I was asked to do a comparison of Canadian and American sex differences by McLean;s for their upcoming Canada Day issue. Here are some of my thoughts (having lost the first edition of this blog, I'll get to the steamy stuff later….
Every time I cross the border into upstate New York (and you can see the border from my parent's house on the St. Lawrence), I am astounded at the differences. It's less than 200 yards from my old bedroom window and you can dingy across the river, but the American's speak differently, have different clothes, different phrases and very different attitudes.
Despite a media frenzy of Calvin Klein ads, they really are much, much more uptight about sex than we are here. In Canada, we are hypocritical (ie sex for money isn't illegal, just talking about it is), but the US is far more puritanical. Everything from how they censor their politicians (and everyone has some sort of sexual quirk), to how they sell sex toys seems to be a duality of sorts. We are headed to a more European approach to sexuality, while the Church has a far greater impact on their state (and subsequent sex policies) than they do here. And the politics are the right, and the far right. So, it still is a "do what I say, not what I do" culture. Remember it's the second most powerful drive, and it only pops up without an outlet. The sex offender numbers there astound me. As for sex ed, I really blame the whole Bush doctrine of abstinence only education. (the only kind of sex ed programs that got funded). Almost every kid (Christian or not) will give into their raging hormones when given an opportunity. If all they can only say "no" it precludes planning for pregnancies, and STI's. There are far more inner city kids proportionally, who grow up in a culture of teen's having babies, and in their world, it is socially condoned. In Canada the same group of marginal young women get pregnant (to get out of home, get someone to love…etc) but it isn't growing at a significant rate comparatively.