support same-sex marriage: 1

250,000: Number of federal government employees who have completed an official survey that includes, for the first time, questions about sexual orientation and gender identity

55-0: Votes in favor of the Gender Identity bill in Argentina’s senate, recognizing sex-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy as a necessary part of health care

12%: Number of mothers between the ages of 18 and 35 who claimed to have checked their phones during sex

Average length of American engagements: 1 year and 2 months

Average cost of an American wedding: $27,021

“In the millions”: Alleged amount John Edwards’ aides considered selling his sex tape with Rielle Hunter for after the initial story broke

Image: Dave Newman

The post Sex by Numbers: Happy and Gay Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

What a week it’s been for the Ecosalon Sex by Numberettes. We’ve had gay sex outlaws, yoga orgasms and Canadian divorces (and it’s only Thursday). Look out, weekend.

21 percent: respondents who claimed they would be willing to give up sex for a year before giving up Internet access

6 months: possible jail time for two American men on a gay cruise accused of “buggery” during a stop in Dominica

260 million: value of the most recent lawsuit brought against American Apparel CEO Dov Charney

3: number of women in Zimbabwe who have been arrested for forcibly taking semen from hitchhikers

124: Women who have experienced exercise-induced orgasms, according to a recent study at Indiana University

90 days: amount of time a Canadian couple attempting to divorce must avoid having casual sex with each other before their request is granted

Image: Paulina Clemente

The post Sex by Numbers: Guilty as Charged Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

I just got engaged. And I’m old. Okay, not Betty White old, but old enough that people who don’t know me are adding a -¦finally”¦” under their breath. And people who do know me are looking outside their windows to see if pigs are stuck in trees. Because they were flying, get it?

In the meantime, I’m in a weird limbo between single and married lands. I’m proud of being single into my late thirties, self-identifying all over the place as a sufficient, capable, man-less feminist. I got to a place where I could really see myself avoiding matrimony altogether, happily living out life as a proud auntie with nice handbags-not-diaper-bags and eight sound hours of sleep a night.

But obviously I kept dating. Now I have a wonderful man and a ring that keeps surprising me on my left finger. Welcome to No-Man’s Land for Singles! This is a happy land, where expectation and hopes are alive with promise, flowers, and gift cards to Bed, Bath and Beyond. It’s also the land where people totally freak you out with statistics. Recently, I ran across the scariest one of all in The New York Times – singles have better sex lives than married people! Was this true? I had to investigate.

So I can expect to hang up my libido when I file a joint tax return. Right? Not so fast, says the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. As it turns out, 23 percent of non-married men and 32 percent of non-married women report that they did not have sex in an entire year. Only one percent of married men and three percent of married women shared that they did not have sex in a year. Further, 43 percent of married men had sex a few times in the past month, with similar numbers for married women. The number were much lower for the unmarrieds.

So it looks like, yes, marriage can lead to a more frequent sex life. But it is better? According to The New York Times, marrieds are more like to have orgasms and give and receive oral sex. But should a smug married point this out to a singleton, said singleton can point back that 11 percent of people who co-habitate or are married have been unfaithful to their significant others. So yes, marries are having sex – just not necessarily with each other.

For more interesting sex facts, check out this chart from the Kinsey Institute. (Five to ten percent of Americans engaged in S&M? How did I miss this?)

The post Singles Have More Sex Than Marrieds – Right? appeared first on EcoSalon.