Purity Balls Essay

In every 45 seconds, someone is sexually violated in the United States. Out of every 6 women, one has experienced an attempted rape or complete rape. Lesbians and bisexual women remain at increased risk of sexual victimization compared to heterosexual women. In order for a woman to determine the direction of her life, she must first determine her sexuality. Sexuality is a deep, integral part of any human’s life. This should not be a subject of coercion or debate. The society must recognize that a woman has the right to freely pre-determine her sexuality without oppression and discrimination (Burn, 2004). Traditionally, women throughout history and culture have undertaken the role of independent, non-heterosexual, women-connected existence.

As stated before, media of the time promoted passive and submissive behavior in women—particularly in the situation of a sexual assault, but even outside of dangerous situations, in a normal relationship. The feminine movement of the 70s began to recognize and rail against the patriarchy that demanded women’s role as a second-class citizen, often viewed as an object or, at best, an inferior dependent. The traditional role impressed upon women was that of “a sexuality that is passive and lacks concern for the woman’s pleasure”. Unfortunately, even today, this idea of women’s sexuality has not been eradicated, as evidenced by literature published years after this time—Daniel Shank Cruz focuses on the book The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex, published twenty-five years after “Rape Fantasies.” Good Vibrations contains scenarios of women’s rape fantasies, in which the women in the fantasies are immobilized and raped by attackers, but they inwardly enjoy it despite their outward appearance. Cruz points out that the problem with these fantasies is not that the women in the fantasies enjoy their encounters, because these women claim their sexuality by finding pleasure in a sexual situation. However, the problem lies in that the women in this book are disempowered, allowed to be used as impersonal sex objects, denied any control over their

The motivation behind this content is to elucidate the meaning of the sex-sexual orientation framework. Rubin would like to characterize this term by taking a gander at the issue of women's mistreatment from an alternate edge. Meaning, she looks to Freud and Lévi-Strauss for establishments of abuse. She additionally utilizes them to characterize diverse structures. The sex-sexual orientation framework is characterized first and foremost as happening when a specific society transforms organic sex into results of human action. Women's domain turned into the home since capitalism is a foundation acquired by men and women were not allowed to lead or be in positions of power. The cravings of sexuality and reproduction must be satisfied and that

“A sexual revolution begins with the emancipation of women, who are the chief victims of patriarchy, and also with the ending of homosexual oppression.” Kate Millett could not have described the Sexual Revolution any better, a sexual liberation to argue that women are in fact, equal to men in more ways than society allows. In the 1960’s, women began to catch on that women are treated inferior to men, in ways that women are a disgrace if they were to have intercourse with many men, whilst it is acceptable for men to have several sexual partners; this to women was unsettling. The Sexual Revolution was a movement that encouraged the equality between genders involving a transformation of the sexual norms in society; therefore, the arousal of birth control, the legalization of abortion, and the founding of the new term intersex are all medical perspectives based on the repercussions of this reform.

Feminist theorists have historically investigated the ideas of sexuality and scrutinized society’s limited views on sex. Gayle Rubin, a theorist of gender and sex politics, questions Western culture’s understandings of sexuality and outlines behaviors which are considered “good” and “bad”. Rubin introduces the notion of the “Charmed Circle” of sexuality, an idea that illustrates the binaries that exist in our perceptions of sex such as “heterosexual/homosexual” and “generational/cross-generational” (Rubin 280). Another theorist, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, identifies in her book Epistemology of the Closet a fundamental principle to our understanding of sexuality: “that we are all different from one another” (Sedgwick 22). As both theorists proclaim,

Inhorn talks of the “emerging areas of dissonance and dissent to the prevailing religious discourse” (2012a: 165), indicating that men more readily challenge the religious laws that are in place. The setting that most embodies this observation is the semen collection clinic, where men must provide a sample of their semen for analysis. Here, men encounter a number of obstacles that are so contrary to their religious beliefs, but they must confront them to achieve their desire for children. The first is that of masturbation, which, as discussed in the previous chapter, denotes something considered zina or illegal sexual activity by many men and many religious leaders. Furthermore, semen itself is seen as something polluting once it leaves the

In his presentation, Schwendiman showed the video “Chastity: what are the limits?” which talks about what the For the Strength of Youth outlines, presents an analogy and advises viewers to pray and ponder about the standards they have set for themselves.

Religion plays a major role in developing our sexually. The family greatly influences the role that religion has. The parents bestow their religious ideas and practices onto their children. For example; most religions say that it is a sin to masturbate, practice sex outside of marriage, and the act homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God. Although these practices can influence a child on how they perceive sexually, not every child will follow their parents’ religious views. Furthermore; in this day and age people are looking at it as a guide rather than a way of life. In

Many women have no part in the decisions made regarding their own lives and bodies and what they can or cannot do with them. These women are often very uneducated and as a result are seen to be only capable of being laborers and producers of children. The family of a womans future husband can pay a brideprice to the woman's family, giving them full control and rights to her labor and children, taking away any control or rights she had over the two. This creates an inequality between the woman and the man by taking power away from the woman and giving it to her future husband. In order to receive a bride price, a girls virginity is often an essential requirement. In many of these African communities, marriage is seen as the only way a woman can survive. Marriage is seen as a way to gain social status and respect in the community, along with economic security. If a woman is not married, she will not be able to receive a pension when she becomes old. FGM is also often performed to make sure the girls are “pure”, clean, mature, and non promiscuous. In the book Champion of Choice by Cathleen Miller, Mona Daoud said when talking about women from an intensive training course for adolescent peer educators and their parents by the Egyptian Family Planning Association that, “‘What really unsettled [her] was how the women were so passionately defending female genital mutilation, they call it a term in arabic which means ‘cleanliness.’ So the idea which they associate with female genital mutilation is that it’s important for the cleanliness and health of a woman, and it hit me how completely ignorant and uneducated they are - yet completely confident.” Girls are completely uneducated about this procedure that can have detrimental effects on their mental and physical

In the History of Sexuality Vol. 1, Michel Foucault writes the body as a constructed and manipulated agent, the locus of sociopolitical discourse and power. To Foucault, the body cannot exist before the law (that which holds and ascribes its meaning). Similarly, sexuality cannot free itself from relations of power (Butler 1989:603). Indeed, the body is culturally contested; it is incapable of independence from any particular structuralized narrative. The ubiquitous yet uncertain subject of sex, as Foucault describes, is an “imaginary point, the consequence of materiality fully invested with ideas” (Butler 1989:603). He writes; “Nothing in man— not even his body – is sufficiently stable to serve as the basis for self-recognition or for understanding other men” (Foucault 1980:153). The culturally constructed body then, asserts a multitude of identities. The body is molded by distinct regimes of life, broken down by “rhythms of work, rest, and holiday” uprooted by cultural significant values, habits and moral laws (Foucault 1980:153).

Advertisements sexualize women through the focus of specific body parts, and forces society to censor women. This sexual culture the media has created is “debased, parasitic and dangerous, a threat to critical thought and class identity.” (Shiach, 1991, p. 40)

In today’s generation, sex is openly accepted for both married people as well as the younger and older single adolescence. Social influence through generations of parental guidelines has changed the way in which parents teach their adolescence about sexual conduct. The approach many of our parents had and/or have towards their children’s sexual experiences is just one of the many. The adolescence’s parents have changed their views of the act of sex. Many of the parents were brought up in the time where “save yourself of marriage” was the going trend. They were to follow in their parents footsteps and marry as virgins, but now many of their views have changed to “be safe”

In general, menstruation is not seen as an appropriate topic of conversation. People are often uncomfortable with the very idea of it, and some are even ignorant of its function. Numerous religions and cultures regard a woman’s monthly period as impure, unclean, or even dangerous. The practices and views resulting from these widespread beliefs can be harmful to women’s mental and physical health, as well as their livelihood and relationships with others. The purpose of this paper is to examine menstrual taboos in various cultures and throughout history, compare the views of believers of these ideas with those skeptic of them, and apply this issue to psychology.

In this paper I will address virginity, first sexual experiences, sex education in public schools, and abortion. The first two topics, virginity and first sexual experiences, coming from a personal perspective as well as some credible sources. I will also include the historical aspects of virginity, the creation and use of the concept, and why it’s in our society. The last topic is my concern for the lack of sex education in public schools and mentioning the harm of abstinence only sex education and the importance to provide comprehensive education for our youth for protection and lifelong sexual satisfaction. I will also include my experience with sex education and how limited or censored topics can be detrimental to children by second-guessing their understanding of necessary and critical sexual information.

Conall asked was it God who was protecting her to dance. She answered, ‘Yes, it’s going to send me to hell as a matter of fact’ (p. 190). All her cravings to get God’s guidance and consolation are nothing but the outcome of ‘haya’ -her deep faith in her religion (this study intends to match, these of her instincts as haya). Sofia’s haya’ toward the invisible presence of Allah and the angels protects her to do sex before marriage while it is a common young and mixed culture happening all over the world. Premarital sex was viewed as an ethical issue which was forbidden in many societies and considered a sin by various religions, yet since about the 1960s, it has turned out to be all the more broadly acknowledged, particularly in Western nations (WIKI). But what about those Muslim women who still value their own dignity and practice haya’ in full swing- “Yes, we date. No, we don’t have sex before marriage. Yes, I pray five times a day. With all this explaining I thought it’d be easier to just write a book about it.” Pg