Blog: Perspectives On Human Sexuality

The authors of the textbook indicate that religion, science, and media all influence the way we think about sexuality. Which of these three influences you the most? How do they influence you? Is it a positive or negative influence? What kinds of sexual values in television programs have the greatest influence upon you?

Reflecting on this question, the influences of religion, science and media that may have an affect on the way I might view or think in regards to my sexuality, I find very interesting; the author’s view that we as individuals or society are influenced solely by these outside sources in our sexuality, my thoughts are different towards this. As a youth and young adult I would say yes there might have been a slight influence directed by the media (music), but today as an adult I feel no influence at all from theses forms of direct sources to my sexuality. This could be because society is over run and conditioned by the media and what is constantly in our faces, by television, radio, advertisement and other forms that we do not notice anymore becoming

This is Damian form your Monday's & Wednesday's 12:30 pm class , it came to my attention that there seemed to be some problems relating to the test we just took on chapter 2 of the Human Sexuality class. Personally, im under the impression that i took the new exam although it had no timer applied to it and some of the question's apparent responses seem a little contradictional. On this questions for example # 1; "Which of the following statements regarding the desire phase of sexual response is true?" , #2; In which of the following areas would Masters and Johnson's research on sexual response be least helpful?, #3; Which of the following most accurately describes the plateau phase?, the book clearly states that this is

From birth, one's sexuality is shaped by society. Cultures institute behaviors that are to be seen as the societal norms, which work to constantly reinforce societal expectations of how genders should act in relation to one another. Although some may argue that one's sexuality is an innate characteristic resulting from genetic makeup, there is a large amount of evidence pointing to its social construction instead. Through the power differences between males and females, established gender roles, and drastic economic shifts, society establishes sexuality and reinforces the behaviors that are expected of its citizens.

Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.

If sexual orientation is something that we can’t change or choose, then how are these specific preferences such as heterosexuality and homosexuality created? How does one person progress to either heterosexuality or homosexuality? Studies showed that there were genetic factors linked to influencing sexual orientation in males before they were born by increasing the female reproductive capacity in mothers during multiple births. (Iemmole, Ciani, 2008: 393) Though that doesn’t mean that there technically is a “gay gene” that has been discovered, just that several human genome studies has suggested promising areas of research that are pointing to that direction. (Iemmole, Ciani, 2008: 393) With more

This is linked to the huge difference in judgment of a promiscuous man and a promiscuous woman; a woman that is very unrestrained will be judged much more harshly and bitterly than a man. This results in the customary notion that men are of different or higher status than women.

There are many things that influence a person’s sexuality, ecspecially teenagers. This is correct because teenagers, want so badly to fit in. They want to be the in crowd not the out crowd. We the society is in the middle of major changes, people are starting to see the world differently and what we use to see as reality, is no longer what the younger generation is seeing as reality. Reality has changed because sex is no longer seen as just the “cool”, thing to do, but has almost come to be understood as a rite of passage To teenagers it seems as when they become sexually active, then they have become an actual member of society. I believe television is one of the main causes for the change in society. Television is a twenty-four hours activity, that brain washes teenagers

Throughout history, definitions of sexuality within a culture are created and then changed time after time. During these changes, we have seen the impact and power one individual or group can have over others. In the Late Nineteenth Century into the Early Twentieth Century, we see multiple groups of people and or authorities taking control over the idea of sex and how they believe society is being impacted by sex. At this point in time, society had groups of people who believed they had the power to control how society as whole viewed and acted upon sex. Those particular groups and ideas changed many lives and the overall definition of sexuality within that culture.

Men's and women's emotional outlooks are viewed by stereotypes. Men are usually the more aggressive sex, and women are usually the more passive sex. Men are seen as the more sexual gender, and that they solely want sex. Our

even though sexuality can be considered universal, the sexual behaviors affiliated with it offer different attitudes in various communities. Sexuality is aligned to sexual attraction where individuals can identify themselves with a broad range of sexuality that is bisexual, gay or being lesbian. Sexuality can change over time in a person depending on the circumstances surrounding him or her. It may be affected by the social circle and emotional imbalances that may occur in an individual. Interestingly there exists sexual inequality among many societies in the world. As observed, many societies encourage men to have multiple sex partners but forbid it in women. Moreover, pre-marital sex is promoted in men, but women are flaunted if they participate in pre-marital sex. Across the globe, Western Europe has embraced certain norms in sexuality such as homosexuality whereas African society embraces a negative attitude towards the same.

Throughout history it is evident that human sexuality changes do to religious, governmental and societal influences. The perception of human sexuality has gone through many changes such as being very open and unlabeled activity; to being very “conservative” and a topic that shouldn’t be talked about in public or at all. In any case, human sexuality has always been a topic of interest because humans are sexual beings who want to understand the consciousness of themselves as male or female and see their personal response when encountered in erotic experiences with other individuals. Unlike many other species whose sexual force is strictly for reproduction, human’s sexual drive seems to be driven by many factors that intertwine with each other which leads to very different outcomes. Do to these obscure human emotions and personal gratification, sex is always shown every culture’s art, literature, social norms, and laws.

Throughout history there has been speculation about what influences sexuality in men and woman. Is sexual orientation biological or cultural in nature? There is a common misconception that sexual identity operate in parallel with gender roles( Sell, 2005 as cited in Wilkinson & Roys, 2005, p.65). Scholars have not came to an agreement regarding what actually comprise a person’s sexual orientation, however a sexual orientation has been deemed a cumulative experience and interaction of emotional and sexual feelings towards one or both genders (Wilkinson & Roys, 2005, p.65). The paper provides provides some clues as to what factors influence sexual orientation in men and woman.

Men and women, although very familiar in the physical aspect are vastly different in the psychological aspect of the average human mind and body. Evolution has led most women to be empathetic, very emotionally expressive in non-violent ways, being more apt to talk and think thoughts and emotions through before acting on them. While men, on the other hand, are seen as the strong, emotionally stable, and providing sex. Even though, generally, they act on the urges their emotions send to the brain and react in more physical ways. Men are the more physical gender, while women are the more emotional and social gender, with exceptions, of course.

Upon entering this course, my understanding of human sexuality was decent; I was aware of certain aspects of sexuality such as being straight, gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, etc. Nevertheless, I did not realize how expansive sexuality is; it never occurred to me that sexual health, prostitution, marriage, rape, sex trafficking, divorce, families, etc., all fell under the umbrella of human sexuality. Books and essays such as Renee Hill’s Walk Together and David Shneer’s “Out of School” showcased the multiple facets of human sexuality and how terms like queer are not directly related to homosexuality. While sexuality and homosexuality are linked, frequently, people mistake them as being synonymous; before entering this class, I was searching for a definition of sexuality, and often in the thesaurus section of dictionary websites homosexuality and or sexual orientation was considered a synonym of sexuality. Formerly, I too would have agreed they were the same, however, after taking this course, I concluded that homosexuality is just one topic in the broad discussion of sexuality. My understanding of sexuality now is that it