Contemporary culture’s construction of female sexuality a perversion of feminist notions of a truly liberated female sexuality b ecause society has these norms and values on women which sets boundaries on how they are viewed sexually and attractive.
Women must present themselves in a way that men don’t need too, that rules are also made by the culture, not asked by each individual.
“The cult of Virginity” is one topic that even in 21 st century is heavy to talk about. Women must be virgins before marriage or they are considered “damaged goods”
(Jessica Valenti: pg. 336). Virgin is only important to the society when it comes to women b ut nowhere is the definition for men or boys to be a virgin (Jessica Valenti: pg. 335).
Male dominance
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Male ownerships start as soon as the daughter is born by vowing to their fathers that they belong to them until marriage, which is also called “father giving his daughter’s hand to the men that his daughter will marry” (Jessica Valenti: pg. 336). It is all about control, from the day the girl is born, all she does is listen to her family, society, husband, then children and in
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laws, these same rules do not apply to the men and even after sa ying everyone is equal. It is not true, because men can have go out and have other women and they think that it is okay but if their wives do the same, they are called characterless. Women who are adolescent really is another word for “unclean”, it is main ly looking at enjoyment or fulfillment in sex. Whereas liberated women do have pleasure in sex and adolescent only have sex to fulfill their needs. Chapter 4
Kaur
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223).
P ink for women and blue for men, these colors are decided for these two bodies as soon as they are born which is the connection.
Chapter 15
Relationship between hook’s sexual liberation and history of cultures’ construction of sexuality to sexuality is that, society believes in women should be respectful from doing a sexual orientation themselves, they are to wait for their husband’s sexual agreement to have any type of sexual encounter (pg.: 85). Feminist started opposing this and created a movement to demand straight women to enter relationships other than their husbands to experience (pg. 87).
In the history concept, meaning of sex for women has always been to please the other person meaning your husband, not yourself, even i f that means you are not happy. Bell’s hooks pointed out that women should have her own sexual desire
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(pg. 86).
Some women left their husbands to become lesbians, because they were seduced from the movement (pg. 87). Hook’s explained how heterosexual or h omosexual should have the freedom to determine what they want without fearing the society or its norms (pg. 91).
Chapter 12
Feminine muscularity is explained by self
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identity based on self
The values and rules of traditional community add great pressure on an individual 's shoulder while choosing their identity. While women 's have relatively more freedom then before but however values of traditional communities creates an invisible fence between their choices. It put the young women in a disconcerting situation about their sexual freedom. Bell demonstrates the how the contradiction messages are delivered to the young woman 's, she writes that “Their peers, television shows such as Sex and the City, and movies seem to encourage sexual experimentation... But at the same time, books, such as Unhooked and A Return to Modesty advise them to return to courtship practices from the early 1900s”(27).
Male dominance has been prevalent ever since the hunter/gatherer social transformation. It continues to be so, in almost every culture, except of the apparent Amazons. Even today, in our post-Industrial era, males are still more dominant than females, especially in third world countries. The male gender were the ones to become leaders and determiners. They define what is acceptable for a woman ranging from one culture to the next. Whether it is the way a woman should dress, be treated, or how she should behave, it is all decided by the males in society. These decisions vary from female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, to anal sex as the initiation into womanhood, to women being whipping for a man to transition into adulthood.
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
The idea that teenage boys should act a certain way towards females is usually instilled in them at a young age. According to Devor, “ Femininity must be expressed through modes of… action which communicate weakness, dependency, ineffectualness, availability for sexual or emotional service, and sensitivity to the needs of others” (Devor 6-7). In other words, men have to place women on a lower pedestal because of a woman’s so called “needs” (Devor 6). The “needs” that women express are feminine characteristics. The characteristics of females listed by Devor, does not show any sign of power or dominance. Since society believes gender is a patriarchy, females have no influence and need attention. This shows that men adjust their actions around women, since they believe that women need special attention. Furthermore, if a male possesses anything non-masculine,
...gument against pornography is claiming that intercourse is an act of rape, the argument immediately seems outlandish and almost laughable, and it surely seems that way to the average person. People see these examples of radical feminism and attribute those isolated incidents as representative of the entire feminist movement as a whole. Therefore through complexity, the feminist movement lost a substantial amount of its genuine credibility due to perceived extremist views on female sexuality. This, among many other incidents, seems to be the cause of this great reversal in female sexuality in our current day society. Instead of putting an end to pornography, it flourishes. Instead of bringing an end to female objectification, it is often nowadays encouraged. This reversal of feminist ideals is the main cause for the damage to female gender roles in the 21st century.
Looking at our past, there have been dramatic changes in the way humans view sex. Long before the 1900s individuals framed their views based on the religious institution. Due to the fact that they strongly centered their idea of sexual thought on religion, they believed that the only purpose of having sex was to procreate. As the 1920’s approached, there were various factors that changed the way individuals viewed sex. The “new women” known, as flappers were women who were confident in who they were. They changed their attire as well as their social attitude. In the 1920s, the flappers redefined sex; customs and traditions were broken and new norms were created by society.
These are socially constructed ideas passed down through generations. Men have been told from the get go that they are the dominant ones. Women are always told to act like a lady. A woman is also told to make her husband happy, but a man is never told the same thing. Even in pornography, we can see that females are just trying to please men.
Sexuality gained a connection to the truth. This results into the idea that sexuality is a part of identity and a key aspect in understating who we are individual. And all of this is only possible due to the discourse of sexuality, which is determined by social culture and time. However, the idea that sexuality objectively defines who you are is false, because the idea where this is based on, the “repressive hypothesis” also is
To summarize the male control theory: The natural condition of the female is to desire a high amount of sex, including frequent copulations with multiple partners. Men band together to stifle this female sexuality. Men’s motives for doing so could encompass the jealous desire to prevent their mates from having sex with other men. Men are particularly concerned with stifling the sexuality of their wives and other mates.
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.
Sexuality has become one of the key determining factors in one’s gender. While many want to initially say that gender is solely based on sexual orientation fail to take in to account many cultural practices, which not only influence gender, but create certain gender roles. The initial creation of Mexican gender roles, as Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez suggests, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church “over the course of almost five hundred years,” created beliefs that virgins are desirable and that a non-virgin is of a lower moral class (38). From this Mexican women began maintaining their virginity, not because of the moral implications, but because of social mobility. Virginity has been created to be something beautif...
Since its inception, virginity has been used by society to control the actions, behavior, and choices of women. However, virginity continues to be defined by society and not by the individual. Too often, young men and women look to media, religion, and society to define virginity for them, rather than searching inside oneself for what they want it to mean. Truthfully, “virginity is just too subjective to pretend that we can define it” (Valenti, 140). The association between virginity and morality continues to be a major theme in society.
This relates to the discussion of women making decision for their own bodies and their sexuality. The stigma that is put upon women if they have multiple partners is that they are considered “whores” or “sluts.” But men performing the same actions will not be stigmatize with those labels because of the double-standard of oppression placed on women to “act like a lady.” Kleiman describes that the word “woman” is considered a dirty word that needs to be cleaned to become a lady (Kleiman). The meaning of a woman is now represented as a gilded wire that is perceived to become a quiet, submissive
Many look at sexual morality as an unimportant virtue. “Modern people are always saying Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.”(Lewis 98) Lust is the main purpose of the disobeying of this moral outlook. It is a desire everyone is born with and is very difficult to ignore, especially in the adolescent years. “Perversions of the sex instinct are numerous, hard to cure, and frightful.”(Lewis 97) This gives many the thought of is it is a natural instinct its O.K. All temptations should not be given into, such as this one. Lust is the key; it is much easier to give in to Lust than to turn away from it. Life gives us many temptations and it is our job to be strong and determine to prevail over temptation.
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.