Human Sexuality Essay, Research Paper
Explain the components of Human Sexuality. In your explanation include the definition of Gender we constructed in class. The components of Human Sexuality differ, of course, with every individual. With the different components of sexual behavior, attitudes and values related to sexuality, intimacy, gender, gender of assignment and reassignment, gender identity, gender role, gender orientation, social orientation, erotic orientation, and affectional orientation determines our sexual identity. As discussed in class and from my class notes, sexual identity is based on all of these different components and is defined as our sexual self, and how people perceive or think of a person. Sexual identity and gender identity can be related in some ways and can be completely opposite in others. The existence of sexual and gender identities is based on the continuing effort by society to outcast people who do not stick to the rules of societies gender roles. Gender roles refer to how we behave. It refers to the thoughts, feelings, relationships, clothing, our manner of walking and talking, and even our sexual acts that are considered normal for members of each sex. How we view sexuality and often relate to how we ve been socialized is where we develop our attitudes and values related to sexuality. These attitudes and values are learned from family, friends and the cultures we grew up in. In my opinion, these sexual attitudes affect people s sexual behavior. Sexual behavior is what we do sexually or what we choose not to do. The reason I believe societies attitudes affect peoples sexual behavior is because people want to please society and be viewed as normal. As we discussed in class, Intimacy is defined as whom we allow ourselves to get close to. When getting intimate with a person, it does not necessarily mean getting sexual with an individual. It can mean getting closer on a personal level because of shared experiences or shared common interests or values. When it comes to gender, it is defined in my class notes as a social symbolic category that reflects the meaning that society and an individual confer on biological sex. Gender is acquired through interacting with the people around us, either on a personal or professional level in our society, and is what we learn about sex, which changes over time (Wood, 26).
We are born either as a female or as a male, that is the package we are born with, which is our gender of assignment. What we do with our physical appearance determines whether we are masculine or feminine. People who are not satisfied with their gender of assignment may desire a gender reassignment. Gender reassignment is when a person prefers different genitalia. Some individuals in our society may undergo a sex operation. Changing ones gender assignment may consist of changing external genitalia, internal genitalia, or even undergo reconstruction of genitalia. One reason why one might decide to have a gender reassignment could be because of their gender orientation. Gender orientation is the way we define our gendered related attractions. Who we like to be with, or spend time with is our social orientation. Who turns us on is our erotic orientation. Who we fall in love with, and this does not necessarily mean to have sex with, is our affectional orientation. Our social, erotic and affectional orientations make up our gender orientation. In conclusion, There are many human sexuality and gender conversations and debates within our society. We listen to these various opinions from our families, friends, co-workers and the media throughout our lives. I believe the majority of societies male gender holds a higher position or dominates over the female whether in the family, workplace or government. In society, being female or male is the only accepted norm when it comes to gender. Some opinions that I have encountered about human sexuality are thought of in such a way that straight or being heterosexual is the only sexuality that is acceptable and acknowledged. Gays or transsexuals are unaccepted because it disrupts our societies construction of gender and sexuality by crossing over the line of acceptable sexual behavior between the male and female.