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Essays on sexual education
Teaching sexual education in public schools
Role of society in developing gender stereotypes
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1. Gems of Wisdom
a. 6 gems of wisdom/new knowledge since the Mid-Term that have made the biggest impression on me regarding Sexuality in America from Ellis down to the present time, ranked from most to least important with explanations.
i. The fairy tale stories we all grew up on reinforce the image of the perfect woman and a “happy ending”. (The Erotic Silence of the American Wife)
1. This is the gem that made the biggest impact on me. I grew up watching Disney movies. I still love to watch them, but I’m old enough to realize that not everyone gets a fairy tale ending and that it’s just not realistic to expect one. ii. Women have been told stories of husbands murdering their wives because of an infidelity for years. They learn that women with high sex drives and a need for sexual variety (something men take for granted) are punished. (The Erotic Silence of the American Wife)
1. This is #2 on my list because women with high sex drives are shamed by society—they get called “easy” by the guys they sleep with and “slutty” by the women who aren’t as high on the acceptance continuum as they are. I haven’t used the word “slut” since the beginning of this class, because I realized how wrong it was to punish and shame someone for accepting their sexuality regardless of societal norms. The double standard is infuriating. iii. Infidelity seems to be a big issue in today’s world. Dan Savage points out that 80% of marriages will be “touched by infidelity” and that an estimated 60% of men will cheat on their wives and 40% of wives will cheat on their husbands (Lust)
1. This is #3 in my list because these statistics are mind-blowing. In a so-called “Christian” society, of which 90% believes adultery is wrong, how can this be possible? Actio...
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...ssue. However, I could see why other women would think that it would be. Decreased compatibility between men and women means decreased chances of finding the traditional and completely romanticized “ideal love”—the “one day, my prince will come” kind that my generation of girls grew up believing in because of the portrayal of love in Disney princess movies. Decreased compatibility also means increased uncertainty. Without a prince to come and sweep a girl off of her feet, what will she do with her life? Will she be a useless old maid or will she be able to live a fulfilling life without a man by her side? I plan to do the latter by going to graduate school and getting my PhD in Comparative-Neurobiology Psychology and working in a research lab studying and trying to minimize the side effects of different medications, specifically psychiatric drugs and birth controls.
Pepper Schwartz opens Why is Everyone Afraid of Sex? with "In spite of the visibility of sex in the media and popular culture, despite a widespread acceptance of a variety of sexual practices, Americans still hold a deep-rooted fear of sex." (252) Schwartz then goes on to explain the surprising, but obvious truth. American society portrays a sexual attitude, but is actually hiding a fear of the activity. Schwartz does a great job of showing both sides of this argument. She mentions how sex seems to no longer be a completely taboo thing within the media and society today. Within television, magazines, articles, movies, etc, sexual themes are all over the place. Another factor is that premarital sex is becoming more and more acceptable these
The association between monogamy, fidelity, and marriage has been the concern of religion over the years. It is said that Saint Augustine, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, spread the Christian idea that adultery is a moral transgression for both men and women. Even the Ten Commandments forbid adultery. This attitude toward adultery, Fisher says, has long influenced the Western view of monogamy (84). In other words, religion has tried to moralize monogamy by injecting the belief that adultery is sinful and monogamy is permanent. Therefore, monogamy in a biological sense, contrary to the religious sense, does not necessarily connote sexual faithfulness of the partners, nor is it necessarily long term.
did cheat. This article discusses how infidelity is popular in both men and women no
reasons people were quick to rush into marriage. Cheating is a common recurrence in this book,
...time, it is the form of two souls combing emotionally, physically, and spiritually together. However, there are still many women who voluntarily lower their standards and accept the first person they meet, because they have an alluring face with an enthralling body. Others are just looking for a companion to help them and occupy a moderate, cozy family. Knowing the fact that spending the rest of a lifetime with a person without advance relationship foundation and much communication can be painful but there are still plenty of “gold-diggers”, who is willing to throw away their freedom, and a relaxing single lifestyle for money. Their belief is to buy into a lifestyle, where their vanity and snobbery can be satisfied. Too many women never realized that they were embroiled into the marriage whirlpool and drowned their happiness with their own hand.
Klein, Marty. "You're addicted to what? Challenging the myth of sex addiction." The Humanist July-Aug. 2012: 31+. Gale Power Search. Web. 8 Apr. 2014
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different kinds of marriages and relationships that ultimately result in the same ending. The “Happy Endings” shows that it’s difficult to have complete control over day-to-day events. No matter how hard society tries to achieve the perfect life, it does not always go as planned. It doesn’t matter if the characters are bored and depressed, confused and guilty, or virtuous and lucky; the gradual path of version A is not always in reach.
In today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex and sexual desires revolve around men, and Hoagland sets out seven patterns showing how this is the case. Sex is thought of as a “powerful and uncontrollable urge” and male sexuality therefore is a basic component to male health, sexual acts show male conquest and domination, sexual freedom gives men total access to and over women, rape is, by this logic, natural and women who resist a man’s advances are “‘frigid’”, sex involves losing control and sexual desire, when described as erotic, “involves a death wish (eros)”. The bottom line is that in today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex is all about men having a natural power over women; sex involves a total loss of control which creates a split between reason and emotion since being in control is a matter of reason controlling emotions, “we tend to believe that to be safe we must be rational and in control but to...
Let’s talk about sex! Sex is primarily for the survival of our species. It satisfies our urge to reproduce and leave generational legacies on the world. Everyone does it; everyone is here because of it. Yet in society, it 's considered to be a taboo subject to discuss. Most people are uncomfortable openly talking about it, but those who do are often criticized because of their differences. As a result, the effects of the sex being such a private topic are more harmful than simply being open about it. However, in today’s society, it not that everyone cannot be open about their sexuality, it 's mostly unacceptable for women to be open, thus posing double standards on women. I wonder if the connotation of sex is a result of society’s morals
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband John can be seen as strong representations of the effects society’s stereotypical gender roles as the dominant male and submissive female have within a marriage. Because John’s wife takes on the role as the submissive female, John essentially controlled all aspects of his wife’s life, resulting in the failure of the couple to properly communicate and understand each other. The story is intended to revolve around late 19th century America, however it still occurs today. Most marriages still follow the traditional gender stereotypes, potentially resulting in a majority of couples to uphold an unhealthy relationship or file for divorce. By comparing the “The yellow wallpaper” with the article “Eroticizing Inequality in the United States: The Consequences and Determinants of Traditional Gender Role Adherence in Intimate Relationships”, the similarities between the 19th century and 21st century marriage injustice can further be examined. If more couples were able to separate the power between the male and female, America would have less unhappy marriages and divorces.
This article, “An Examination of Potential Attractions of Women’s Marital Infidelity,” was published in 2014 in The American Journal of Family Therapy. The purpose of the article is to examine the process of infidelity and the steps that women take in order to cheat on their spouses. The question regarding what defines infidelity is widely debated in today’s world, particularly with the growth and use of technology. Because marital infidelity is on the rise, this article serves to examine the reasons that it occurs in order to help solve the problem. Women were interviewed about the process of infidelity and reported that three factors largely influenced their behavior. These factors that contribute to cheating are the developing of an extramarital
The first form of adultery is Accidental Infidelity. This can happen to the more careless person, but at the same time, to the person whose values and commitments are tenuous. They lack self-control and respect for both themselves and their spouse. Any situation where they are left alone with the opposite sex is an opportunity for an “accident” to occur. It was shocking to find out that most cases of infidelity occur with couples who are less than twenty -five years old, one would have thought early marriages where happy and care free (figure one).
Some of the most controversial issues in society have historically revolved around matters relating to gender and sexuality. As gender plays an integral part in how we function in society, we quickly learn what is expected of us through our gender roles at a young age and our sexual scripts as we get older. We are expected to conform to our respective gender roles of femininity or masculinity depending on the sex we were assigned at birth. We learn that certain characteristics and expressions are attributed to each gender but are never taught that gender is fluid but instead it is binary. We also become subjected to assumptions of our sexual desires and attraction based on our sex and our gender and are expected not to deviate from it. We become
Sex has been a taboo subject for many generations in nearly every culture present in the world. Many seem to rely on the traditional idea that one should abstain from sex until marriage, while others evolved and began to exercise the idea of sexual freedom and are not held down by any certain beliefs or traditions. Leslie Bell takes an in-depth look into this complex situation by taking into account various psychoanalytical theories and first-hand experiences in order to make sense of this complicated subject. One can argue that sex becomes a much more complicated rather than a pleasurable experience for women due to the confusing standards that society has put in place, their upbringing from childhood to adulthood, and their overwhelming desire