Sexuality : A Diverse Population Of People And Cultures

Contemporary understandings of sexuality are not the same as back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Understandings and terminology in the past hold multiple differences and similarities than our current contemporary understandings.

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

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.

In the assignment, I will give an imaginary case study of a counselling client with issues relating to fear and sadness and contemplate how their problems discover in their life. The case study will clearly focus on sociocultural issues, such as race, culture, gender and sexuality. It will look at how convenient it can be to accept how important sociocultural issues can be when considering individual suffering. The main focus this assignment will be weight up with regards to sociocultural issues will be, culture, race and sexuality. The counselling approach being used will be person centred therapy. The case study is based on 27 year old woman who is black and gay. She has anxiety around men which is the outcome of an intimidating, abusive grandfather who raised her.

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.

Sexual orientation can be considered as one of America’s most controversial topics. Although the rationale and choice differs from person to person, and is considered to be a private matter of personal preference, many people have experienced negative backlash and harsh criticism due to their individual likings. In general, sexual orientation is defined as: a person 's sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted; the fact of being heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. While the definition seems to be straightforward and concise, the subject of sexual orientation encompasses much more than just the intensity of emotional and erotic attraction and response to members of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both

People who are not in a committed relationship also known as hookups or friends with benefits. The controversial issue of casual sex are adverse effects of hookups may consist of emotional entanglement, psychological harm, sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, and or unplanned pregnancy. People who have experience hook-up behavior has linked with a variety of mental health factors (Garcia, 2013). Additionally, although some individuals are having casual sex, not all enjoy being in that type of relationship. Which may cause some to have low self-esteem, anxiety, and feeling of being pressured and discomfort (Paul et al., 2000). As a result feeling guilty and resentment. Women were more likely to feel guilt and have negative feelings than men (Garcia, 2013). These negative sense of guilt and resentments may connect to individuals wanting a more intimate and committed relationship.

Is the need for acceptance of one’s sexuality as important as other issues like poverty, unemployment, global warming, natural disasters and proper health solutions for Ebola, Lyme that put our survival itself at risk? When meditating on this question, let us also analyse our own sexual fabric. We set the standards of our own yardsticks to measure a sexual identity as valid/ invalid, normal/ abnormal, natural/ unnatural, acceptable/ unacceptable, moral/ immoral and finally good/ bad.

Human sexuality is defined as the capability of individuals to experience their sexuality and be able to express themselves as sexual beings (Hyde & DeLameck, 2006). Our interest in this topic is because with time, there has been a change in rules that control human sexual behaviour. The status quo in our contemporary society is much different as compared to an earlier state of conditions, and the change has, as a result, brought the evolvement in human sexuality. People 's view on virginity has changed greatly with a decrease of importance in regards to its preservation. Sexuality is essential to the economic, cultural, social and political organization of society or country. Our sexuality plays a fundamental role in all our lives regardless of age, sex or race. It forms a basic part of our personality and the decisions we make in what we do. One’s sexuality also consumes much of their time through behaviour or thoughts; at times every aspect of our lives seems to revolve around our sexuality. Studying sexuality is very important since human sexuality majorly contributes to social as well as personal problems. A lingering question concerning this topic is to what extent is virginity determined by the status quo and the rules that control human behaviour?

“Conflict itself is not dangerous to intimate relationships; it is the manner in which the conflict is handled…” I would like to start with this line that I found through the lecture in Human Sexuality Diversity in contemporary America - chapter 8. The reason is because it simply amazed me how much true this line has between its words. Coming from a divorced and conflict family, I grew up believing conflict between couples was something normal and had no solution nonetheless screaming or hurting (physical, emotional, or psychological) each other. I liked the idea of understanding how different a relationship can be and how all relationships suffer from conflict, though, how this book mentions “The ways in which couples deal with conflict, reflects

Public views regarding certain people can be built quickly and the amount of criticism that people with a different sexual orientation receive mutilates their demeanor. Being a heterosexual, there are no misinterpretations, but being a homosexual has fingers pointing at them constantly. “The US Department of Justice reports that homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims of hate- motivated violence in the nation” (Reis). Those with a different sexual orientation who witness harassment of gay peers often reacts by hiding their sexuality even more vigorously out of fear or self- hate, while heterosexuals who observe the affliction may have remorse due to their silence and powerlessness similarly experienced by their bisexual or homosexual

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.

Sexual health is a very broad and wide topic that has many subjects that are still controversial to some to this day. Chapter four not only focused on the physical side of sexual health, covering topics such as the female and male anatomy and the process of menstruation, but also the social and emotional sides of it, like the difference between gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, , and issues relating to homophobia and hate crimes. These chapters helped me learn how to properly recognize people’s gender identities and to respect them based off of the retained information from the outlines. Identifying as a bisexual woman, I am fairly fortunate with the overwhelming acceptance from the majority of people I have met in my life. I presumably will never know how it feels to not be able to explain who you are to people, and having to find an excuse for being yourself. Learning about gender dysphoria and the disagreeing feelings about one’s gender that arises from it made me question what it might be like to be someone who has these feelings and the conflicts it internally arises. Gender identity and expression being two separate ideas was also something I was originally very perplexed by, but then learned to understand and appreciate, because there is no

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.

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