One unique source of data from the survey was the extensive questions about sexual experience and history. The data provides an interesting snapshot of the sexual life of lesbian, bisexual, and questioning women on Smith’s campus at the time.
First, the survey explored the sexual history of respondents before coming to Smith.
Before coming to Smith, the majority of students had far more sexual experience with men than with women. Though 77.8% of respondents engaged in “heavy petting” with men before college and 49.5% had “sexual relations” with men before college, only 25.5% of respondents had engaged in “heavy petting” with women and 19.8% of respondents had had sex with women before college. 1 Notably, the survey does not define sexual relations or heavy petting, so the respondents might have been perceiving these metrics differently, particularly for female partners. Either way, the inexperience with women partners before Smith highlights that Smith, and college life in general, provided space to explore previously unexplored sexual territory.
Once coming to Smith, the data certainly shifted. Respondents continued to have sexual experiences with men, but also began to have more experiences with women. “Since coming to college,” 53.4% of respondents had “sexual relations” with at least one man. 82.2% of respondents had “sexual relations” with at least one woman since coming to college, and 22.9% had sex with 4 or more female partners since coming to college. While only 17.8% of respondents had NOT engaged in “sexual relations” with any women, 46.6% of respondents had not had “sexual relations” with any men.2 These statistics show that for at least some of the respondents, they were not interested in or pursuing relationships with men during their time in college. Still, a significant portion of the respondents engaged in sexual relationships with both men and women throughout their time in college, which shows the fluidity of the respondents and the ways that labels might not reflect experience explicitly.
In describing the sexual relationships, respondents indicated that male sexual partners were more likely to be “pick ups or casual dates” and less likely to be “someone with whom you are in love and planning a long term relationship with” than female sexual partners. 3 Respondents had sex with different genders for different reasons and in different circumstances, showing the diversity of experience amongst the sample. Do you think LGBT sexual experience at Smith is as varied today? More statistics about sexual experiences can be found on pages 98-107 of the survey.
