Sex Research Department
No sex talk please, we’re Ottawans
By Innika La Fontaine
If Carrie Bradshaw knows good sex, Jocelyn Wentland (pictured above) knows great. But talking sex in this city ain’t easy when people seem more concerned with politics than penis size.
The outgoing sex researcher recently moved to Ottawa to complete a Ph.D. on women and casual sex at the University of Ottawa—one of the best schools in Canada in the sexuality field (who knew?). But compared to her hometown of Vancouver, B.C. where erotic posters decorate storefronts on the main strip, the capital strikes Wentland as a bit on the prudish side.
“Why isn’t there a more vibrant community about this stuff?” Wentland wonders. “I think I’m pretty connected to the sex scene here, and I’m still learning what’s going on here. I think, ‘How do I, a sex researcher in Ottawa, not know about this already?’”
In efforts to bring sex in from the fringes Wentland maintains a blog called Sex Research and the City where she offers tongue-in-cheek commentary on anything from erotic photography to the differences between “friends with benefits” and “fuck buddies.” But even her fun attempts to speak cheekily about sex raise more than a few eyebrows around town.
In fact, intentionally pushing people’s buttons with sex chatter has almost become game for Wentland.
“I can see their body language changing—they’re not pretending to work anymore and are listening in,” Wentland says. “I’ve even been at the airport Googling pictures for my blog and have seen people looking over.”
With her long blonde locks and big blue eyes it’s not hard to imagine the 30-year-old Wentland getting her share of gazes. Still, her youth, good looks, and penchant for sex talk can be problematic.
“Up until quite recently I’ve been a single girl doing this sex research,” Wentland explains. “There’s all sorts of judgments I get for studying casual sex. Obviously I’m some huge nymphomaniac, I must be crazy in bed, and I must have a dungeon dedicated to sex in my apartment.”
“Just because I’m a sex researcher some people think it’s okay to divulge incredibly personal details about themselves,” Wentland says, “and they also think it's okay to ask me personal stuff.”
Conservative backlash to Wentland’s liberal mindedness flared up last year when she commented on her local radio program (which has since been taken off the air) that most women don’t like porn because most of it ends with a man “ejaculating” on a woman’s face.
The complaints poured in, and much to Wentland’s surprise, they came from women.
“I wasn't saying ‘coming’ or ‘jizz all over her face,’” Wentland laughs. “I didn’t say ‘give her a facial.’ I made it as scientific as I could. It’s just so paradoxical to me: that's exactly why I’m talking about it, because you make it an issue.”
Teen Sex Department
They’re having it, losing it, and spreading it
By Innika La Fontaine
Forget the traditional cake and candy if you’re heading to a Sweet Sixteen party in Ottawa any time soon. Just help spike the punch and spin the bottle because the average teenager celebrating this coming-of-age likely has two things in mind: virginity and how to lose it.
We’ve all heard the stories about sexually rampant teens, but a few characteristics define sexually active youth in the capital, and it’s the folks at Planned Parenthood Ottawa (PPO)—the go-to sexual health resource—whose job it is to spot them.
“We have unusually high rates of STIs (sexually transmitted infections),” says PPO education coordinator Courtney Scanlan. “Ontario right now has higher rates of HIV, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis than the national average. Ottawa specifically has the higher rates of HIV and Chlamydia.”
And it makes sense considering the top three forms of contraception among Ottawa teens are the pill, condoms, and then—shockingly—withdrawal.
“They’re showing less and less consistent condom use,” says Scanlan, who helps deal with around 150 clients per month. “It could also be the trend of serial monogamy—people referring to themselves as monogamous because they’re only having sex with one person at a time, but many relationships are shorter.”
Misguided notions about the spread of STIs are also still out there.
“I’ve heard a young person say if you have anal sex you’re still a virgin, and you don’t need to have any contraceptive protection,” said PPO executive director Heather Holland.
Ottawa demographics are changing rapidly, Holland pointed out, which plays a big part in attitudes to sexual health. Kids now come from various cultural and religious backgrounds, and parents have different ideas about their child’s sexual education.
“We have youth who are calling and whispering from a closet who hang up suddenly then call back saying their parents just walked in,” Scanlan reports. “Some parents will make the sexual and reproductive decisions for their children. They bring their child here without them wanting to come, which is a weird dynamic.”
Another complicating factor: today’s youth have never been more tapped in to technology and can explore sexuality in chat rooms or not-so-innocent picture messages sent via cell phone.
“Porn is more accessible online,” Scanlan says, “and certainly technology is changing the ways people might view sex—with things like sexting. I don’t know a high school student who doesn’t have a cell phone.”
Evidence that it’s girls who take a more active approach to their sexuality—or are left to carry the burden of responsibility: a whopping 85 per cent of the clients through PPO in 2010 were female.
“I’m hearing more and more about females performing oral sex on males but I’m rarely hearing about it being reciprocated,” Scanlan says.
Peer education proves to be one of the best ways to get through to youth, Scanlan and Holland agree. To that end, PPO runs the student-produced Insight Theatre Project where kids create skits on STIs, homophobia, and pregnancy. In this setting, not even a song about dental dams (a latex oral sex barrier for the vulva) is taboo because the youth laugh about it together.
“The great equalizer here is that everyone is sexual and are having sex frequently,” Scanlan says.
