By The Numbers

Use for quick stats rundown

Polygamy: How Common Is It?

Mormonism founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and his polygamist family

Mormonism founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and his polygamist family

“The Talk” host Julie Chen revealed a family secret this week: her maternal grandfather was a polygamist. He had nine wives.

We’ve all seen “Big Love,” the HBO show centering on a Mormon man (Bill Paxton) and his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin) that ran 2006-2011. The show single-handedly brought a depiction of modern polygamy into premium cable holders’ homes and greater mainstream culture.

How common is polygamy, both in the United States and the world?

Oprah’s “Polygamy in America” report cites experts at putting the US number between 30K and 50K. Another source notes that it’s difficult to find hard numbers on polygamists because plural marriages aren’t documented.

In the greater world, Polygamy Stop estimates another 100K+ people are practice polygamy in Western Europe. The site also notes that polygamy is legal in over 150 countries in Africa, the Middle East and various countries in the Third World (none are specified).

If anything, this news gives Chen quite the conversation-starter for her next dinner party.

 

Sex Worker Documentaries: By The Numbers

Belle Knox

Porn star Belle Knox

“The Cut” reported earlier this week that there’s a documentary in the works about the student/porn star from Duke University. For those just tuning in/forgot, Miriam Weeks (nom de porn Belle Knox) got outed as a performer earlier this year when a classmate recognized her from one of her videos.

Months later, Conde Nast has decided to capitalize on her story and turn it into a docuseries through its Conde Nast Entertainment branch. The series follows Knox as she works hard both in school and on set.

Belle Knox’s story is just the latest in a line of documentaries focused on sex workers.

But how many are sex-worker documentaries are there? I looked at two official sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Wikipedia:

Within the category “Documentary films about prostitution,” 38 pages are listed.

Of these 38 films:

Single-subject portraits (focusing on one notable person): 5

Multi-subject portraits (focusing on a few people): 13

General subject (focusing on an overall subject, e.g. trafficking): 20

Since Wikipedia is user-edited, it’s possible that some films got left off, and some didn’t completely fit the category.

IMDb:

The entertainment industry’s database has a helpful list: Highest Rated “Prostitution” Documentaries. The list numbers 434 films.

Of these 434 documentaries:

Single-subject portraits (focusing on one notable person): 17

Multi-subject portraits (focusing on a few people): 20

General subject (focusing on an overall subject, e.g. trafficking; included TV episodes): 331

Unrelated (only tangentially related, e.g. part of a stand-up act, etc.; included TV episodes): 66

 

Clearly, documentaries about sex workers are alive and well, and will continue to be good for business.

CatalystCon West 2014: By The Numbers

CatalystCon West 2014

CatalystCon West 2014

CatalystCon West gears up today and runs through Sept. 14th in Los Angeles. The four-day conference, founded by Dee Dennis in 2012, aims to “inspire exceptional conversations about sexuality.”

Here’s how it’ll break down via numbers:

Number of Meetups (prior to opening): 2

Number of Films in CatalystCon Film Series: 2

Keynotes: 2 (opening and closing)

Pre-Conference Workshops: 3

Number of Days: 4

Podcasts Recording: 5

Conference Rooms: 6

Number of Workshops: 40 (!!!)

Number of Speakers: 87 (!!!)

Are you attending? I’ll be there Saturday and Sunday!

Masturbation Data: Age, Gender and Frequency

FiveThirtyEight NSSHB Masturbation Results 2009

FiveThirtyEight NSSHB Masturbation Results 2009

Indiana’s National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) recently crunched some data that allows us a few insights into the nation’s masturbation, broken down by age, gender and frequency. Their methodology: 5K+ Americans, ages 14-94, with data collected March to May 2009. (Data science site FiveThirtyEight made a fun graphic illustrating the results, pictured above.)

Here’s what we can glean from the findings:

Women:

Around age 40, the number of women who haven’t masturbated within the past year begins to exceed 35%, and keeps climbing up. (The 30-39 bracket topped out at 37%, but then sank to 35% for the 40-49 bracket.) The older brackets grow between 8-12 percentage points. Why is this? This could point to the fact that women of earlier generations were conditioned to think that masturbation was dirty, and don’t touch themselves on a regular basis, if at all.

Across the board, women in the 2-3 times a week and over 4 times a week fall into the minority. This could indicate achieving a comfort level with their bodies, resulting in knowing exactly which buttons to push (so to speak), and/or a higher-than-average libido.

Men:

The numbers for me only hit single digits with men ages 70+ masturbating 2-3 times a week, and men ages 50-59, 60-69, and 70+ masturbating over 4 times a week. It’s probable that the decreases are inversely correlated with age.

What’s surprising is that the highest percentages weren’t in the 18-24 age range: We hear so much in popular culture that boys masturbate most frequently (at least from anecdotal evidence of any mom with at least one son). But this study shows that the largest percentages for frequency are really falling within the 30-39 and 40-49 age brackets.