The first time I visited a sexual consumer site was in 1999, in Mayport, Florida with my then boyfriend, now my husband Juan. It was late at night and the building was poorly lit. I remember feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed. I kept wondering if I would run into anyone I knew or if anyone saw me entering the building. At the time visiting the sex shop was part of a rite of passage that also included getting into my first 18 and over club and getting my first tattoo. I remember that I felt ashamed and dirty entering a small store filled with porn VHS tapes and dildos. Still, I was an adult this meant that I was old enough to vote, buy cigarettes, and buy porn.
Now, 17 years later I walked into the Déjà vu Love Boutique in El Cajon, with my husband on a Saturday afternoon. It was a bright and sunny day in the East County, this visit felt different than when I was a teenager. I no longer cared about who was watching my husband and I enter the “sex shop.” Possibly if experience, maturity, and/or wisdom contributed to the new sense of normalcy that I felt as I entered the two-story building in a busy plaza. My 18-year old self would not have had the courage to enter a sexual health consumer site in broad daylight.
It has been a few years since I last visited a
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This was a large store that was well lit and had an enormous sign welcoming patrons. The assortment of products was overwhelming. The first floor was filled with women’s lingerie and costumes the back of the store had lubricants in an assortment of colors and flavors. I was surprised at my own coolness and amazement as if I had been a regular at sex shops. Nonetheless, I felt emotional because I had the memory of my first visit to sexual consumer site with my husband. I thought about how our marriage has changed through the years and how different we are in comparison to our teenage
Sternheimer, K. (2009, October 19). Everyday Sociology Blog. Everyday Sociology Blog. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://nortonbooks.typepad.com/everydaysociology/2009/10/sex-its-not-what-it-used-to-be.html
The two main views of the sex industry which are expressed in “Buying Sex” are that decriminalizing prostitution will make it better and safer for prostitutes (the abolitionist). There is also the other group who thinks that decriminalizing prostitution will make it worse for the women and some men involved in prostitution. “Buying Sex” featured a lawyer with two former prostitutes and a current prostitute who worked with them to try and get Canada to abolish its laws against prostitution. It also featured another group of women who were there advocating for all those who have been abused in the sex industry. They were former sex workers, and there was a young women whose mother was a prostitute that was murdered. They were very much involved
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...
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
I found myself in the dining room observing everything and everyone. The dining room was set up to have an intimate feel to it. There were fresh flowers on every table and each table had some privacy. The
When the lift doors opened at the sixth floor, a wave of dim light and buzzing voices greeted me. It was as if I'd taken the lift to a dark movie from the 70s. Facing me was the entrance to a supermarket selling all types of candy, weird foods, and random home items. Wondering what about the market attracted so many eyeballs and footfalls, I began walking around the floor, and then from floor to floor, observing the many stylistic and curious shops.
Imagine a scenario of a young teenager who has this overwhelming desperation to figure out who they are and where they came from. Someone who has been kept hidden in shadow from the truth for whatever the reason; they are still told the story of the stork, or another situation where someone has been taught their whole lives to avoid sexual confrontation because it is the “worst thing you can do” However, when faced in the heat of the moment, they might actually be more inclined to pursue sexual activity to discover who they are because they face everyday, through relentless ambiguity, what everyone sa...
While alleged sex addictions have existed for many years, they have only recently been accepted as valid excuses for sexual deviancy. Attitudes toward sex addiction in the past offer a stark contrast to how it is viewed today, as the constantly medicalizing society insists on putting everything under the technical microscope. Sex addiction is commonly associated with a person’s inability to control his sexual behavior, implying an abnormally high sex drive and obsession with sex which have negative effects on his personal life (MedicineNet 2007, 1). Rather than breaking down the science behind the disorder, a customary practice in today’s medicalized society, older attitudes towards sex addiction placed it under the same light as alcoholism, where a lack of control and unwillin...
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Brave New World Theme of Sex" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008.
...arate occasions; first time in the late nineties, as a betrothed, migrating temporarily to the western state; second time four years later, a ring added, and everything else the same. She lured me into her sensuous web with promises of heathen desire. Now U2 plays and other memories from my teens and early twenties come as I race across streets, bang on cars, rush to join a crowd that I no longer see, so keen and now … different. The girl, English accent, cute in my shirt, stands on the front porch after one of the many sexual expeditions, a relationship based on sex, drunken sex, never sober, and I have the customary cigarette while two other friends sit inside my shadowy glow. They feel my passion, or the remnants.
HBO's Sex and the City has become a cultural icon in its 6 seasons of running. Based on Candace Bushnell's racy book Sex and the City, the show exhibits an unprecedented example of the sexual prowess of women over the age of 35. The result is an immense viewing audience and an evolving view on the "old maid" stigma that a woman's chances of finding love are significantly reduced after thirty-five. In this paper, we will closely analyze the characters and themes of Sex and the City to explain the significance of what the show represents in American culture.
"Passes And Plays: The Truth About Safe Sex." The Truth for Youth. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The coffee shop I decided to do my observation was the well known Starbucks just a couple blocks away. The reason I chose this coffee shop was because of it 's style inside, it attracted me. For example, one side of the wall has a glass top, and the lower part of the wall, made of wood and painted in a bright red color, which was one thing that attracted me and stood out. Outside of the shop people can actually see through the glass wall and get to see what’s happening inside of the coffeeshop. By the entrance you see these two red ceiling lamps which were shaped in a flower bud and these two tall green plants. Once you were in, on the right of the shop there was a counter with food and things to put in your drinks such as milk, sugar, chocolate, etc and the colors and how the food was displayed and served was appealing to my eyes. Behind that counter there was a long table with different electronic devices plugged into the wall. On the middle of the those there is a fridge just for ice and when I turned to the other side and I noticed a big menu on the wall. Further more into the shop, there was an area filled with tables, chairs, and sofas. The tables were in different shapes, one was round and the others rectangular, also there was four bamboo baskets and I looked around and noticed that the walls in that area were decorated with paintings.
Sherman, E. (1986). Teenage sex: A special report. Ladies Home Journal 103 (October) : 138,199, 202-206
Additionally, comprehensive sex education programs are a way to educate young adults about right and wrong. A study by the American Association of University in 1993 stated that four out of five high school students have experienced sexual harassment (Lickona, 1993). Education is a powerful tool to teach young children between right and wrong. In the Havens, there is a confusion about what constitutes rape. According to the Havens, 77% of young men between 18-25 believed that having sex with someone who said “no” constituted rape. Due to this confusion, young men are looking more into porn magazines to gain information about sex (Cosslett, 2014). As schools only teach the bare minimal of staying abstinence, young adults are searching elsewhere