The World Wide Web is filled with sex. You can get text, photos, video, audio. You can solicit advice, information and even liaisons. I don't know the figures, but I'd take a stab in the dark and say sexual content makes up the largest percentage of subject matter available on the Net. In a 10th of a second, Google returns more than 84 million Web sites featuring the word "sex." Not all are pornographic or salacious. Some are even G-rated. Others are interesting, entertaining or downright dorky. World Sexual Records falls into this last group.
Laid out in a puritanical charcoal-and-burgundy color scheme, this exhaustively researched site boasts every bizarre factoid that doesn't quite fit into the purview of the Guinness Book of World Records. Want to know who holds the record for, um, holding out? Isaac Newton was the world's oldest virgin when he died at 85 (confirming that stereotype about math geeks). Wondering which of history's illustrious ladies got down and dirty the most? Modern-era Brigitte Bardot makes the hit list, but loses out to some of the tarts living in orgiastic ancient Rome.
Perhaps you're searching for more "academic" information. It might interest you to know the longest penis in measurement belongs to the African Bull elephant (6 feet). This dwarfs the longest medically documented human specimen — a paltry 13.5 inches (as measured by the aptly named Dr. Dickinson). Or maybe you're interested in contraceptive development, the evolution of autoerotic devices or the growth of brothel culture. This site contains tidbits on all of it, presented in an educational — if slightly bemused — format.
World Sexual Records also provides a list of averages for the overwhelmed visitor to regain their sense of composure. One of my favorite features was the "dictionary," where you'll find an extensive list of almost every sexual term and kink known to mankind. Boy, does that page expand your worldview. However, as noted sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said, "The only unnatural sex act is one which you cannot perform."
— Diana Peterfreund
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2002.