Sex, Gender And Sexuality

In today’s society from a young age boys and girls are raised socially different, known as gender socialization. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes and personality characteristics expected and encouraged based on an individual 's sex. Sex is a person’s biological status referred to as female, male or inter-sex. However, gender is related to attitudes, feelings and behaviors that a given culture associates with biologically sexed bodies. Cultures differ about what is appropriate for males and females for example, from the moment boys and girls are born they are dressed differently. In some countries, the color pink is immediately associated with girls, while blue it associated to boys. Parents unconsciously reinforce gender

Dracula can be read as an almost transparent metaphor for the confusion, guilt and anger over what is considered to be the ‘proper’ role of women in Victorian society. The ‘vamping’ of a human female - such as in the case of Lucy - succeeds in adding a sexualised and sexualising element to women, who - according to the time period - are then only ‘purified’ through further sexual and violent acts, such as being penetrated by a wooden stake (Skal, 31).

The American family has continuously been changing over the years and has been shaped by changing ideas about gender, sexuality, race, and class. The institution of the family has changed but it has also remained the same in some aspects. Society’s acceptance of changes in gender and sexual norms have reshaped representations of the family. Betty Friedan, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Dorothy Sue Cobble have written articles that pertain to the changing of the institution. As the American society changes its views on gender and sexual norms, sometimes through movements, it has informed representations of the family.

Sexuality and Gender are social constructs. They are more like fluid concepts. Both are on spectrums. Why could they be considered controversial topics, more specifically the spectrum? Well, the idea of sexuality being more than just heterosexuality has been challenged by conservative types and others alike for years. They may even deem anything other than heterosexuality as something abnormal and immoral. For some, it can be quite difficult to understand that sexuality is on a spectrum. Especially with identities like bisexuality and pansexuality, it can be difficult for some people to wrap their minds around that idea. In recent years, the idea of gender being more than just male and female has been getting more and more attention. It is no longer sex that defines people, but gender identity, expression, and presentation. They are not fully understood and sometimes not accepted by people; unfortunately some of that ignorance, and much to my surprise, come from people within the LGBTQ+ community. A lack of understanding about the spectrums of sexuality and gender leads to a lot of confusion, hate, and ignorance.

Are issues of diversity represented fairly, realistically and accurately or problematically in Australian schools in regards to issues of gender, sexuality and sexual identity.

In ancient Rome there was no notion of sexuality because sexuality is a modern concept, so there was no term for labeling one’s sexual preference. Instead, in ancient Rome, there was only sexual desire and inclination. Only specific sexual acts could be categorized and assessed because there was no term for a person’s sexual orientation as either homosexual or heterosexual. Humans inherently differ in sexual preferences in many ways. One of which is liking a specific sex of partners, yet this not necessarily the most significant difference in sexual preferences.1 In ancient Rome a male citizen could perform sex acts, under certain circumstances, with the gender he preferred, without fear of ridicule. Society was less concerned with the gender or age of a man’s sexual partners than with the perception of the masculinity of all male partners involved. Other things were more important than gender when it came to sex, such as penetration, masculinity and status. To exemplify that society was less concerned with the gender of a man’s sexual partners than the perception of masculinity, I will evaluate masculinity in ancient Rome, the social hierarchy of being the receptive versus penetrative partner, laws, cinaedus, effeminacy and pathics, pederasty, slavery and prostitution.

While the expressions "sexual orientation" and "sex" are frequently utilized conversely, the two words have altogether distinctive definitions. One could contend that sex alludes to organic essentialism and the thought that we are who we are a result of our hereditary material. Then again, sex is connected with the social constructionist hypothesis, which contends that the way we are is reliant on our race, class, and sexuality. Since every individual is distinctive in their race, class, and sexuality, their sex turns out to be socially built. To contend that sex is not socially built would be to say that all individuals, for instance, that are naturally female have the same objectives.

Sexuality and gender for many seem to go hand and hand. With the breakdown of gender being defined by our biological sex or legally documented gender identity and sexual orientation relating to the gender or genders that we favor, it is understandable that this could happen. Our society often allows for sexuality to be gendered, through things like stigma, stereotypes, expectations, and limitations. Sexuality is gendered for men and women, but seems to provide more noticeable limitations for women regardless of sexual orientation. Men seem to have their sexuality questioned and experience elements of stigma and expectations more often.

In this assignment I will be discussing the expect of nature vs nurture debate and will be defining what gender and sex is and applying that to nature vs nurture debate.

Crying, getting emotional, expressing hurt – these displays are forbidden for boys. Boys must be the strong ones, and girls must be the weak ones. If traditional gender roles are to be believed, girls can display these emotions because they simply do not possess the self-control that is required to hold them back. Children learn to exhibit the emotions that are acceptable for their gender from the beginning of childhood; it is made clear to them the role that men and women play in society, and the role that they each must fill. However, the repression of certain emotions in children based on gender can be detrimental to a child’s emotional health and development, because doing so does not allow

In 1942, Alfred Kinsley “founded the Institute of Sex Research” (Macionis, 2015, p. 204) and his research opened this country’s culture to talk about sex and its sexuality (Macionis, 2015). Also, “Advances in technology lead to more control over reproduction and societies then allowed more choice about sexual practice (Macionis, 2015, P. 202), adding cultural issues to what was once a more biological issue. Sexuality social problems began to emerge, such as prostitution, sex tourism, and sexually transmitted infections (STI), to name a few. This essay will investigate these three social problems, looking at the political positions, traditional morality versus individual choice, and possible solutions to these three specific issues. Globally, some of these social issues have seen major decline, which could also be possible in the United States (Macionis, 2015)

Are lesbian more accepted by society than gay men? Acceptance amongst lesbian more so than gay men is one of the few of many discriminating factors that occur amongst the homosexual community. When it comes to homosexuality women has a better chance of being accepted by society than gay men. In most cases lesbians are taken less serious, people do not react to lesbians the same way they react to gay men. Studies have shown that gay men are more victimized by society than lesbians. It does not take much to notice the different ways society treats lesbians and gay men. Although, they have both encountered struggles from being rejected by friends to physical attacks or threats by people who do not believe in homosexuality at all, no matter if you are a lesbian or a gay man (Schulman, Sarah). In the perspective of society, two men being together is much more repulsive than seeing two women being together. According to the Pew Research sample of LGBT 19% adults describe themselves as lesbian and 36% describe themselves as gay men. A large percentage of the LGBT community is gay men (A Survey of LGBT Americans).

This is a bias that I am working very hard to unlearn. In terms of gender and sexuality, I was raised in a world where everyone was a cisgender person and heterosexual. If we're not either of those, you were othered. With that said, traditional gender roles were very much the norm. Despite efforts, I began to categorize people based upon their presumed gender; for example a masculine woman must be a lesbian. However, this changed once I became older and realized presuming somebody’s gender/sexuality based on their outer appearance is not okay. Then I realized I was an LGBT person.

Males and females are classed differently from the moment they are pronounced boy or girl. Gender determines the differences in power and control in which men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their health, lives and status in their community. Our society moulds how men and women should and should not behave and can be observed in all parts of our society. As a result of these Gender stereotypes men and women have issues which affect their health which are unique to each gender. Males for example are perceived to be greater risk takers as a whole in our society than that of females. We represent risk taking behavior with masculinity and violence, high speed driving and contact sport with the male gender. (Doyle 2005)

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.