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 …show more content…
On the other hand, the idea of what is expected of a women on a personal level still remains a mystery because of the bombardment of information that is being thrown at women by the mainstream media. For example, the movie "Kill Bill" portrays women who are not as innocent and vulnerable as they seem and are capable of deciding their own destiny and not allow themselves to be held down by standards that were put in place by society. These women portrayed in the movie are able to fulfill their own desires and do not depend on anyone else to fulfill said desires. However, when women see the movie "Twilight," they get the idea that men have control over their lives and shows how much women need men in order to survive. Therefore, one can argue that women view sex as a much more complicated act than a pleasurable one since the act of sex can be seen as both a weakness and strength in …show more content…
Bell notes that in an attempt to fulfill these desires, they employ different "strategies of desire." While some women, such as Claudia, worried that "her strong sexual desires might get into her trouble," (Bell 23), Jayanthi believed that it was an empowering feeling to have these desires and attempt to fulfill them. One common theme that the women had in this passage was that they felt their sexual desires were too strong. They felt that "a man or a relationship couldn 't withstand their strong sexual desire." (Bell 30) The fact that these women feel so hesitant when it comes to these tendencies makes things much more complicated since they are too afraid to take any chances or risks. Furthermore, when they do decide to act on their sexual desires in an attempt to fulfill them, they go for men who are not compatible with them and go for men that would not be approved by their families. For example, both Alicia and Jayanthi go after African American men because they both know that nothing romantic or serious will materialize after they have sex. One can easily see that these women are almost constantly employing various strategies in an attempt to fulfill their desires, but still have a difficult time fulfilling them. Alicia and Jayanthi both tend to reevaluate themselves nearly all the time and ask themselves why they keep
Since the dawn of man, sex has played a crucial role in society. Before they learned to read or write humans were engaging in sex and without it none of us would be here. In today’s society, sex has grown to become much more complicated. If I were to ask a group of people on the street what they believed sex was? I bet they would have a hard time answering. The question puzzling society today is how do we define sex? Can we define sex? These are questions raised in Tracy Steele’s article “Doing it: The Social Construction of S-E-X”. This article is about the current questions and issues that have been raised about sex within today’s society. In this paper I will summarize the key points of the article, while sharing my own thoughts and opinions of Steele’s findings.
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
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
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...
...am Victorian society, sexual liberalism transformed the ways in which people arranged their private lives. Shifting from a Victorian environment of production, separate sexual spheres, and the relegation of any illicit extramarital sex to an underworld of vice, the modern era found itself in a new landscape of consumerism, modernism and inverted sexual stereotypes. Sexuality was now being discussed, systemized, controlled, and made an object of scientific study and popular discourse. Late nineteenth-century views on "natural" gender and sexuality, with their attendant stereotypes about proper gender roles and proper desires, lingered long into the twentieth century and continue, somewhat fitfully, to inform the world in which we live. It is against this cultural and political horizon that an understanding of sexuality in the modern era needs to be contextualized.
White, Valerie. "Sex talk." The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 2012: 5. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
In the world today, people are encouraged to value the family. Incorporated with a family is sex. A portion of females in our society today, are brought up to cherish their virtue and taught that sex is a very sacred and special thing that should be only shared with the one you love. Unfortunately, with so much resting on the importance of sex and love people may be come infatuated with it and sometimes even obsessed. “Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge had but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorse’s, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty – they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?” (Huxley 41). This suggests the way of living in the World state sees love, romance and sex as a flaw in our society today. However their mistakes of such assumptions are represented in misfits who do not share the same instincts as the other citizens of the state.
While sex and sexuality are considered to be two of the most intensely private parts of a person’s existence, a woman's personal sexuality and experience of the sexual in the context of the greater society is not always her own. "[Women] are being imprinted with a sexuality that is mass-produced, deliberately dehumanizing and inhuman"(Wolf, 162). Our sexuality is being created for us before we even have the knowledge that we have something to fight for. Very often, we do not get to decide what our sexuality means, the world has already decided for us. And one aspect of female sexuality that has had been most intensely labeled is masturbation. So my questions are, what cues are women really picking up about their sexuality? How do women create their own sense of sexuality independent of these cultural norms and dictations? My goals in exploring female masturbation as a symbol of female sexuality and its relationship to women and to society are multi-layered. In this paper, I plan to outline the theoretical history of the taboo on female masturbation as it relates to female sexuality as a whole. I also plan to discuss the way that several women are experiencing and negotiating their sexuality now. In addressing each of these issues, I hope to present a better understanding of how the sexuality of women is affected and the way that women then manage the internalization of these cultural expectations and how they experience and conceive of their sexuality as a result.
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.
The World Controllers have turned sex into another form of consumable amusement, like Electro-Magnetic Golf or going to see the feelies. Libertine attitudes towards sex are ingrained in the citizens minds, first from their lessons, such as “Elementary Sex”, and then reinforced throughout their upbringing(27). It is seen as abnormal and concerning when a little boy seems “rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play,” because now children are expected to be sexually active. Because “every one belongs to every one else,” there are no longer bonds of love or desire to bring two people together, and sex is not a bonding act between two individuals, but an easily encountered form of amusement(40). Nobody has to live in desire unfulfilled. Bernard recognizes the flaw in this system of conduct, saying, “we went to bed together yesterday— like infants— instead of being adults and waiting” (94). Like with many things, an unlimited supply of sexual activity and partners lowers its value. This more mature decision to wait is overruled by their baser desires and inescapable hypnopaedic conditioning wrought upon them without their consent in their childhood
THERE’s much more to sex than the genitals, seeing someone bare or even the most common goal of sex – an orgasm. Sex experts will tell you that sex is intimacy; it is opening yourselves to spiritual mingling, exposing and exploring your sexual desires. But these are sometimes hindered by social constructions of sexual behaviour – the taboos, the myths and misinformation can sometimes make something as natural as sex very complex.
How does 'sexuality' come into being, and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life on a more general plane? In answering these questions, Anthony Giddens disputes many of the interpretations of the role of sexuality in our culture. The emergence of what he calls plastic sexuality, which is sexuality freed from its original relation of reproduction, is analyzed in terms of the long-term development of the modern social order and social influences of the last few decades. Giddens argues that the transformation of intimacy, in which women have played the major part, holds out the possibility of a society that is very traditional. "This book will appeal to a large general audience as well as being essential reading for those students in sociology and theory."(Manis 1)
Luce Irigaray, ’ article, “This Sex Which is Not one,” can be succinctly summarized by the following key points. First, the author mentions the way women are seen in the western philosophical discourse and in psychoanalytic theory. She also talks about the women’s sexuality in many ways. ”Female sexuality has always been concepualtized on the basis of masculine parameters.” Women are seen in qualitatively rather than quantitatively. “Must this multiplicity of female desire and female language be understood as shards, scattered remnants of a violated sexuality? A sexually denied?” Freud mentions that the clitoris is a small penis. The female parts are always seen as a commodity for men. Women don’t need men’s object to pleasure themselves