...Over the past few weeks, proselytising and campaigning about the role of the Safe Schools Coalition has reached fever pitch. While the program faces continuing malicious attacks from the right, many Australians have been thrust into a discussion that invokes the idea of “the gay agenda”, sexuality recruitment and indoctrination about sexuality and gender. While social and psychological research wholeheartedly dismisses these claims, the voices that propagate them continue on without recognition of the broader aims and outcomes that the program legitimately addresses. The Safe Schools Coalition doesn’t only supports students who are diverse in gender identity or sexuality. It supports everyone within the school environment, including teachers, principals and straight/cisgender students. Specifically, the...
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...Socio-Cultural Influences on Sexuality There is nothing that sparks a debate more than the topic of sexuality. The multitude of opinions in societies displays an attempt to define, promote, or control sexuality. Sexuality is a part of our humanity in which defines sex, gender identities, gender roles, sexual orientation, pleasure, intimacy, and instigates procreation. Though, sexuality is experienced and expressed through thoughts, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, roles, behaviours, and relationships; it is greatly influenced by societies, cultures, historical perspectives, religious perspectives, biological forces, psychological theories, ethics, morals, and legal factors. In the United States, known as the “melting pot” because of the mass amounts of cultural influences brought in by immigrants worldwide that now reside on its land; one of the biggest concerns in regards to sexuality are the social and public health challenges that influence sexual behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs. Sexual behavior in not just a personal matter between two people, but rather a theme that can affect society in terms of social expectations for sexual behaviors, gender identity, roles, stereotypes, and bias. Social Expectations on Sexual Behaviors “Sexuality is an important part of our lives” (King, 2012, p.1), currently and amongst the generations before us. Throughout history, sexual behaviours have been largely influenced by culture, religion, and historical perspectives...
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...Running Head: GENDER IDENTITY AND SEXUALITY Gender Identity and Sexuality Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Gender Identity and Sexuality……………………………………………………….. References………………………………………………………………………………….. Abstract Sexuality and gender identify are two separate terms but they relate to each other very much. Sexuality is anything that relates to sex. It includes birth control, abortion, our bodies, our gender and gender identity. Understanding how teens think about their sexuality helps us understand what they are going though as young adults. Gender Identity has changed in the last ten year. What is gender identity? It is the way we look at ourselves or how other people look at us. Some teens may be confused of what their sexual orientation is. And what is a counselor’s role to helping them out. Some teen may be unsure of their gender identity, if they are supposed to feel a certain way to the opposite sex or the same sex. Is TV and media persuading them that they have to be a certain way? In this paper I will tie to the two together. First a person has to be aware of their sexuality. Sex and Gender will also be explained. Even though they are the same they can be defined very different. Culture also plays a major part in sexuality, cultures such as Asians, Blacks, Whites and Latinos. Each culture handles sexuality different. Research includes exploring that many avenues of each culture. Introduction Human being are divers...
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...Evolution of Sexuality, Gender and Feminism in Cyber Culture Within the ever-evolving cyber world, in which many people find themselves living, there are traditional aspects of a previous culture which are re-emerging with technological advances. There are changing expectations of almost all themes and ideas in life, including gender and sexuality that are emerging with different notions and concepts which accompany them. In Neuromancer, by William Gibson, gender and sexuality of cyber culture are themes which are redefined and addressed throughout the novel. Through these new definitions of sex and gender, which are modified by technological advances, feminism, sexuality and the male-female binary are altered and take on entirely new meanings, which represent the decline of some aspects of humanity. Beginning with sexuality, there were very strict definitions of sexuality in our culture before it was exposed to an internet and cyber infested world. There were expectations and notions which existed prior to the emergence of cyber culture. These concepts are discussed and depicted in Gibson’s Nueromancer. There are many scenes which show this evolving and changing notion of sexuality of the future; the most memorable would most likely be the scene where Riviera performs a sexual scene to an audience including Armitage, Molly and Case. He uses his hands and mind to paint a picture of a woman, which he is having sex with; the woman is Molly. Riviera is able to paint a vivid...
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...DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN SEXUALITY NaShawn Edwards July 10, 2013 DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN SEXUALITY A young boy sits and watches children playing on the playground, trying to see which activity he wants to engage in. He sees a group of boys playing basketball on one side and down the way he sees a group of girls playing “double dutch” jump rope. Off to the side of them are some boys watching and talking to them, flirting. The young boy decides he wants play jump rope with them. The young man approaches the girls and they invite him to join them. The young man makes his first attempt to jump in the ropes. As soon as he is ready to jump in, he’s pushed from behind. The push is so forceful that he stumbles into the ropes, tangling them around him and falls to the ground, scraping his knee badly. He looks up and sees one of the boys that was watching the girls play jump rope, had pushed him. He started shouting obscenely things at the young boy and soon begin punching hitting and kicking him. The young boy didn’t know what he did wrong and why he was being treated this way. An adult saw what was going on and ran to stop it. He then took the young boy home with the little boy asking “Why?” See the young boy didn’t know that jump rope was known as “femininity”. He was raised to be open-minded and androgynous. The other boy was raised and taught the masculine gender roles and what he is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Somehow, the other boy felt that the young boy’s behavior...
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...1) Billy Wilder's movie "Some Like it Hot" is regarded as a comic masterpiece. What are some of the ways the director plays with gender issues to create such a resilient comedy? 2) In the movie "The man who shot liberty valance", John Wayne plays the archetypical western hero, a man who is at once outside of the law who is also committed to upholding justice. Please discuss the contradictions inherent in his role in the film. "SOME LIKE IT HOT" The all-time satirical, comedy farce favorite and outrageous “Some like It Hot” produced in the year 1959, is one of the most comical films ever made. This film has had the combination of several elements, which include a part of 1920-1930s gangster films and romances. The director had one major objective, which was to include deceptive and entangled identities, cross-dressing, and reversed sex roles. It was for these reasons why the film gained so much popularity during the time and this lead to the director receiving six Academy Award nominations. Among the major themes presented in the film, the paper will discuss some of the ways the director plays with gender issues in creating such a resilient comedy. According to Martínez, María Jesús (p. 146), aspects of cultural negotiations among others has affected for long the sexual definitions and gender representation generally. Therefore, the representation of a woman has long provided a powerful and undecided patriarchal character, heavily determined as the expression of the male...
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...The text, Our Sexuality, explains that relationships and sexuality go hand in hand. Relationships contain an underlying bias in most aspects of life. Mainly, gender is the central focus and is overwhelming influential among the topics discussed. Love, work place relationships, dating, friends, communication, sex, mental health, and sexual health are all examples that contain gender inequalities or sterotypes. issues surrounding equality between men and women are blatantly unfair. Present day expectations within relationship and sexuality roles, since the turn of the century, has changed dramatically. Although, evolution within sexual perspectives and sexual knowledge has dramatically changed, women have consistently been perceived as the weaker...
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...Primitive Oppression of Female Sexuality Abstract This paper explores the complexities that come about when trying to transcribe female sexuality as a generalized symbol in our society. Explaining many different theories as too why our sociological mindset seems to be primitive when trying to justify the ideology that sexuality needs to be oppressed for females, when in contrast it is glorified for males. Theories also suggest that our brains are psychologically “wired” for male dominance, such as when observing our closes lineage on the dendrogram, chimpanzees and exploring their interactions based on gender and sexuality. While other theories suggest that it’s possible females physiologically aren’t made for as much sex as men are and that stimulates are needed to bring things to equilibrium, such as new clinical trial pills that will be the Viagra synonymous for women. Each perspective is thoroughly covered in this paper as all sides of the spectrum are hit to understand why such cultural stigma has been placed upon female sexuality, leading to the ultimate question; Will our primitive mindsets continue to be the oppressing weights females bare in society? Keywords: Sexuality, psychological, physiological, sociology Since the beginning of time woman have been viewed as the keepers of monogamy, vested with the responsibility of limited sexual desires and actions. Female sexuality had not even been referenced in the medical field as apart of the female psyche. In...
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...Sexuality is one of those feelings that you are born with. Different cultures and religions have their own definition of sexuality. It's not something that you choose, it's a natural physically, emotional, and sexual attraction to male, female, or even both. For centuries it is believe by some cultures that if you weren't heterosexual then you have a mental disease and considered abnormal. Foucault believed that power is persuasive, multi-faced, and is not already planned. It’s a cultural production that represents the appropriation of the human body and of its physiological capacities by an ideological discourse. Sex has no history but sexuality does. French Philosopher Michel Foucault thought that sexuality was, “a set of effects produced in bodies, behaviors, and social relations by a certain deployment.” Sexuality for a person can be narrowed down to what a person is attracted to, their desires, and pleasures. In the article, “Is There a History of Sexuality?” by David M. Halperin sexually defines itself as separate, sexual domain, within the larger field of human psychophysical nature. For some cultures it is considered natural and psychological but different people feel different ways about that unproven theory. Sexuality effects different people due to their cultures views on passion, libertinism, eroticism, love, affection, and desire. Athenians felt like that was when people were sexually attracted to the same...
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...second method that females attempt to use for constructing their gender identities is related to the biological aspect of their bodies. Females start employing their bodies as a signifier for their female identities by forming their personal awareness of their gender abilities and their sexual orientations. The biological manifestations that are ascribed to body allow human beings to shape their gender identities; they become aware of their gender roles and abilities that their bodies have including their sexualities. Human body in a certain way achieves a coherent unit of human identity. The body can be used as a tool for constructing gender roles and thus gender identities. For example, females at early age reveal their awareness of their...
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...university of essex | SC291-5-FY | How are Gender and Sexuality Significant to the Study of Visual Culture? | | Word Count: 2,312 | 1004894 | How are Gender and Sexuality Significant to the Study of Visual Culture? In this essay I plan to explore the meanings that are found within the concepts of gender and sexuality and the presentation to which they are given in all types of visual culture. I wish to look into the reasons behind the current stereotypes of gender and sexuality which are used in day to day life. The origins of such clichés and the reason why stereotypes are so heavily used in visual culture, to try and understand the disadvantages and advantages they bring to the media. I will begin by trying to give an explanation of the definition of the terms, gender, sexuality and visual culture. Gender is often depicted to a simple non-complex term which is based upon an individual’s biological sex. Thus presenting the theory that the sex of an individual will biologically predetermine their mannerisms and actions; behaviours that are associated with being male or female. Although it is necessary to understand that there are differences between men and women, to assume that all behaviour can be categorised as male or female could be considered to be ignorant. In more recent times gender has become less fixated upon the biological sex of the person and is more determined by the individual themselves (Kirsch, 2000). Sexuality is the term used to demonstrate the type...
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...only be so different – it is as if there is a certain level of difference that can be tolerated, and anything beyond that comfort zone is deemed to be wrong. Today, it has become evident that more people have gathered the courage to defy society’s comfort zones and rise above them. Now, we see an increasing number of homosexuals that are becoming more open about their sexuality, but the question there is, are they coming out of the closet explicitly? Or is it simply an implied action? In the Philippines, we have local scenes that vividly showcase homosexual pride. We see this through the pubs that welcome gay acts to perform every now and then, the parlors whose staff consists primarily of gay stylists, even through the media we see how homosexuality is showcased through the rise of gay showbiz personalities such as Boy Abunda and Vice Ganda. All these examples do in fact show that homosexuals are given great respect in these fields, and that they have been accepted by the majority of the masses, but these people, they have come out to us in a different way – there was no profound declaration of their sexuality, they simply showed it to us through...
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...Anna Silva Eng. 2341 (12221) Professor Garcia Sept. 20, 2013 Essay #1: “The Storm” and “The Chrysanthemums” In the theme of sexuality and the differences between genders, an array of conflict forms as the female protagonists are confronted with new temptation. The outlook of woman is increasingly a wedge between the protagonists and their husbands as well as the crevice in sexuality. Although there are many opposing perspectives of how each of the female protagonists tends to each event of temptation, the underlining effect is the class of relationship that both woman have with their husbands. In considering the time frame of the nineteenth century “The Storm,” and twentieth century “The Chrysanthemums”, there is a discrepancy of sexuality, the role of woman, and the nature of relationships regarding the female protagonists. The characters of Calixta and Elisa demonstrate a sort of sexual frustration, each contributing to the thought of temptation. In analyzing Elisa, the amount of time she works outside, as well as inside, the reader can infer that there is more missing to her womanly needs. The description of “her face [as] eager and mature” reveals the spare energy within her. The spare energy that otherwise be released sexually, is instead directed into her work of “chrysanthemum stems [that] seem too small and easy for her energy” (460). The sexual frustration and desires of Elisa create tension in the relationship she acquires with her husband. The desires are not...
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...Issue – Part 1 Professor Jonathan Loessin Introduction to Sociology 4/29/2012 Society has many different views on sexuality in today’s world. Human beings are “social animals”, and their habits, desires, hopes, fears, and beliefs are shaped by the various societies into which they are born. Society also sees this as the same with sexual attitudes and behaviors. People are born with a certain potential for sexual expression, but this potential can be realized in a many different ways. Human sexuality and language are also comparable on a general level and can be examined for their collective implications. In most societies the meaning of sex, same as the meaning of anything else is revealed by religion. This has always been the case in societies of the past, and even in the modern, secular societies the sexual standards often remain tied to the older religious doctrines. There has been no doubt that the sexual standards of our own society are still being influenced by the judeo- Christian heritage. In all societies the obvious biological difference in sexuality is also between men and women. This difference is used as a justification for forcing them into different social roles which limit and shape their attitudes and behavior. No society is content with the natural difference of sex, but each insists on adding to it a cultural difference of gender. In today society it is not enough for a man to be a male; he also has to appear masculine. Same as for a woman, in addition...
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...Comparing and Contrasting Essentialist Approaches to Social Psychology with Social Constructionist Approaches to Social Psychology. A widely recognised definition of social psychology is “an effort to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (Allport, 1985). However, how to measure this, the research methods to be used and what constitutes useful evidence has caused much debate in the history of social psychology. This essay will compare and contrast the two epistemologies of essentialist and social constructionist approaches to social psychology and the research methods of quantitative and qualitative used in each approach. Essentialists’ view of the world is that the properties possessed by a group are universal in that group and do not depend on context. However, a member of a group may possess other characteristics that are not required to include it as a group member but, it must not have characteristics that preclude it from being a member of the group (Burr, 1995). For example, essentialists believe that personality consists of a number of traits and personality of an individual is established by the level of each of these traits. Essentialists also believe that these traits remain more or less stable over time and it is our personality that influences behaviour (Maltby, 2010). As essentialists are able to classify groups as such, they use quantitative research...
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