Staking Society’s Sexuality Standards
Sexuality has always been an issue of conflict and debate in society, especially since males and females are classified differently from the moment their gender is determined. This restraint of sexuality has been due to a heterosexual, patriarchal society’s ability to mold how men and women should and should not behave. As a result, sexuality has come to reflect society’s expectations, and throughout history, male and female sexuality has always been distinguishable, ensuring males maintain control of the power hierarchy. Yet, humans have always been having sex – either for reproductive purposes or for pleasure – and while both genders have the right to their own sexuality, it has evolved to be looked down
…show more content…
It is not entirely that society is misogynistic, instead, it is that woman are often viewed as nothing more than things necessary to promote men’s desires. By objectifying women’s sexuality, it allows for men to remain powerful within society. A patriarchal society often views women’s embracement of their sexuality as dangerous because women can realize their ability to have power when it comes to their own bodies, and this self-empowerment limits the power men have over women’s bodies in society. This can be seen through the relationships Buffy engages in throughout the show. When Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, she causes him to lose his soul, and he returns to his evil nature. Angel’s demonic attributes and actions are associated with being soulless, something that was caused by Buffy having sex with, and losing her virginity to, him. This event implies and highlights the danger of female sexuality and for Buffy, how her sexual actions, especially concerning her virginity, can threaten the world because the audience can view her loss of virginity as something harmful to society. However, for Angel, sex with Buffy is seen as empowering because he regains the power he lost by having a soul. Her loss of virginity causes him to become “re-masculinized” and return to his powerful, Angelus self because he no longer has a soul to keep him from his power. The treatment and portrayal of Buffy’s sexuality as harmful creates the notion that sexuality should not be encouraged for females since it is viewed as causing harm to society; yet, it is encouraged for males because it further established their power. This notion causes male sexuality to be promoted because it ensures men’s masculinity and control in society, and female
In his article, “The Invention of Sexuality”, Weeks argued that sexuality is a product of society and is shaped by
Ira L. Reiss, a well-known sociologist, has contributed greatly to the field of human sexuality and in the 1960’s brilliantly predicted the revolutionary changes in sexual attitudes. In his novel, An End to Shame: Shaping Our Next Sexual Revolution, Reiss develops the notion that our previous sexual revolution did not adequately eliminate the inequalities related to sexuality. In reality he argues that America is in need of a newly formed sexual revolution, one that will address the negative consequences that our sex negative culture is experiencing. A significant portion of our population argues that these consequences are due to the fact that we talk too much and too soon about sex. This is an inaccurate view of the reasoning behind the sexual problems we are experiencing in America, as in reality the negative sexual outcomes we observe are due to the opposite of this view. This misconception is a common explanation for our sexual problems and many believe it is the key to solving our sexual crisis, but in reality is part of the problem. Reiss argues that “America is long overdue for a rendezvous with sexual reality” (18) and that the future of our nation depends on accepting these realities.
It’s no secret that we all have sex. Every person grows up as an individual, learning things about themselves as they go along, as well as learning about others. We all eventually end up calling someone else our significant other, whether it be of the same sex or not, and we all end up making personal decisions about our sexual identity and actions as we progress through life. We define our sexual identities of something unique to only us and we acquire our identities with a mix of influences: biological, psychological, social, cultures, values, and society in the time in which we are growing up. After such influences, we make the choice when to lose our
Since the dawn of man, sex has played a crucial role in society. Before they learned to read or write humans were engaging in sex and without it none of us would be here. In today’s society, sex has grown to become much more complicated. If I were to ask a group of people on the street what they believed sex was? I bet they would have a hard time answering. The question puzzling society today is how do we define sex? Can we define sex? These are questions raised in Tracy Steele’s article “Doing it: The Social Construction of S-E-X”. This article is about the current questions and issues that have been raised about sex within today’s society. In this paper I will summarize the key points of the article, while sharing my own thoughts and
The uniform truth about sex is really a consistent and unique truth that is inscribed upon society as necessary to keep societies organized and controlled. These controlled systems acquire and control our sexual appetite too for effectiveness because our sexuality is the weakness point of our bodies through which multiple discourses or sources of knowledge can pervade our conduct and our existence (Foucault 69). The control of our sexual feelings is the best method to discipline our behaviors, and thru discourses of knowledge is how power is prompted. For instance, Foucault explains that through confessions power is applied. As humans, we tend to see such confessions as a way
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.
The world now becomes a state of change or flux. Human beings act toward others and objects on the basis of the meanings that such things have for them but meanings are being continually constructed and modified through interaction. The fundamental approach is simple put: nothing is sexual but naming makes it so. Sexuality is a social construct learned in interaction with others. This is not to deny biological facts. It is simply to assert that things do not have sex meanings in their own right. They have to be bestowed upon them through sexual encounters. The mind has to define something as sexual before it is sexual in
One of the main and most discussed double standards when it comes to gender is the fact that men are praised for being promiscuous, while women are put down and called names. This double standard goes way back in the societal memory. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that these gender differences have resulted from males’ and females’ different reproductive capacities. A woman can go have sex with a man, but she then will be limited to carrying his baby for those nine months. In the meantime, the man can go out and have sex with many women, and have all of
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
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.
Human Sexuality is an important facet of our idea of self and who we are in life. The act of human reproduction is undeniably necessary for the continuation of the human race. Whether we choose to practice reproduction as nature intended via coitus between a man and a woman or to parent children that were conceived under unorthodox methods such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization our humanity can only continue to exist if we create more of ourselves. The most socially accepted expression of sexual identity is heterosexuality which is defined as sexual attraction to the opposite sex where sex is defined biologically by the gonads, male genitalia and female genitalia. At the other end of the spectrum are those identified as homosexual defined by same sex attraction or attraction to those who are biologically similar to themselves at the gonadal level. Being human we are aware of the pleasure that can be derived through sexual acts and have evolved to explore this side of our selves at times independent of the desire to procreate. I would argue that this desire is nature’s way of rewarding us for forwarding our genetics to future generations and that it is indeed quite natural to explore our desire for pleasure via sexual conduct. However as humanity has developed social influences, such as religion and the idea of what is normal, have demonized those possessing
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.
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.
There is constantly cessation why women and men cohabitate, nurture, desire, and endure. Many shrug the similarities and differences to the side due to the complex nature that is involved in understanding the progression. Since the beginning of time, according to the bible, man was placed as the dominant sex, fending for the families well being. The woman has tended to the important jobs around the homestead as situations arose. Often in society, one will find himself in a battle depending on the views of the receiving recipients. Following is a dialogue explaining a safe and metro sexual view as a general whole.
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?