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CHAPTER 7
Sexuality
Chapter Outline
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Perspectives on Sexuality: An Overview
Biological and Social Views of Sexuality
Sex Versus Gender
Sociological Perspectives on Sexuality and
Sexual Institutions
Perspectives on Sexuality
Perspective
Key Focus
Biological
The unique aspects of human
sexuality, and how biological nature
shapes social behavior.
How societies try to control the
Functionalist sexuality of their members through
cultural norms or institutions.
Perspectives on Sexuality
Perspective
Conflict
Key Focus
Why sexuality can be a source of
conflict and how power impacts
sexual behavior.
How people conduct their sexual
lives through interactions with
Interactionist
others. How sexuality shapes
behavior and body image.
Perspectives on Sexuality
Perspective
Global
Feminist
Key Focus
Whether universal norms of human
rights can supersede cultural norms
that oppress women.
Sex Characteristics
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Primary sex
characteristics
are the male and
female genitals.
Secondary sex
characteristics
are physical and
behavioral
features, other
than the genitalia,
that differ in males
and females.
Sex versus Gender
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Sex
 The
biological differences between
males and females.
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Gender
 Culturally
defined ways of acting as a
male or a female that become part of an
individual's personal sense of self.
Sexuality
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Sexuality - the way a person engages in
intimate behaviors connected with genital
stimulation, orgasm, and procreation.
Influenced by cultural norms and social
institutions as well as by social structures like
the class system of a society.
Cultural norms exerting social control over
sexuality include the incest taboo, marriage,
and heterosexuality.
Terminology of Mating
Systems
The Sexual Revolution
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Prehistoric cave paintings in Europe drawn by
preliterate humans over 12,000 years ago
depict the use of primitive condoms.
Declines in births in England during the
Industrial Revolution were the result of
abstinence and delayed marriage.
The Sexual Revolution
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Widespread use of birth control in the second
half of the 20th century separated sexual
behavior from reproduction.
With improved condoms and the development
of the birth control pill, men and women were
able to engage in sex without worrying about
unwanted pregnancies.
The Sexual Revolution
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Changes in reproductive technologies, sexual
attitudes, and behaviors contributed to a
relaxation of norms governing sexuality.
In the 1980s, the spread of AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases caused
increased public concern about responsibility
in sexual relations.
Heterosexuality, Homosexuality,
and Bisexuality
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Sexual orientation refers to an emotional,
romantic, sexual, or affectional attraction a
person feels toward another person.
Heterosexuality is sexual orientation toward
members of the opposite sex.
Homosexuality is sexual orientation toward
members of the same sex.
Bisexuality is sexual orientation toward
members of either sex.
% Males and Females Who Ever
Had Same Sex Contact
Any
Females
Any
All males
15–44 years
6
All Females
15–44 years
11.2
15–19 years
4.5
15–19 years
10.6
20–24 years
5.5
20–24 years
14.2
25–44 years
6.5
25–44 years
10.7
% Females Who Ever Had Specified
Type of Opposite Sex Contact
Any
All females
15–44 years
15–19 years
20–24 years
25–44 years
Vaginal
Oral
Intercourse Sex
Anal
Sex
91.7
89.2
82
30
63.3
91.3
98.4
53
87.3
98.2
54.3
83
88.3
10.9
29.6
34.7
Prostitution: A Functionalist Explanation
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Sociologist Kingsley Davis began writing about
prostitution in the 1930s.
Prostitution: A Functionalist Explanation
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He argued that prostitution provides
alternatives for men who are not sexually
fulfilled in their marriages, or who want sexual
activity with multiple women.
Karl Marx viewed prostitution as a form of
capitalism in which people sell their labor to
those who own the means of production.
Rape and Power
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Sociologists have long associated rape with
control and power.
The FBI estimates that a rape occurs every
5.6 minutes in the U.S.
The two most important forms of rape are
1.
2.
Rape of a woman by a man seeking to satisfy
his personal desires and exert his power.
Rape carried out in situations of warfare, where
it may be designed to intimidate the enemy.
Sexual Scripts
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Sexual Scripts - include ideas and fantasies about
what our sexual experiences should or could be
like.
Three kinds of sexual scripts:
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1- Cultural scenarios are collective ideas about
sexual goals, proper behaviors, and outcomes.
2- Intrapsychic sexual scripts are fantasies about
how we would like to have sex and with whom.
3- Interpersonal scripts are developed between or
among specific groups of people as ways of being
sexual with each other.
Globalization Of Sexual Commerce
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Sex tourism is associated with globalization
and the growth of cities in the Third World.
Families may sell their children into sex trades,
children who are orphaned may prostitute
themselves as a means of survival.
Feminist intellectuals and social scientists
emphasize how closely related sexual violence
and exploitation are to global gender
inequality.
QUICK QUIZ
1. Just what constitutes masculine behavior, as
opposed to feminine behavior, is
a.
b.
c.
d.
more a matter of gender than sex.
evident by the fact that all men engage in it.
universally defined as the same, regardless of
time and place.
never really apparent to people within a society
because of their tendency to engage in
ethnocentric thinking.
Answer: a
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Just what constitutes masculine
behavior, as opposed to feminine
behavior, is more a matter of
gender than sex.
2. In terms of global gender inequality, women
a. do far more work than men.
b. receive roughly half of all income.
c. are far less likely than men to be poor.
d. now own most of the world's private
property.
Answer: a
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In terms of global gender inequality,
women do far more work than
men.
3. American women have less than men in
the way of economic resources because
they
a.
b.
c.
d.
generally do not work as hard as men.
are far more apt than men to be in poverty.
generally do not wish to have these resources
as much as do men.
have had fewer occupational opportunities
and have been largely channeled into
traditional gender roles.
Answer : d
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American women have less than men in the
way of economic resources because they
have had fewer occupational opportunities
and have been largely channeled into
traditional gender roles.