Essay about Human Sexuality – Flashcards

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producing offspring by mixing gametes by two different parents, reproduction involving the union or fusion of a male and a female gamete

process by which a single parent reproduces by itself, like cloning

small gamete called "sperm"

large gamete called "egg"

any behavior that enables an individual organism to bond with the same-sex group and gain access to resources for survival and reproduction

The belief that all gender difference is the result of biological and genetic difference. Using biological categories as though they were social categories is a mistake called "essentialism."

made through the application of "socially agreed" biological criteria for classifying persons as females or males. based off of external genitalia, chromosome make-up, reproductive plumbing, etc. has changed historically.

our sense of a sexed body and all the activities and performances that live up to the social expectations of that sexed body.

A form of intersexualism in which a genetic male (XY) is prenatally insensitive to androgens. As a result, his genitals do not become normally masculinized. Has testes but no internal or external sex organs.

one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human, contains genes that will determine the sex of the individual. XX and XY, for example.

not exhibiting exclusively female or male primary and secondary sex characteristics

tension between sexuality and society; sexuality pre-exists society.

Sexuality is a social construction; sexuality does not pre-exist society. Problems: it does not have a theory of power and domination. Why are some sexual scripts more prevalent or hegemonic than others?

Sexuality is a social construction but with the element of power; sexuality does not pre-exist society. Problems: because for Foucault power is everywhere his theory gives very little agency or freedom to people to change these discourses.

believe in biological reductionism. Kinsey was a sexologist who believed that society had interfered with the normal development of sexuality.

sex drive is a biological unchanging force given at birth, is an innate force.

believes that sex drive is at first in tension with society but soon enough it becomes completely oversocialized by institutions (family, church, education, etc.) Sexuality outside of heterosexual marriage is dysfunctional.

roles that are controlled through institutions in society. (Reverend Tim Haggard).

believed that sex drive is a complex psychological force (pleasure principle) always in conflict with society. believed that sexuality was an "energetic force that seeks discharge".

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sexuality was constituted by an unconscious psychological drive according to Freud.

Freud's theory regarding the id's desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in order to achieve immediate gratification.

when the sex drive is channeled in create ways it becomes sublimated

often the sex drive is unsuccessfully repressed leading to neurosis.

sexual drive, sexuality. libido only links dyads or pairs of people. the love-relationship.

needs institutions of many people working together. Freud says that civilization depends on relationships between considerable number of individuals. For that, a restriction on sexual life is unavoidable. Civilization needs to set limits to man's aggressive instincts. Civilization uses methods that incite people into group identification and restricts their sexual life. (why it is hard to be happy in that civilization at times)

Man is a wolf to man.

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Sexologist who believed that society had interfered with the normal development of sexuality.

Began his sexuality studies at Indiana University in 1940s-1950s, conducted over 8,000 interviews himself (12,000 individual sexual histories). challenged most of the assumptions about sexual activity in the united states. he questioned the belief that women were not as sexual as men and that homosexual behavior was rare and exceptional. variations across gender, race, age, marital status, education, social class and occupation, etc. The Kinsey report challenges the idea that heterosexuality and homosexuality are opposed and innate categories. The report questions the idea that all homosexual men are effeminate.

Breaks up larger collection into even smaller groups. Division based on alternative states of on or several attributes. Different typologies may result from considering same attributes in different order

dominated by medical and clinical establishments, it was assumed that since physicians were the experts on body functions, they should be experts regarding sexual activities.

A gradation from 0 (completely heterosexual) to 6 (completely homosexual). Fluid sense of sexuality, pointed out that sexuality is not black and white.

first large-scale population-based survey on sexual attitudes/practices conducted in the U.S. Representative sample, unlike Kinsey Report. Conducted in 1992 with approx. 3,500 respondents.

conducted the NHSLS.

methodology in NHSLS.

target population in NHSLS.

A sample where every member has the same probability of selection.

considered to be the reason why more pressure to study sexual behavior began in the 1980s. AIDS is a disease associated primarily with unprotected sexual transmission, has produced major public health responses in research and intervention programs. AIDS was the reason the NHSLS received funding

Number of partners past 12 months 12% of adults (18-59) report no sex partners 71% of adults report only one sex partner 17% of adults report more than one Moreover, 53% of adults have had only one partner over the past 5 years. These data suggest that most people change sex partners relatively infrequently. Sexual Practices Vaginal sex: At least twice week 35% Few times a month 36% Few times a year or never 29% It appears that the population is even distributed regarding the frequency of vaginal intercourse. There are no difference regarding race. Sexual Practices - Oral Sex There is an association between education and practicing oral sex. The more education the more oral sex There is a slight difference in oral sex across race. Whites (79%) more likely than Blacks (50%) to have oral sex (Latinos in the middle) Sexual Practices - Anal Sex There is also an association between education and practicing anal sex. The more education the more anal sex Whites (25%) also slightly more likely than Blacks (17%) to have anal sex (Latinos in the middle). Latinos (26%) similar to whites. Anal sex for the general heterosexual population is about 20%. Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) 16% of men had ever had STDs (most frequent was Gonorrhea) 18% of women had ever had STDs (most frequent was Genital Warts & Chlamydia) Note that more women than men reported having STDs. One possibility is that STDs are more asymptomatic among men. There is a strong association between STDs and the number of sex partners. Homosexuality Desired (that they were attracted to) same sex at some point in lifetime: Men: 6% Women: 4% At least one same sex encounter in lifetime: Men: 9% Women: 4% Identified as gay or bisexual: Men: 2.8% Women: 1.4% Now these figures include both rural and urban populations. In large cities, more than 9% of males identified as gay, and more than 6% of women identified as lesbians. Note here that desires, behaviors, and identities do not necessarily go together. There are different proportions.

scripts can be used to understand human sexuality, even spontaneous behavior can be defined as learning the appropriate script for spontaneous behavior.

Criticize the drive model. Sex drives are socially constructed through negotiation of cultural scripts and identities in interaction. Sexual identities and meanings are in constant flux and negotiation. Script theorists assume the possibility of much greater degree of agency and reflexivity than Drive models

scripts are involved in learning the meaning of internal states, organizing the sequences of specifically sexual acts, decoding novel situations, setting the limits on sexual responses, and linking meanings from nonsexual aspects of life to specifically sexual experience.

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have two major dimensions: external dimension (interpersonal) and internal dimension (intra-psychic)

the organization of mutually shared conventions that allows two or more actors to participate in a complex act involving mutual dependence. the interpersonal dimension of a script is based on the conventions, both verbal and nonverbal, that are mutually accessible and shared by the sexual actors. ie// sequence of petting behaviors. Strategies involved in the "doing" of sex, concrete and continuous elements of what a culture agrees is sexual.

the motivational elements that produce arousal or commitment to the activity. the meanings attached to the acts. the intra-psychic or internal dimension of a script are those meanings attached to different states of arousal. these meanings depend on the cultural situation in which they are experienced. the social meaning given to the physical acts releases biological events.

Foucault directs our attention to the form of power that is exercised in the modern age: Power is multiplicative and penetrative Power is constitutive of subjectivities. Power creates new desires and pleasures

A french scholar and activist who died of AIDS-related complication in 1984. Considered a key figure in the sociological study of sexuality.

Medical experts, religious authorities, etc.

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sexuality is the product of discourses that define what sex is.

Before the 17th century sexual practices were loosely regulated.With the advent of capitalism and its demands, bourgeoisie and workers alike were disciplined into "reproductive heterosexual monogamy" (what is called "a Victorian regime"). It was only after the 1960s-70s with the sexual revolution that this repression over sexuality began to be questioned and overthrown. Foucault attacks the "repressive hypothesis," the notion that society, in particular since the 19th century, has repressed our natural sexual drives. However, as we will see, his revolutionary idea is that this repression and regulation has itself made us even more obsessed with sexuality, multiplied the different types of sexualities available in modern society, and given us new sexual identities. So he says: "this often-stated theme, that sex is outside of discourse and that only the removing of an obstacle, the breaking of a secret, can clear the way leading to it, is precisely what needs to be examined." Foucault goes beyond repression and liberation.

In contrast to this simplistic "repressive hypothesis," Foucault claims that: There has been too much emphasis on the negative aspects of repression and prohibitions. This emphasis has overlooked the fact that in this process of sexual regulation since the 17th century there has been a "steady proliferation of discourses concerned with sex." Sex became something that had to be managed and administered and therefore "there was an institutional incitement to speak about it."

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believes that the subjects regulated by (social and juridical) structures are, by virtue of being subjected to them, formed, defined, and reproduced in accordance with the requirements of those structures. There is no "subject" who stands "before" the law, awaiting representation in or by the law. Butler claims that to inquire on how women might become more fully represented in language and politics is not enough. Feminist critique ought also to understand how the category of "woman," the subject of feminism, is produced and restrained by the very structures of power through which emancipation is sought. This has implication for women liberation because if feminists are using the same oppressive categories that created "women" for their emancipation the process can be self-defeating.

The coherence that we perceive between sex, gender, and desire is socially constructed. It is part of a field of power and discourse. Heterosexual matrix is that grid of cultural intelligibility through which bodies, genders, and desires are naturalized.

The "heterosexualization" of desire requires and institutes the production of discrete and asymmetrical oppositions between "feminine" and "masculine" categories.

Gender is a performance that is produced by constant repetition of "stylized" acts. Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being." It is a ritualized production that works under the threat of ridicule, ostracism, and even death.

The parodic repetition of the "original" reveals the original to be nothing other than a parody of the idea of the natural. "gay is to straight not as a copy to original but rather as a copy is to a copy."

activities and behaviors that violate gender norms. ex. cross dressing , girls with short hair, boys with long hair

female embodied persons who attempt to pass as men. usually on stage

Masculinity is not a static essence. It changes historically. It arises in a complex system of gender relations. Needs to focus on the practices through which men and women conduct their "gendered" lives.

Distinguishes three defining elements within gender: power relations, production relations, and cathexis or emotional attachment. Also distinguishes four types of masculinities: hegemonic, subordinated, complicity, and marginalized.

Gender is a way in which social practice is organized in relation to a "reproductive" arena. This reproductive arena, according to Connell, includes sexual arousal and intercourse, childbirth and infant care, bodily sex differences and similarities.

Gender always "intersects" or "interacts" with other organizing principles of society, such as class, race/ethnicity, and nationality.

Language identifying male power

Power relations (that there is domination of men over women).

Production relations (that there is division of labor between men and women).

Cathexis or emotional attachment (that sexual desire is shaped by attachment to one or another gender). In other words, sexual desire is gendered, that is, it is typically oriented to one gender or another. And this is true for both heterosexual or homosexual desire.

"Hegemonic masculinity" refers to the masculinity of dominant men who reproduce and legitimize the patriarchal order. It is the kind of masculinity that is typically associated with power.

"Subordinated masculinity" refers to the masculinity of gay men or other men who experience domination from the patriarchal order. Subordinated masculinities typically experience political and cultural exclusion, emotional and physical abuse, legal violence, street violence, and economic discrimination.

Complicit masculinity refers to the masculinity of men who take advantage of hegemonic masculinity but are not at the forefront of power. These are not the alpha but the beta males. These men reap the benefits of the patriarchal order without being necessarily violent; they may even share some housework and do not display "naked" domination.

"Marginalized masculinity" is the type of masculinity that exists among men who intersect with other oppressions such as class or race. Among men who are oppressed by class or race, there is often a response to powerlessness by exaggerating masculine conventions and rituals. Read: "Protest masculinity is a marginalized masculinity, which picks up themes of hegemonic masculinity in the society at large but reworks them in a context of poverty" (p. 114). Think about gang masculinity, etc. So "protest" masculinity is a subtype of marginalized masculinity.

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