During his November 2009 tour of Asia, President Obama performed his now-infamous bow to the Emperor of Japan. You can probably recall the tumult that followed this greeting, an action that many in the States found to be nearly indefensible as it seemed to indicate submissiveness. The President quickly defended himself by reminding us that "...different countries have different traditions." Just pick up a copy of Terri Morrison's Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands to bolster the truth of the President's explanation. In the text, readers are taught differing cultural guidelines and expectations for sixty countries regarding practices such as greetings, gestures, gift giving, and dress. However, nowhere in the text are differing cultural traditions surrounding sexual activity mentioned.
Several recent polls and surveys indicate that attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and even satisfaction with sex differ from country to country. For example the 2008 Global Sex Survey found that Asian countries reported low levels of sexual satisfaction, with the Japanese being the least satisfied with their sex lives. In contrast, Austrians were the most satisfied. Israeli women placed the highest value on sex, and among men, Brazil scored the highest and Thailand the lowest. The British came out ahead of America, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany as to their number of one-night stands. And these are just some examples of the sexual differences among nations.
Cultural differences in regards to sex and sexuality have relevance for our lives, and this will be even truer as this new decade progresses. The United States is facing dramatic changes in both its demographic make-up and its standing in the world that will impact our understanding of sex and sexuality:
• Within the next three decades nearly one in five Americans will have been born outside of the United States and account for 82% of the population growth of the country, and the U.S. Census Bureau reports that our country will soon be a nation of minorities without a dominant racial or ethnic group.
• No longer can one country maintain a position of cultural superiority over all others; the ongoing current financial crisis evinces this fact, particularly the growing influence of China, India, and Brazil. Repeatedly we are told that the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance. As a result, we will be introduced to the sexual mores and practices of these ascending cultures (consider for example that elder porn -- productions featuring "mature" performers -- is one of the fastest growing pornography markets in Japan, and a 73-year-old male is one of its hottest stars), and some will indeed take root in the United States.
According to J. Corbitt Nathan, a nationally recognized cross-cultural educator and creator of the Global Awareness Profile, an inventory to measure one's understanding of global diversity, most men and women in the United Stated can't maintain even a brief conversation with a person from another culture because they have such minimal knowledge about other parts of the world. Consider the shocking finding of a 2008 National Geographic-Roper study that many Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four do not think it is important to know a foreign language or to even know the location of countries that are prevalent in current events. It's not then surprising that we have little knowledge of the sexual differences among cultures.
In my first blog, I informed readers that over the next twenty years a conflux of forces will impact how we think, talk, and even practice sex. Much of this impact will come about through the increasing awareness, experimentation, and acceptance of the sexual practices of different cultures. The next several blogs will examine what we can expect.
