MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dramatic changes in Chileans attitudes to sexual behaviour

The centre-right Future Foundation think tank revealed the results of a survey that documents dramatic change in attitudes towards sex and sexual behaviour in Chile.

Questions focusing on the most intimate details about the sex lives of Chileans revealed that Chile is not nearly as conservative as many have assumed.

One of the survey's most dramatic revelations was that more than three quarters (76%) of respondents said that they didn't care whether their partners were virgins, a figure up from 69% in 2000.

According to psychiatrist and survey organizer Marco Antonio de la Parra, this demonstrates that virginity "is no longer of value" and is restricted only to more conservative sectors of the society. De la Parra also said the decrease in the importance of virginity can be explained by the lower age of first-time sex, compared with previous generations.

Another interesting survey result is that a slight majority 51% of those polled approve of premarital cohabitation. That number is up 14 percentage points from 2000, a relatively large climb. Just 23% of those polled strongly disapproved of cohabitating couples.

The statistics regarding marital infidelity were also revealing. According to the study, Chileans think that 49% o married women and 67% of men have been unfaithful to their spouses.

According to De la Parra, in today's modern world -rife with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases- international statistics suggest that people value monogamy even more than they did in the 1950s.

The survey results on sexual attitudes can be seen as part of a general liberalizing trend in Chile, epitomized by nation's decision to elect the first female leader in its history.

Still, on many fronts Chile remains a conservative, Catholic Church oriented country, as witnessed by the Health Ministry's recent attempt to make emergency contraception - "the morning after pill" - universally and unconditionally available throughout the nation (ST, April 4).

The survey also revealed that 46% of Chileans admit to having sexual fantasies involving someone other than their partner, with 54% claiming they never have and 70% of those who denied ever having the steamy daydream were female.

Older respondents ? those aged 45 and over ? were far less likely to admit to having had the fantasies, with 61% denying it.

Another question analyzed the relevance of sex within relationships; nearly all Chileans, 89%, think that sex is "important" or "very important" within a relationship. Just 8% of respondents felt it was "more or less important" and a slight two percent said it held "little to no importance."

Interestingly enough, the respondents aged 25 to 44 placed greater importance on sex, with 93% of that group saying it was important/very important. By comparison, 81% of respondents within the study's youngest group (aged 18 to 24) held the importance of sex in the same regard.

The survey also asked about sources of sexual information. Surprisingly, the main source was television, as mentioned by 32%, followed by friends (27), parents (23), school (22), books (17) and Internet (10).

A relative majority, 42%, think that, generally speaking, Chileans are more or less informed about sex, while 31% think that they are misinformed or uninformed, and 25% think that their fellow Chileans are informed.

Results were dismal when it came to female sexuality. Forty-six percent of women said they were sexually unsatisfied, and said it was a fact they simply had to accept. Yet the data shows that heterosexual men are indeed aware of women's sexual needs ? with 66% believing that women are not sexually satisfied in their relationships.

De le Parra explains that women are often "accompanied by men who know little" about pleasing women, yet claim know "how many times a month" they have sex. Puzzlingly, men claimed to have sex 12 times per month, and women only nine. De la Parra attributes the "three ghost relations" to an overactive imagination on the part of men. The Santiago Times - News about Chile