By: Angelica Cheyenne and Patricia Franklin
Staff Writers
Disclaimer: Please remember that the staff at The Bulletin are NOT Sex Experts and ARE NOT Sexual Therapist, Psychologists, or anyone who is educated in that field. We offer researched responses and educated opinions regarding the topic of sex from the perspective of a peer. If you have advanced questions that require an experts opinion, please visit the Women’s Resource Center in the Small College Complex room 148. However, if you want to solicit advice, email us at [email protected].
Some couples love engaging in public affection, more commonly known as Public Displays of Affection. PDA can range from holding hands to full on tongue action depending on the couple’s comfortability with expressing their love to the world. At some point in our lives we have either engaged in PDA, or made jokes about how certain couples should “get a room” when we witness it.
Although getting a room could be the ultimate objective when couples start feeling frisky, certain couples don’t even need one if they’re feeling in the moment. According to an ABC News American Sex Survey, 57 percent of Americans have had sex in an outdoor space or in public places.
When you think of the phrase “public sex,” the first thoughts that may come to mind are scenes from Fifty Shades of Grey, but with less BDSM. According to Cosmopolitan magazine, the top places where people have sex in public are parks, fitting rooms, empty classrooms, elevators, photo booths, cars and saunas.
“When I was 18 years old my boyfriend and I got caught having sex in the backseat of my car,” L.F. said. “Getting caught wasn’t the worst part. He was 17 and considered a minor, the officer wouldn’t let me take him home he had to call his mother to come get him.”
Getting caught can either be a make or break factor when contemplating engaging in public loving. However, it can also be thrilling for some people that enjoy it, stimulating a surge of adrenaline.
According to the article “Adrenaline Addiction” by Dr. Marty Nemko, “In dating, a person can get an [adrenaline] rush from too quickly having sex, unsafe sex, or edgy sex.”
Whether the motive is an adrenaline rush or simply convenience, to be caught in the act can still be somewhat awkward and embarrassing.
“My girlfriend and I went to the movies together, we sat in the back because we had other plans,” E.M. said. “As soon as we started making out and getting comfortable a movie attendant came over and flashed his light on my erect penis.”
Having sex in public or getting caught can be a spontaneous fantasy but there are also repercussions. Although laws vary depending on your location, in California public sex is considered a misdemeanor according to California Penal Code 647(a).
Please remember your body is a temple and only let you and your significant other look at it. Fantasies are best fulfilled in a hotel room with roses on the floor and a bottle of wine behind closed doors.
