For Goodness Sex, by Al Vernacchio, is a welcome relief from the two previous books; Girls & Sex and Man Interrupted, as the focus is about sexuality as a whole; gender, sexual orientation, etc., rather than on the culture of females and males. The author employs his curriculum from his class, Sexuality and Society, throughout the book as a demonstration of how educators and parents can develop conversations with young people about sexuality. Vernacchio covers a myriad of topics such as “normalizing the sex talks, building healthy relationships, what’s the bottom line, body image, eliminating sexual orientation prejudice,” and more. He describes how in his classes, he guides young people through their own journey of discovering their morals, values, and sexuality. He poses such questions as found in his chapter titled, “Gender Myths, male and female, is that all there is” (p. 112) reminding us that the while the English language limits our ability to appreciate the complexity of gender as it allows for only three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter (Vernacchio, A. 2014). However, in terms of gender identity, it is our internal innate senses of our own gender providing for a huge range of ways people identify themselves (Vernacchio, A. 2014). In teaching his class on Sexuality and Society, Vernacchio doesn’t promote or teach a fear or judgment based curriculum as a virtue approach is much more positive. He challenges students to foresee and develop their own
I appreciate the author’s attempt to fully submerse herself back into an adolescent mindset in order to understand the complex issues of masculinity, sexuality and gender
C.J. Pascoe’s book, Dude You’re A Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, examines masculinity and its connection with sexuality through an eighteen-month study at River High School. The goal of Pascoe’s study is to explain how teenagers, teachers, and schooling construct adolescent masculinity through idioms of sexuality. In addition, the book investigates the relationships between gender and sexuality as it relates to a major social institution. Throughout the book she asks how heteronormitive and homophobic discourses, practices, and interactions produce masculine identities through focusing on gender and sexual practices of the students, teachers, and administrators.
According to a research survey by UniSA’s Emeritus Professor Bruce Johnson, 77% of girls and 74% of boys cited their high school sexual education lessons as their number one source of information on sexuality and relationships, with friends being cited as their second most likely source. Such a large number of Australian teenagers count and rely on their PDHPE classes to teach them such paramount lessons about such an important topic. This leads us to assume that, if such a considerable percentage of high school students rely on these lessons for their sexual education, they must be learning everything they desire to know from these lessons. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Within the same research survey, it was discovered that there were many subjects students wished were taught more in depth. 52% of girls wanted more
Human sexuality can be fascinating, complex, contradictory, and sometimes frustrating. Sexuality is interwoven into every aspect of being human; therefore, having knowledge about sex is as essential as having education about human anatomy. However, it is highly recommended to pay close attention when sex education is delivered to youths. (Donatelle 171)
There seems to be a myth of sexuality and virginity because neither exist. It is time to teach young women that their ability does not depend on whether or not they are sexually active but that their ability to be good people depends on actually being good people. Valenti states that this book is for women who are suffering every day because of the lie that virginity exists, and that it has some bearing on who we are and how good we are. When it comes to understanding the myth, young women are taught about morality, but there is hardly ever any talk of compassion, kindness, courage, or integrity. There is a lot of talk about hymens: if we have them, when we will lose them, and under what circumstances we’ll be rid of them. By fetishizing youth and virginity, we are supporting a disturbing message: really sexy women are not women at all- they are girls. A strong statement that has probably touched the heart of those that have read this book states that: “A women’s worth lies in her ability or her refusal to be sexual… their bodies and their sexuality are what make them valuable. The sexual double standard is alive and well, and it is irrevocably damaging young
'Sex Without Love,' by Sharon Olds passionately described the author's disgust for casual sex in which she vividly animates the immorality of lustful sex through the variety of her language. The sarcasm used in this selection can easily be misunderstood and quite confusing if the words and lines are not analyzed with specific construction. Olds' clever use of imagery and frequent uses of similes, to make the reader imagine actual events, makes this poem come to life. For example, Olds describes making love as 'Beautiful as dancers.' (Line #2) in this line, she questions how one can do such a beautiful act with a person whom one is not in love with. Olds also describes sex as 'gliding over each other
Sexuality is a particularly perplexing topic for young women. Bell notes that “Their (women’s) twenties ought to be a decade of freedom and exploration. But… I have found them to be more confused than ever about not only how to get what they want, but what they want.” (Bell 26) Yes, they are young and has so many opportunities in front of them. Yes, most of them have a college degree and are highly educated. Yes, there are too many choices and they are condemned whichever way they choose.
Sex and gender play a big part in american society today and are often misconstrued. These two topics have become progressive as people are starting to express their gender and sexuality in ways other than what is and has been considered the norm. Many people believe that sexuality and gender are synonymous with one another. Gender is socially constructed while sex is biologically determined. In society’s past, Americans often strayed away from discussing controversial topics, but with the rise of different ways of addressing people, it is deemed more important to understand. Along with the blurred lines of gender and sex comes sexuality, who someone is attracted to sexually. When people stray from society’s heteronormative mindset, they are often faced with many more challenges than the average hetero man or woman. People often have the preconceived notion that if something does not concern them, then they should not be involved in it. A person who could be your neighbor, co worker, or even child, may have to deal with the troubles of people confusing their gender identity with their sex. While also facing challenges that deal with the sex of the person they choose to love. Learning the difference between gender and sexuality will open the eyes of many people and see how the two are different but relate to one another very much.
in our society we are given strict guidlines of what a man and a femal should behave like. no matter where we go we are first judged by our gender and secoundly our race. some people believe that sexual confusion or gender role confusion are diorders that people have from birth, which is true, but at times these behaviors come from tramatic or negative experiances. for a child or indivual person to become confused aboul there sexual role in society they experiencesome form or belittle ment based on their divergent behavior toward the strict gudlines of sexuality. our society has stressed out the idea that the ideal girl should not be powerful, aggressive or strong, and the ideal boys should not have a petite physique, play with dolls or engage
In the One-act play A Question of Sex, by Arnold Bennett, the play provides the background setting at London in the 1900th, where the main character, George Gower, and his family members live in a house with the drawing-room just outside of London. In this play, George and his wife are just having their first child giving birth with joyfulness of first time as a father. However, The Father was stuck into the depressing moment for the difficulties he is struggled with since the child was born. One of the events is that he had been informed six months ago by his rich uncle, Francis Gower, that he would give the family ten thousand pounds if the upcoming child was a baby boy. Unfortunately, the gender of the upcoming child turned out to be a baby girl instead of a baby boy, as George has been concern and fear for during that period of time. In addition, George, after tasted the experience of being the new-parent, felt extremely exhausted and fatigue for taking care of the baby, as he needed to stay awake most of the time for taking care the crying by where he has never experienced ever in his life. Eventually, he had shown the depression and anxiety due to the high tension he has bear with the past months, as his sister May and sister-in-law Helen discover himself falling asleep with weariness and disappointment, which leads to the conversation they have at the beginning of the scene.
Sharon Olds’ poem “Sex Without Love” wonders at the ability for two people to have sex and not involve emotions or pretenses of love. The poem argues that it is better to have sex without love under the premise that love is a false savior for people, and everyone is all alone anyhow. In other words, the claim is that personal interactions do not serve a purpose other than being a distraction, and they will inevitably end. However, the notion that attachment and love are false hopes for people and each person is all alone does not account for the inevitability of human interactions and the underlying importance of relationships. While the poem does not give its definition of being alone, complete isolation is virtually impossible and leads
The topic of sexual education has been controversial for a while now. There are many stances that are taken to defend the course of education, but there are also many positions that are completely opposed to this idea. One side of the spectrum simply doesn’t trust anybody to teach their children about this act. There lays an authoritative issue underneath the opinion of not allowing a professional teacher to inform their children of what would happen if one were to partake in this sexual activity. The opposite side believes this class has beneficial factors, due to children knowing nothing about what could happen, or even what intercourse is. However, the question that we boil down to is what exactly IS sex? Why do we treat this topic as something
The debate over whether comprehensive sexual education should be taught in schools is no less heated than it was when it first became a contemporary controversy in the 1960’s. Some argue that it should not be taught at all, in or out of the home. What many are unaware of is that sexual education has been a major moral dilemma since the year 1892, when the National Education Association passed a resolution citing the need for “moral education in the schools” (Cornblatt). This hot-button issue has made notably slow progress over the course of history, largely due to religious principles enforcing conservatism. Today, sexual education is mandatory in public
The time at which we are at school is thought to be one of the most critical times of our lives.It is a period in our life in which we start discovering ourselves and our sexualities.School is an institution that is thought to provide enrichment in all aspects,not just academic stimulation but also emotional maturity and psychological development.Sexuality education therefore has become a fundamental aspect of one’s learning as it not only enables us to formulate ideas regarding sexual identity and gender but also allows us acknowledge ourselves as sexual beings.It can be argued that sexuality is not ‘the property of the individual and is not a hormonally or biologically given quality’ (Epstein,O’Flynn and Telford, 2003) but rather it is a socially constructed paradigm or notion that permeates almost all aspects of not just schooling but our society,both formally and informally.This ‘notion’ of sexuality is ever-changing and it is made dynamic by particular events in history that change our perspectives and priorities.By using my personal experience of sexuality education at Avondale College and St.Dominic’s College,I aim to demonstrate the ever increasing importance of comprehensive sexuality education in New Zealand and show how the current curriculum very successfully promotes heteronormativity but often fails to wholeheartedly acknowledge desire,homosexualtity and teenage pregnancy.This failure to acknowlege key aspects of sexuality in schools has numerous consequences
Connell, Erin. "Sex Education." Encyclopedia of Gender and Society. Ed. Jodi O 'Brien. Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2009. 745-748. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.