Why do students feel pressured to have sex?

When we think of pressure surrounding sex I don’t believe that we think of it as a major issue. Maybe at one point we ourselves have been pressured into sex but we think that the people around us haven’t been in this position. The shocking truth is that this is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.

Recently the Soton Tab held a survey where one of the questions was ‘have you ever felt pressured to have sex?’. An astonishing 32% of you had felt at least one time in your lives pressured into sex, which is a shocking result. Why could this be that so many of us have been pressured into something that should be a free choice?

One reason could be the stigma around students to have sex. University has a reputation as a place to go to experiment sexually and this may add to the pressure for some people. If we choose not to have sex, which is a personal decision that shouldn’t be made by anyone but you, and then we see your flatmates ‘pulling’ in a club or people are asking us if we have been having sex at Uni it adds to the pressure. It’s a human response to want to fit in and so the pressure of this could lead to having sex just so we can tell others that we have.

However it may be more one on one pressure. If a person that you are in a relationship with or just a person we are getting close to continues to pressure us into having sex, sometimes we bow into pressure just to make them happy. But why should we? It’s obvious that this person isn’t right for us if they are pressuring us into something we don’t want to do. But this pressure is a real issue along with the pressure previously mentioned. So if this is such a pressing issue, why aren’t more people affected by it speaking about it?

I think the reason as to why this is, is because sex is a taboo subject. Sure after a one night stand or a session with friends with benefits we as a collective would happily go to a friend and tell them about it. But maybe when it comes to more serious issues to do with sex we are either uncomfortable or scared to talk to someone about it. If sex was more freely spoken about in a serious manner then the people who are subject to pressure of any kind would feel more open to speak to someone about how they are feeling.

This is especially true when it comes to pressure; this can make us feel as though we are trapped and so we need to create an environment where people can speak freely in order to get this trapped feeling banished. I encourage anyone who is being pressured into sex to speak to someone; it’s not easy to deal with on your own and by speaking out the pressure can be relieved. I know, I’ve been in your position before and it helps a great deal.