Social construction has been an extremely influential and hot debating topic in the past century. It is a term where everyone almost has heard but quite a few actually understand. The social constructionist perspective on sexuality, on the other hand, began to rise during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Every social constructionist has their own approach to sexuality. Thinkers such as Gary Kinsman, Fausto-Sterling both discussed their approach towards social constructionism on sexuality. (Missing out thesis statement, not sure how to write it) Social Constructionism is the belief that society agrees upon definitions of categories, and how we are taught to fit into these categories. It is referring to the way we create meaning through social interaction with others. Also, it is the view of thought looks at our life and reality tries to see what is truly exist, and what is only exist because we say it is. For instance, money is just tinted papers and metals that have no value other than we have assigned them. They only exist because when we give them a reality and value through social agreement so therefore we can use them to purchase goods with. Besides, there are many things in our life that we experience only exist because we have created them. Take language, for example, it is created as a patterned system of communication and reflecting our social context. It follows that language is culturally appointed. The categories and the pattern of language, therefore reflect
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.
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.
The paper written by Kennedy and Davis, which was called The Reproduction of Butch-Fem Roles: A Social Constructionist Approach, provides further evidence that the history of sexuality is young and
The present essay aims to analyse and discuss how social actions related to gender and sexuality have given rise to social change. Particular attention will be given to how views and opinions on gender and sexuality have positively evolved throughout the years as a result of decades of social activism led by the members and allies of the LGBT community. In order to do so, the current paper will firstly provide a concise account of how gender and sexuality were seen in the former times, which will be then compared to more current perspectives. Secondly, the paper will present a brief overview of the history of the LGBT movement, and highlight its main milestones. Significant emphasis will be given to how these salient occurrences have significantly affected today’s perception and attitudes towards the LGBT community in the majority of the world countries. In conclusion, the current essay will introduce and explore the recent ongoing activism that has been occurring globally within the LGBT community.
In Pepper Schwartz article titled “ The Social Construction of Heterosexuality”, Schwartz writes about what she believe Americans define as Heterosexuality. Schwartz writes about the so-called body standard that movies and television show set for us about how we should look and dress. Schwartz writes about what she believes straight men have to look like in order to define their masculinity. Schwartz’s main argument is about all the gender stereotypes we have in our society. Stereotypes like in order to be straight or even gay you have to look, dress, and talk a certain way. Schwartz is trying to say that you do not have to meet the so-called standards we have set for sexuality. Schwartz does make some valid
The social construction theory is based on the reality that the society has created that may seem obvious to a person who agrees to it. In other words, our life experiences and interaction towards others is the way we create our reality through social interaction. This means that we were not born with this sense of knowledge, but was taught through social interaction and our life experiences (Orem 2001a, 7). Social construction is based on the categories of difference which are race, gender, and social class (Ore, 2011a: 8).
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 Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew as well as Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman the characters feel conflict between society’s rules and their more private desires. They are forced to perform social roles that are in a more private respect artificial. This pertains mostly to social roles that define sexuality. Elizabethan ideas of social roles were inextricably bound with gender. The social role of women, especially in courting and marriage arrangements was strictly a business matter. The business was to protect or increase the family fortune and stabilize the inheritance of wealth. Women brought dowries and the ability to produce heirs. Men were expected to
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.
Social constructionist use the term social construction to imply that our understanding of the world in which we live is constructed from the social interactions we have on a daily basis. In reference to identity, social constructionist theory (SCT) proposes that we as social beings actively construct our identities using social tools as the means in which to construct our identities, the foremost one being language.
even though sexuality can be considered universal, the sexual behaviors affiliated with it offer different attitudes in various communities. Sexuality is aligned to sexual attraction where individuals can identify themselves with a broad range of sexuality that is bisexual, gay or being lesbian. Sexuality can change over time in a person depending on the circumstances surrounding him or her. It may be affected by the social circle and emotional imbalances that may occur in an individual. Interestingly there exists sexual inequality among many societies in the world. As observed, many societies encourage men to have multiple sex partners but forbid it in women. Moreover, pre-marital sex is promoted in men, but women are flaunted if they participate in pre-marital sex. Across the globe, Western Europe has embraced certain norms in sexuality such as homosexuality whereas African society embraces a negative attitude towards the same.
Virginity is a social construct that has various definitions and values from different people in the United States. I am conducting my research based on the question of whether the concept of losing one’s virginity is valued differently among males and females in the United States, regardless of their sexual orientation.
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.