Engaging Pillow Talk: The Challenges of Studying Communication After Sexual Activity
“Oh, have I got a story for you” is a phrase I’ve grown accustomed to hearing. As a researcher of relationships, such a response is not unexpected, but it was not until I started studying communication that takes place after sexual activity that this reaction became commonplace. Despite the increased visibility of sex in American life (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1997), opportunities for people to talk about sex remain uneven. For example, the sex lives of celebrities are frequent fodder for tabloids, but talking about sex for educational purposes in a classroom setting is often frowned upon. Thus, we live in a society where people learn conflicting ideas about what is and is not appropriate to discuss when it comes to sex.
6 pages, 5 figures.-- PACS nr.: 43.58.Dj.-- Communication presented at: Forum Acusticum Sevilla 2002 (Sevilla, Spain, 16-20 Sep 2002), comprising: 3rd European Congress on Acoustics; XXXIII Spanish Congress on Acoustics (TecniAcustica 2002); European and Japanese Symposium on Acoustics; 3rd Iberian Congress on Acoustics.-- Special issue of the journal Revista de Acustica, Vol. XXXIII, year 2002.