Many view America as a country “obsessed with sex.” As we discussed in Chapter 1, sex is used to sell everything from blue jeans to cologne and is oozing from television sitcoms, advertising, music videos, and pop lyrics. However, even with this openness and sex all around us, there is a painful lack of solid sexuality research. Our “problem-driven” approach to sex research has limited what we really know about relationships, love, and human development. Often funding for sexuality research comes from private foundations or governmental agencies. Over the past few years, however, there has been a lack of adequate funding.
Overall, it is a trying time for sexuality researchers. Congressional attacks on sexuality research continue, and in 2003 an amendment was proposed that would have cut funding for many grants given to study sexual behaviors. In response, the Coalition to Protect Research (CPR) was organized to support federal investments in biomedical and behavioral research into human sexual development, sexual health, and sexually transmitted infections (Studwell, 2004).
Religious institutions may also work to impede sexuality research. In fact, in 2003, the Traditional Values Coalition (consisting of over 43,000 churches) publicly objected to $100 million of government-backed research, much of it focusing on sexual behavior (Carey, 2004). Conservative groups pressure federal agencies to cut funding for sexuality studies, which forces many researchers to turn to pharmaceutical companies for financial support (Clark, 2005). Some researchers claim that a reliance on drug company money will reduce sexual functioning to purely physical functions and the important questions about the psychological and emotional aspects of sexuality will be ignored.
The opinion of many conservatives is that the key to sexual health lies in a lifelong monogamous relationship and because of this, no research is needed on any sexual behaviors (Carey, 2004). In fact, according to such beliefs, if researchers do study behaviors outside of this formula, the research will “normalize” deviant behaviors. All of these pressures affect sexuality researchers’ ability to do their work. In fact, it has been said that because of these pressures, many sex researchers today operate in a type of “scientific underground,” fearing suppression and censure (Carey, 2004).
Our “problem-driven” approach has resulted in a lack of information in several key areas in human sexuality. We know very little about sexual desire and arousal and what makes couples happy long term, or about childhood and adolescent sexuality, which has long been a taboo area of research. We also know little about the development of sexual identity, sexual risk-taking, and how the increase in sexual material on the Internet affects people’s sexual behaviors (Carey, 2004). Infidelity, sexual trauma, and various sexual variations, including sexual predators and people who engage in sex with children, also have been poorly researched.
Funding for sexuality education has also been controversial. In fact, to get federal funds for sexuality education, a program must discuss abstinence and is often barred from discussing condoms or other contraceptive methods (Kristof, 2005). Today we know that these abstinence-only sex education programs are not successful (we’ll discuss this more in Chapter 8).
The goal of sex research in the future will be to understand the emotional and relational aspects of human sexuality. Instead of overly focusing on what doesn’t work in sexual relationships, such as problems with erections or orgasms, it will help us understand what does work and what keeps couples happy and satisfied. In the future, an increased willingness on the part of the federal government to consider sexuality-related research will help improve our knowledge about sexuality and will aid in bringing sexuality researchers together. An improved collaboration between researchers of various disciplines would help us more fully understand the influences that affect our sexuality and, in turn, would help build the field of sexual science research strives to answer.
In the following chapters of this book, keep in mind the importance of theory and how it guides the questions we have about sexuality. The scientific method helps sexologists find answers to the varied questions we have about human sexual behavior. We will be discussing the results of many more of these scientific studies.