A University of Michigan study is proposing a link between recreational drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, and the use of sex toys. In the study (the first of its kind) published in the March issue of the academic journal "Sexually Transmitted Diseases," Prof. Betsy Foxman, a researcher at the University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research, suggests that people who use sex toys may be more likely to engage in high risk sexual behaviors, including the use of recreational drugs for sexual enhancement, and non-monogamous sex.
Cory Silverberg, one of the owners of Come as You Are, a sex store and online sexual resource based in Toronto, has been a sex educator in the retail sex toy industry for more than 15 years and takes serious issue with the statements Foxman and her colleagues are making.
“There are several major flaws with the study. For starters, the implication is that sex toy users are a homogenous group of people, a claim for which there is no research, and one that anecdotally doesn’t ring true,” Silverberg said. “The study claims to use a random sample from the general population. While a random sample may have been the method used to find the numbers to dial, finding people to pick up the phone and answer personal questions about their sexual behaviors to a stranger is in no way random. The respondents are a very specific subset of people who are comfortable with their sexuality.”
In addition to his concern with the respondents, Silverberg comments that the authors are drawing conclusions where they may not exist. They claim that behaviors such as having multiple partners is associated with “high risk” activity, and while this may be true in the most general sense, Silverberg argues that people who are comfortable disclosing their sex toy usage over the phone to a stranger may also be more comfortable accessing and using safer sex information and practices.
“The research does not consider the actual STD status of participants, so there is no way for them to say how this constellation of behaviors (using sex toys and having non monogamous sex) plays out. The fact is that people can engage in all sorts of non-traditional sexual behaviors in very safe ways, and sex toy usage is just one of those options.”
Come as You Are can be accessed online at www.comeasyouare.com.
