Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty
I’ve never had an abortion. But I’ve had a lot of sex. And when I’ve been asked what my “number” is by friends or lovers, I laughed it off because I hadn’t ever considered counting a complete tally of partners.
But today I realize the privilege that comes with not really knowing how many different men I’ve slept with. That’s because I lived during a time when I was lucky enough to be able to separate my sex life from the rest of me. To put sex into a little box that I only accessed when the time was right. I was not weighed down by fears of pregnancy. I was bolstered by rights that I knew would protect me should things not go as planned.
Now, I recognize that the number of sex partners I’ve had defines an era and a mentality that we are all at risk of losing. I’ve been lucky enough to have slept with at least 17 men in my 41 years of life, and I think it might mean something positive that I’m not sure if there were more.