Transcript Human Sexuality Matters of the heart and soul, body and mind overview • A look at an essential part of us all • Profoundly.

Human Sexuality
Matters of the heart and soul,
body and mind
overview
• A look at an essential part of us all
• Profoundly important
• Undeniably interesting
• A challenge and opportunity for every one
of us
controversy
• Contraception
• Education
• Orientation
headlines
• Movies/Television
• People
• Advertising
• Crime & Punishment
diversity
• The U.S. compared with other nations
• Great variety within the U.S.:
Ethnic/Racial
Education/Economic
Regional
A psychosocial
approach
• It’s more than just biology
• Our views of our sexuality are strongly
influenced by psychological and social
conditioning factors
Two themes
• Two essential aspects of sexuality and
what it really means to be a man or a
woman have ebbed and flowed throughout
the centuries
• Their evolution and current status tell us a
lot about our conception of sexuality and
ourselves
Sex for
procreation
• The belief that sex’s only permissible use
is reproduction.
• So, any other reason to engage in sex is
either immoral or illegal, or both.
• But today, 60% of us think that oral sex is
acceptable.
Male & female
gender roles
• Real, physiological differences have been
exaggerated
• Stereotypes:
MEN should initiate, persist and be allknowing.
Women should be passive and careful or
face the slut label.
• We will look at these themes through
a variety of perspectives as our
“semester” unfolds.
Other cultures - Islam
• Based on Muhammad's Qur’an
• Premarital sex is frowned on, especially
for women
• Marital sex is to be treasured
• Women viewed as more sexual
• Marriages arranged
• Female adulterers and male homosexuals
are severely punished
China
Sex initially promoted through Taoism
A resurgence of Confucianism led to a
much more conservative approach
Wide-spread sexual illiteracy
Slow loosening today
A Brief history
• Often parallels the sad story of how
women became marginalized in our
culture
• Western civilization has seen the
conception of women (and their sexuality)
change drastically over the millennia
From Gaea
Aphrodite
Maeve
To Eve
The Bible
• Sexuality was celebrated by man and wife
despite strict gender roles
• Sex was a frequent motivation
• On the other hand, diversity
(homosexuality) meant death
Christianity
• Jesus – compassionate but more
typically silent about sex
• Equality in the early church?
• The mystery of Mary Magdalene
Thecla
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Banned from the Bible
Chastity enthusiast
Fell into disfavor
Wrong emphasis?
The early Church
• St. Paul – advocated celibacy in response
to temptation
Viewed women as inferior to men
• St. Jerome (340-420)
Too much lust for your wife?
The great synthesizer
• Saint Augustine (354-430)
reformed party guy
reconciled the Catholic faith with
classical traditions
once devoted to God, sneered at sex
invented “Original Sin” thus forever
vilifying Eve
Missionary position
The intersection of faith and
sexuality
• As the centuries rolled on, the church
became increasingly institutionalized and
male dominated
• Solidified in the context of the sexual
excesses of the late Roman Empire
• Mary idealized, Mary Magdalene
defamed
• Women’s sexual nature feared
St. Thomas Aquinas
• Meshed Catholic theology with Aristotle
• In his hugely influential Summa
Theologica, briefly but effectively
perpetrated the view of sex as sinful
• Any activity not aiming for procreation was
a “crime against nature”
Consequences
• After Aquinas, homosexuals could “find
neither refuge nor tolerance anywhere in
the Western world.”
• As for women, witch hunts provided
horrifying outlets for the fear of feminine
sexuality
The Protestant Reformation
• Some softening of the prevailing, bleak
view of sex
• John Calvin (1509-1564), said marital sex
could, “ … lighten and ease the cares and
sadness … or endear each other.”
The Victorian era 18371901
• Queen Victoria ruled over England, the
world’s greatest power
• World-wide tone setter
• Sexes were cast in rigid roles:
MEN – stern breadwinners; full of lust
WOMEN – pure, asexual, delicate; sex
was a “wifely duty”
More Victorian Views
• Sex viewed as a medical risk
• Due to strict gender-roles, great gulf
between the sexes
• Surprise! - Prostitution flourished
But behind “closed
doors”
• Celia Mosher, M.D. took a survey of her
female clients
• Contrary to prevailing notions, they:
1) had sexual desire,
2) enjoyed sex, and
3) experienced orgasms
The Anti-Victorian
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Sir Richard Francis Burton
Secret agent extraordinaire
Explored 5 continents
World’s greatest sex expert
Wrote of sexual practices and oddities
Translated the Kama Sutra
Prudish wife burned his detailed diaries
The 20th Century
• People, events and technology brought
huge changes in attitudes and behaviors
• Freud (1900)
women are innately as sexual as men
the even more startling conception of
“infantile sexuality”
• Havelock Ellis (1921)
women have inherent sexual rights
anything goes as long as no one is hurt
• Suffrage (1920)
women could vote but lacked real
equality
World war i
• Soldiers encounter less conservative
European women
• American women enter the depleted work
force
• Society in transition – more flexibility
The Roaring 20’s
• Cars = mobility and freedom
• Movies = role models
• Fashion = “flappers”
• Behavior = petting
• The Great Depression
with economic hardship, progress slows
• World War II
repeat of WWI freedoms and exposure
• The 50’s
conservatism and strict gender roles
return
The kinsey
bombshell
• Surveys on men (1948) and women
(1953)
• Claimed that our sexual behaviors were
much more varied than previously
assumed
• True? – It didn’t matter.
The Swinging 60’s & Beyond
• The quest for gender-role equity kicks in
• “The Pill” removes fear of unwanted
pregnancies
• Laws against contraceptives fall, largely
due to the controversial “Right to
Privacy”
• Sex’s link to procreation is shattered
• Over population concerns surface
• Maters & Johnson’s Human Sexual
Response is published
• Self-help books appear
• Sex therapy emerges
• Gays “come out” – to both positive and
negative responses
• AIDS erupts and further polarizes
positions
The Explosion of Media/Sexuality
• Just 50 years ago, married couples had to
be depicted in separate beds
• Now, television’s amazing access has had,
good – gays &
bad – depersonalization of women,
effects on our attitudes towards sex.
• Anita Hill brought sexual harassment into
everyone’s awareness on national TV.
TV’s mixed impact
• Does it help by presenting valuable info?
or
• Does it hurt through trash TV’s daily, and
exploitive, freak shows?
• The Media Project’s noble purpose
• But TV is filled with sexual content which
stresses infidelity, revenge and
exploitation. Sex in marriage is ignored.
The media’s rapid embrace of
gay programming
• The American Family – first reality show
first gay on TV
• Sit-coms like Rosanne and Friends follow
• Ellen – first gay lead, then first gay kiss
• Will and Grace
• Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for ….
• Now lesbian chic in advertising
Beyond television
• VCR’s, Cable, and DVD’s bring sex home
• Music videos often portray sexual
coercion and females as mere objects
• Impulsivity rules; tenderness and
commitment rarely appear
But SEX Doesn’t Always Sell
• Advertising relies on sex to sell but
shows with strong sexual content
leave viewers unable to focus on ads!
The Internet
• Whatever you want, whenever you want it.
• Forums unite people with all manner of
tastes.
• Exhaustive source of helpful info?
or
• Grave threat?
• Remember, you have no privacy.
In summary
• With all these resources – good and
bad – we have the ability to define our
personal sexuality, an opportunity
unmatched in history
questions
• How much access should minors have to
contraceptives?
• Should gay marriages be recognized?
• Should prostitution be legalized?
• Should women bear children after
menopause?
• Abortion?