What Defines a “Fact”?

Ahoy sailors! Now more than ever it important to know if what you are reading is fact or opinion. Fake News and “Truthiness” are not confined to Presidential elections they are RAMPANT in sex and health “advise” sources. Overall, misinformation is common-place in the world of sex and health. The most important thing to remember that facts are discovered through the scientific process. Someone does research, publishes it in a peer reviewed journal and the conclusions of the study are repeated in multiple testings. Anecdotes are based on one person’s observations of a personal situation. Unfortunately, a lot of the time there is not well funded scientific research related to sex and sexuality so many people turn to anecdotes as fact. As admiral Ackbar might say “It’s a trap!”

What is Truthiness?

American television comedian Stephen Colbert coined the word “Truthiness”in a "The Wørd" segment during the pilot episode of his political satire program The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005. Colbert defines Truthiness as “believing something that feels true, even if it isn't supported by fact.” He goes on to say that “gut feelings” are more important than “facts”. “That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.” Truthiness was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster however it has come into new importance in 2016 with the rise of “Fake News”. In regards to sex Truthiness is something we confront every day. There are tons of “gut feelings” that folks take as “fact” related to sex. For example the myth that race is related to penis size, it isn’t! There is no scientific evidence to support this “gut feeling”. When talking about sex and health is imperative to differentiate the two.

What is an “anecdote”?

An anecdote is defined as “a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.” Don’t get me wrong, sex anecdotes are oodles of fun. There is nothing wrong with sitting around with your friends telling sex stories and having laughs. But don’t take these stores as facts and don’t share them with others like there are empirical evidence. A personal sex story is just that, PERSONAL! These anecdotes are rarely universally applicable so they should be stated the correct terms. For example you could say “I am aware of one person's personal experience with that kind of sex act, but only anecdotally.” That way there is no confusion that you are relaying a story not providing facts. Remember, you are allowed to have your own opinion just be sure to differentiate “personal opinion” and “personal experience” from “fact.”

What is a “fact”?

A fact is something that is true no matter the circumstances. Like “one plus one equals two” there are many sex facts that are true no matter the case, however that is not always the case with pleasure.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a series of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed “scientific”, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical (or measurable) evidence. So it is easy to gather empirical evidence on sex subjects like anatomy however it becomes more challenging with subjective experiences like pleasure. How do you measure personal pleasure experience? So most studies focus on subjects where you can have some sore of evidence to measure. The then follow these series of techniques: 1. Make some sort of Observation.

2. Make a guess about that observation, called a Hypothesis, that is consistent with what you have observed.

3. Use the hypothesis to make Predictions.

4. Test those predictions by Experiments (measuring empirical evidence)

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there are no discrepancies between theory and experiment and/or observation

6. Collect Results

The next step in modern science is to then publish those results in a Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal. Then other scientist read the publication, repeat the research and get similar results. NOW, you have a fact from these results.

Scientific Sex & Health Research

The scientific method takes funding! The whole process from Observation to Publication can be incredibly expensive to undertake so most research is done in university with the funding coming from grants. Now the first, and last, University Sex Study was The Kinsey Reports written by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and others at Indiana University in 1948. From this the report the Kinsey Scale of Sexual Orientation and Attraction was created and so was the introduction of the normalization of queerness into academic studies because Kinsey discovered a larger percentage of his participants did not identify as 100% heterosexual. As I mentioned this study was the first and last and not much many universities are interested in funding research related to sex and pleasure. There are private companies (like Sex Toy Companies) that fund research however they may be biased in their results depending on the backer.

So if a “fact” is defined by someone doing research, publishing it in a peer reviewed journal and the conclusions of the study are repeated in multiple testings but there is no one funding research on sex and pleasure how do we know the “facts”? Always use logical analysis to determine the validity of a source. Is a sex toy company telling me that their own toy gives the best orgasm? Perhaps that is an advertisement claim and not a fact. Is a magazine making the same claim? How many ads for that company are in that magazine? If you want to be accurate when discussing facts related to sex a more general framework will work just as well. “Some”, “Many” and “Most” are useful way to generalize many different things: the amount of people who do a certain activity, identify a certain way, sex facts, or to to help normalize sexual variation. For example: “Some people participate in Kinky sex”. “Many people self-identify as homosexual”. “Most people will masturbate at some point in their lifetime”. In regards to sex and pleasure look for sources that use language like “Some, Many and Most” to insure there are accurate. And i know it seems counter-intuitive... trust your gut!

-Sailor Jerri

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