Sexuality As A Social Experience

Utopian societies are created in order to achieve the most enticing, near perfect living conditions. Outside societies often times viewed as corrupted and broken. The idea of what a utopian society looks like will vary greatly from person to person. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, humans can no longer produce offspring. Ovaries are surgically removed from females, and the ova are artificially fertilized. The fertilized eggs are then incubated inside specifically designed bottles that each mimic the human womb. Each egg will receive an assigned social caste. Brave New World is split into five social castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Gamma, Delta and Epsilon eggs undergo

Alike gender, sexuality is also a social construct, especially when looking at the period before the 18th century, when one’s sexual orientation did not matter, hence there being no need for justification, just as pointed by Foucault: “Sexual practices had little need of secrecy; words were said without undue reticence, and things were done without too much concealment; one had a tolerant familiarity with the illicit.” (3). And the 19th century came and brought with it a big change, and not only did people become engulfed by social norms, whom they should abide at all costs, but they also had to keep their sexual preferences under lock and key: “But twilight soon fell upon this bright day, followed by the monotonous nights of the Victorian

The author Gayle Rubin in the textbook “Social Construction of Sexuality,” talks about “Sexual Conflicts” and how society perceives them and how they handle differences. Battles happen with different groups and their sexual ideologies, especially when individuals believe what another individual or group of individuals are doing is wrong. Laws can be created to prevent them from expressing their sexuality and taking away basic freedoms. Gayle Rubin explains, to be able to stop the struggle over sex laws they need to get rid of all laws that include sex, except ones that project individuals from sexual violence. Besides laws being created, daily life within society can cause human beings to feel uncomfortable or unaccepted with their sexuality, which will create sexual migration.

In the first lecture for this class, Professor Creekmur asked the question; is sex popular (Creekmur Aug. 20)? As he often does in the course, Creekmur doesn’t give a simple, clear-cut answer, but instead offers a paradox, that while sex is an aggressively private act, it is also a good that is consumed, in our magazines and on our televisions. This paradox ultimately sets the stage for the rest of this class, demonstrating how something as intimate as one’s sexuality can come to reinforce popular conventions of normalcy and deviancy within society at large, and what this essay will attempt to address.

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.

In today’s society we tend to justify and judge the way we perceive how we act in our daily lives. One of the biggest topics that we tend to overlook is the human sexuality. Both men and women from a very young are put into a mindset that we shouldn’t reveal too much when it comes to our bodies. Is it ok for society to put this mindset into children at such a young age that revealing too much can lead you into unwanted circumstances? This is exactly one of the points that is brought up by James M. Henslin and Mae A. Biggs in the Behavior in Public Places: The Sociology of the Vaginal Examination.

    In contrast to our contemporary understandings, back in the late nineteenth and twentieth century sexology had just emerged and cast a new way of understanding. There were controversial views on sex and its benefits or dangerous. Our view of sexuality was quite intertwined with biblical and religious inputs. At this time understandings and terminology of same-sex sexual relations were linked with mental illness or considered sinful. Laws were in place to criminalize male sexual activity.

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

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.

Social Construction of Sexuality Sexual orientation refers to an enduring pattern of sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions to individuals of the opposite sex, same sex, both sexes, or more than one gender. These attractions and behaviors that express them, engender an individual’s awareness of their social identity and sexuality. Sexuality is composed of a broad range of behaviors and processes, including the way your body develops and the way you feel and respond toward others. To understand the social construction of sexuality we must pay attention to the factors that shape and constrain it: race, ethnicity, gender, and social class, without ignoring the limitations, constraints, and disadvantages faced such as poverty, prejudice

The repression of sex started from Victorian bourgeoisie. Sex was “carefully confined”: there were a lot of taboos, silence became the rule, and sex was considered as serious function of reproduction. (3) Sex had to be repressed because “it is incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative”.

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?

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.

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.