Scholary vs. Popular Media Focus on Sexuality Paper

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.

Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.

Sex. It is everywhere. We see in television shows. In magazines. On the Internet. But sex is still seen as a taboo subject in our society. I believe that being educated about sexuality is vitally important to one health. Understanding one’s body and how it impacts your life. To understand how your beliefs about sexuality and sex have developed one needs to look back over the years and how your beliefs were engrained in your life. This essay will be based on my reflection by looking back on my sexual history on how and what have significantly impacted my development of sexuality. The focus will be on my reflection of answering the sexual history questions and how I have changed and developed over the years. It is important to analyze and reflect to understand how I came to be today, that the past has created my ideas and beliefs about sex and sexuality that have shaped me.

The addiction of methamphetamine amongst juvenile’s and adults has reached epidemic proportions that affect the individual, families and communities. Methamphetamine abuse has crossed all social economic boundaries that have negatively impacted law enforcement, social and clinical services. According to Anglin, Burke, Perrochet, Stamper and Dawud-Noursi (2000), methamphetamine, also known as meth, crystal, or speed, is a substance that affects the central nervous system creating a stimulant effect that can be injected, smoked, snorted, or ingested orally. Individuals who use meth for an extensive period of time tend to become addicted and will likely need to continue to use meth at high levels for its effects to continue to provide the euphoric symptoms and sensations. Anglin, et al, also describe methamphetamine as a derivative of amphetamine, this form of amphetamine was often used for medication purposes in the 1950’s and 1960’s to treat symptoms of depression and obesity. Durell, Kroutil, Crits-Christoph, Barchha, and Van Brunt (2008), also stated that illicit methamphetamine use is a public health concern in the United States with an increase use among teens and young adults in the 1990s. The Mental Health Services Administration conducted a national survey on meth use in the United States and found that currently as least a half a million of Americans used or have used methamphetamine. Meth use is an epidemic that is slowly becoming a destructive

Interestingly, statistics show that the mothers’ side of the family has a greater influence on gender orientation rather than the fathers. Also noted that over 65% of the candidates who identified as homosexual, their mothers either had none or only one live brother. (4) Comparing myself to this, my mother only has one brother!

"I don't believe in rape. No means no. Wait, if no meant no, all men would die a virgin. No means work on the neck, the nipples and come back in five minutes. I'm not saying a father should give this version of the birds and bees to his son. Listen she's gonna block your hands four or five times at least. I didn't raise you to be a quitter out there now did I. She wouldn't dress like that if she didn't want to get fingered." Comedian, Daniel Tosh expressed this quote meaning for it to be harmful. But, is it really harmful? Is this what society really thinks? Are women supposed to be easy? Do men need to take control and get what they want? A simple joke can be seen as what our society really

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)

With the media becoming the main source from which the current society gets their daily information concerning products, news stories, and entertainment, it is wise to think critically about the messages they are conveying to us. These corporations spend large sums of money every day in order to grasp our attention. The question as to whether or not they have their customer’s best interest in mind arises and leaves the public no answer but to look to the advertisements they have produced. Consider the pistachio industry using a woman with a whip to grasp the viewers’ attention. In reality, is a provocative image what it takes to sell us a simple bag of pistachios? With advertising decisions like these come negative consequences such as the

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

In today’s society things are being expressed and experienced at younger ages, than ever before in our time. Children and teenagers are discovering their sexuality at very early ages. Sexuality is the discovering of who you are and what makes you different from everybody else.

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.

The focus of this article is on Methamphetamine, trading sex, men who have sex with men and sexual risk behavior. the article revealed a study that was conducted to find out how many people that have had trades sex in exchange for methamphetamine. Males having sex with other male were the participants of the study. Males that trades sex for drugs have higher HIV prevalence and most likely engage in unprotected sex. The study also revealed that most male that trade sex for drugs were either homeless, not well educated or self-identified as gay. Surprisingly, those that are identified as heterosexual are more likely to be homeless and trade sex for money or

Observations have been made that non-injector drug users are involved in risky behavior such as unprotected sex and exchanging sex for drugs or money. These drug users get high on these drugs and eventually have unprotected sex. Need of money for home, family, food or drugs also lead them to unprotected and risky sexual behaviour. Sanchez et.al (2002), reported that infections related to risky sex behaviour is elevated in people who use crack. This could be attributed to the social network of these people. The behavior could be subjective to communication and exposure to individuals in networks who are involved in risky behaviors (Neaigus et al., 2006). Transition to injecting drug users from non-injector is another concern predicted by researchers. The transition is not difficult for this group of drug users. Some people would inject for a while and

According to a poll of 10 to 16 year olds done by the advocacy group Children Now, "77 percent say that there is too much premarital sex on T.V., while 62 percent say sex on T.V. and in movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young" (Clark, "Sex, Violence"). The influences of the media is felt everywhere and especially in terms of human sexuality. Everything from TV commercials to the newspaper has some form of sex in it, usually to keep the audience interested. In modern society, the changing times as well as media executives wanting more ratings(and therefore money) have lead to teenagers more willing to try sexual acts at a younger age and the country being more openminded about sexual issues.

Since birth human behaviour is influenced by what the individual sees and there surroundings, this influence is greatest at a young age and fades as the individual grows in age, but never completely goes away. In today’s society where sex is something that is openly broadcasted in order to promote everything from products to television shows, sex is something that the youth of today are exposed to from an early age. But what effects can this exposure at such a vulnerable stage in life cause? Early exposure to sexual content can increase the likeliness of youth participating in sexual activity by the large amount that they are exposed too, the glorification of sex, the lack of regulation of sexual content in the media by the government, and