There is a famous British phrase: ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’, which seems to sum up the rest of the world’s view on how we Brits feel about sex. However, the stereotype of the reserved English gentleman and prudish women couldn’t be further from the truth.
In actuality, the British reputation for being reserved when it comes to sex appears to be at odds with a long history of a sexier side to the country. In the UK, photographic porn can be traced right back to the Victorian era, when gentleman’s clubs and certain social circles distributed hardcore and explicit pictures. French prints, sensual literature and photography were all widely traded. However, due to obscenity laws, the majority of Brits had to settle for more tame kinds of sexual content such as cartoons and magazines that were only titillating and not explicit. (See more titillating content by clicking here for the video page.)
Think back to the famous saucy postcards from British coastal towns around the 1930s onwards, not explicit in the slightest but definitely a little naughty. Even some of the cartoons, which frequently featured big breasted women and lots of sexual innuendo, were deemed far too risqué and were prohibited from sale. By European standards, the UK has extremely harsh laws governing the content of pornography, and it’s only been in the past twenty years or so where the sale of hardcore material was made legal to sell, and only as long as the content doesn’t involve “deprave and corruption”.
There is a sizable market for porn in the UK, and more than 51% of Brits admit to watching it. Whether it be porn sites like Brazzers, Cam sites like OnlyFans, Pervcam or BSCams or watching the babe channels e.g Sexstation, Studio 66 or Xpanded. However, according to a survey commissioned by the global market research firm YouGov. British people have the worst sex lives in Europe. Here are the results from the 2013 survey:
- 26% of adults think about sex once, or more, per hour.
Amber Paige - For 11% of adults, half of their sexual experiences have happened whilst drunk
- 33% of adults have used a sex toy
- Only 36% of adults can recall the names of all their sexual partners
- 34% of adults have had sex in public such including British dogging
- 11% have dressed up for their partner during sex
- 20% of adults have been to a strip club
- 14% have filmed themselves having sex
A measly 12% of Brits would describe their sex life as “Excellent,” compared to 21% of Swiss people, making the UK the least content nation among all of those surveyed. Additional research conducted by the Observer in 2014 revealed:
- 11% of British adults rated their sex drive as ‘Very High’, 23% as ‘High), 42% as ‘Average’ 13% as ‘Low’ and 12% as ‘Very Low’.
- 79% of men were happy with the size of their penis.
- Only one in three Brits describe their sex life as ‘Adventurous’.
- 61% of couples believe that they can maintain a happy relationship without sex.
- 17% of adults had been unfaithful to a partner.
- Only 8% of people think monogamy is undesirable in a relationship, while 23% think it is not natural.
- The average age for Brits to lose their virginity is 18.
- More than 10% of Brits have had more than 21 partners, with the average number of sexual partners being 9.
- Brits have sex four times a month on average.
One thing Brits do score incredibly high with is our love of swinging and dogging. Swinging has been popular in the UK since the 1960s during the sexual revolution. Around 1 million people in the UK are thought to participate in the swinging lifestyle.
