Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The social construction of sexuality inevitably linked with cultural concepts
Why is effective communication in developing relationships important
Why communication skills are important in developing relationships
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
You wait by the cash register in the checkout line of Shop Rite. As you pore over the contents of your cart, you confirm that you have all the items you need. You wait for your turn to check out, when your eyes wander to a nearby rack of colorful magazines. They read in big, bold letters, “10 Sex Secrets You Need To Know,” “7 Tips For Great Sex!” They look trashy, but you are intrigued nonetheless by the prospect of learning new, hidden secrets for better sex. You do not pick up the magazines to look through them, but you cannot help but wonder what secrets they hold. A good deal of those magazines actually say that the key to great sex is communication. According to The Cosmopolitan, communication allows partners to check what they are comfortable with doing, how satisfied they are with sex, and what new things they can try (Benjamin). This sounds easy enough —talk to your partner, and you are on the road to heavenly orgasms. Yet, according to Washington Post, 52% of Americans are unsatisfied with their sex lives (Stepp). A recent international survey ranks Americans as the world's fifth worst sex partners. This is an unpleasant characterization of Americans, but this generalization is not far-fetched. American sex education, as Amanda Duberman writes for Huffington Post, is sub-par (Duberman). The American sex education quota includes little more than telling students that if they have sex, they will, in a nutshell, get pregnant and die from syphilis. American media such as films and television shows tend to censor sexual content more heavily than it censors violence. Schools and media teach Americans that sex is mystified, taboo, and shameful. By imposing negative characteristics on sex and its discourse, Ameri... ... middle of paper ... ...of years. By disconnecting themselves from sex and its discourse, Americans are disconnecting themselves from the practice that has given them the gift of life. How could a nation separate itself from a practice—a function—that is undeniably human? And not only is sex a function for the survival of a species, but it has also grown to become an expression of love. For generations, sex has been a universal symbol for passion, unity, trust, devotion; love. Teach the student what it means to have sex. Teach the teacher what it means to discuss sex. Teach them not to be afraid of sex, for sex is human. It is the culmination of love and survival. The magazines in Shop Rite may look trashy, but they make a good point: Communication is the key to great sex. Before Americans can become the world's superpower in love-making, they must first open the conversation about sex.
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
Over the last century, the life expectancy of the elderly has increased. This means that the largest growing population right now, in the United States, is persons over the age of 65 (Sex Tips for Older Adults, 2000). With this in mind, it would be helpful to talk about the personal aspects or as I like to call it, "sex lives" of the elderly. When people in our society think of the elderly, they almost never think of this population having sex or good sex for that matter. But they do! Unfortunately, the elderly encounter problems with sex as they become older and that is what I will be discussing along with way of coping with sexual dysfunction.
[3] Since the 1950’s, a sexual revolution has spawned in America, accordingly downgrading previous anathemas in society, like pre-martial sex, masturbation, and homosexuality. For example, according to an article describing the sexual revolution, “In the 1950s, less than 25 percent of Americans thought premarital sex was acceptable; by the 1970s, more than 75 percent found it acceptable” (Stossel 74). Norman Podhoretz recounts how in the early 1950’s obtaining pornography was like trying to buy illegal drugs. But Playboy changed all of that, as it emerged as an “acceptable” form of pornography in 1953.
Countering the Culture of Sex is an article by Ellen Goodman dealing with the entertainment industry’s plague upon society. With sex rooted deep in children’s minds it creates this idea of what life revolves around. Digging deeper, Goodman brings up the point of why one never sees the consequences of sex. If the media were to show the consequences of people’s actions, the industry could create a sense of fear into the public.
In our first world consumer culture, there is a superficial understanding of sex as as synonymous to goods. One that understands sex as simple self–s...
Belkin, Lisa. “The Sex Life.” NYTimes.com The New York Times. 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 01 April 2014.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Brave New World Theme of Sex" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008.
Successful sex education programs have several high points. The high points include exercises to encourage the appraisals of values, and skills in which students are taught how to negotiate while in sexual situations (" What type" )
Its seems as if American culture is obsessed with sex. From music videos to commercials to teen movies: one cannot turn on his television without seeing a scantily clad woman or two people engaging in some type of foreplay. Even on game shows there is commonly a female co-host who wears next to nothing. Moreover, besides a pornographic movie or a special on HBO, one can find more than enough sex in a teen movie. These films contain teenage sex symbols who cannot act more than the “common man.” Yet, it seems as if these movies are quite popular. They more often than not reach the rank of top selling movie at the box-office. Their success illustrates much about our society- we want to see sex and cannot get enough.
Mass media has a huge influence on sexuality and opens windows on sex, there is a huge concern regarding sexual contents in television, internet and media in general, in the absence of improper sexual education in school, youth tend to derive partial information and misinformation about sex by themselves. Such sources include Hollywood movies, pornography and also TV show. The media is the fastest way of spreading information to the public, subsequently films are becoming more and more explicit, children these days are exposed to pornography, According to journalism professor and media critic Jane Brown, the media is piquing teen i...
The United States has experienced constant heterosexual change in acceptable social behaviors that evoke sexual relations. These changes expanding from the past half-century, which includes drastic shifts in premarital attitudes and behaviors. Shift changes in heterosexual courtship are seen from 1950’s and early 1960’s, where the standard for sexual interactions was abstinence, and intercourse was only acceptable in marriage (Perlman & Sprecher, in press), to the 1970’s. Whereas, in the 1970’s there’s a witnessed shift to a more lenient social standard, ”permissiveness with affection,” where engaging in sexual behavior was acceptable as long as the partners were fully committed to each other (Perlman & Sprecher, in press; Sprecher 1989). Sexual standards within the 21st century first decade are p...
Sex ed. A phrase would make most middle schoolers cringe or giggle, and most high school students groan. Whether it was looking at diagrams of reproductive organs, reading about people who regret having sex before marriage, or watching slideshows with pictures of various genitals laden with disease, most sex education seemed disgusting and terrifying to students. Worst of all, much of it was incorrect. In reality, a shocking amount of sex education taught to students is misleading and untrue in many cases. This leads to problems such as STIs, STDs, and teen pregnancy which could possibly be avoided if students had been properly taught how to do so. After conducting a survey on anal sex experience among students in the rural Midwest, Dake et al. writes, “A study by Boekeloo and Howard found that 20% of adolescents did not believe that anal intercourse could transmit HIV” (Dake et al. 202). Misconceptions like these can end up causing health problems in students since they never had a chance to learn there was any physical danger caused by their actions.
The initial study, implemented in 2005, surveyed thirty people, who proclaimed they have “great sex”; the initial finding of these thirty people found six different components of optimal sexuality. With their follow up study,
...nst TV violence; they only regulate language and sexual content (Brown,2). The American television industry and movie industry are very prude regarding sex and language, but very permissive on the topic of violence. Many movies that have brief glimpses of nudity, or more than one use of profane language get rated R, yet action flicks with thousands of killings in them are rated PG-13 (Horn and Zeitchik, 2). Some question if the ratings would be more appropriate if the government established the regulations rather then the voluntary industry. Movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America, know also by the acronym MPAA. Television shows are rated by the network or broadcaster, that the show plays on. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates video games but there are no set laws that prohibits children from buying games rated for adults.