HDE 12 MT1

Sexual Literacy

Knowledge and skills needed to promote and protect sexual well-being

Sexual well being

Condition of experiencing good health, pleasure, and satisfaction in intimate relationships.

Holistic sexuality

Integration of body, mind, feelings, and social life through sexuality

Goals of Sexual literacy (4)

1) Know yourself as a whole person better
2) Communicate emotionally
3) Help people better understand each other
4) Know what science and research tell us about sexuality

How to become sexually literate (4)

1) Help to improve society by supporting diversity and dignity.
2) Understand how context, in terms of both nature and culture contribute to sexuality
3) Talk about your own culture's sexual attitudes
4) Have the knowledge and skills to protect your sexual health throughout life

Four elements essential to achieving sexual well-being:

1) Pleasure
2) Purpose
3) Protection
4) Focus

Sexual science

Study of sexual behavior across the human species, all cultures, and individuals

- Initially, sexual science was plagued with perceptions that sex was mostly diseased and abnormal.

Sexology

Systematic study of sexual interests, functions, and behaviors as an extension of medicine

Sexual degeneracy

Impairment or decline of sexual function.

Code of silence

In the U.S. there exists a sort of code of silence when it comes to sexual health and education, especially with respect to issues such as: teen pregnancy, homosexuality, and reproductive decisions.
- we hope to veer away from this code of silence and more towards sound public policy.

Benefits of correctly applied sex research (4)

1) Lower STI rates
2) Lower rates of unintended pregnancy
3) Better mental and physical health regarding sexual behavior
4) Higher level of sexual well-being

Interdisciplinary perspective

Holistic integration of research in different disciplines to describe and explain all of sexuality

Interdisciplinary research goals (3)

1) Better understand human behavior related to sexuality
2) Predict the behavior of others related to sexuality
3) Influence laws and policies regarding behavior related to sexuality

Ethics of sexual research must ensure (4)

1) All data collected is anonymous
2) Participants are of legal age
3) Authenticate participants' attitudes, experiences, are truthful as reported in terms of their age, ethnicity, and gender
4) Ensure no harm is done to participants

Research designs (two main approaches)

1) Quantitative
2) Qualitative

Quantitative research

Focus on sample design, large representative or random samples. Numerical data, or data that can be easily tabulated and analyzed.

Qualitative research

Focus on meaning and context, with small or nonrandom samples, or both.

Common approaches to data collection: (5)

1) Case study
2) Surveys
3) Interviews
4) Direct observation
5) Experiments

Case study

Researcher studies a single individual or very small group in depth.
- gather data by analyzing medical records, journals, diaries, or other historical records of the individual or small group being studied
Disadvantages:
- Hard to generalize to the larger population
- Retrospective self-report
- Retrospective bias

Surveys and interviews

Researchers use surveys to identify the knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors of a large group of people

Types of surveys:
- questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, telephone, internet-based

Advantage: Researcher can build rapport with each individual

Disadvantage: They can be costly to conduct

Questionnaires

Advantage:
- Less costly than face-to-face interviews, because they can be given to large groups of people.
- They can assure anonymity, meaning the responses may be honest

Direct observation

Researcher has the opportunity to observe natural behaviors in context as they occur.

Advantage:
- eliminates the possibility of falsification

Disadvantage:
- Self selection- because people who are uncomfortable to engage in such private parts of the study most likely will not engage.

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Collecting information that honors, centers, and reflects the experiences of people most directly affected by issues in their communities.

Methods for gathering PAR (5)

1) Community-based surveys
2) Group discussions and individual interviews
3) Community art projects
4) Photo or video documentation
5) Storytelling and oral history

Human sexual rights (5)

1) Teach and learn about sex
2) Respect people's bodies
3) Be sexually active or not
4) Choose when and how to have their children
5) Pursue sexual pleasure in a safe and satisfying way.

Three aspects of the sexual triangle

1) Species (share all similarites)
2) Culture (may share some similarities)
3) Individuality (completely unique)
- these all affect the unique traits that characterize our sexuality.

Sexuality and the bonobo

- Share 98% of our genes
- 75% of sex is recreational
- matriarchal society
- Females have orgasms
- Have offspring once every 5-6 years

Sexual nature through culture

Norms: Cultural rules about acceptable behaviro

Human package for evolution (3)

1) Brain
2) Language
3) Culture

Human sexual nature

Combination of human culture and human nature working together to produce sexual behavior

Pair bonding and benefits

Sexual and romantic association between two people.
Benefits: Having norms regarding sex and marriage prevented fighting among males inside the froup over competition over females.

Characteristics that uniquely contribute to human sexual behavior (8)

1) At birth, human brain is not fully developed and will develop very quickly the first 3 years as culutre is learned
2) Humans have larger brains than other species
3) Humans utilize language and symbols
4) Humans create and share culture
5) Humans utilize and create tools
6) Humans have a unique sense of self
7) Humans have a finite sense of time, and knowledge of mortality
8) Humans have deeply held beliefs on ultimate concerns, life, death, immortality whihc is th ebasis of culture and religion

Earliest known representation of female sexual fertility:

Painting of female genitals in Chauvet cave

Spirituality

Individual's inner sense of having deep values, a spiritual path, or belief in ultimate reality

Sexual culture

Distinct sexual meanings and practices of a group

Great world religions (5)

Religions that have followings around the world, have roots in traditionally holy texts, and have changed the course of history:
1) Hinduism
2) Buddhism
3) Judaism
4) Christianity
5) Islam

Roman Empire and sexual history

Emperor augustus: all sex with slaves, prostitutes, and same-sex relationships were outlawed
- In christianity, certain sex-negative ideas were introduced, including views about sin and the dangers of the female body

Greeks, Rome, and Christianity

- Sexual pleasure with restraint
- Gods were considered highly sexual

Asian Civilization: INDIA

Female fertility and mutual sexual satisfaction for both men and women took on greater meaning than elsewhere in Asia where Hinduism took hold.

Asian Civilization: CHINA

Traditional culture included sexual practices designed to heal the body, infuse energy and strength into the organs, and complete the yin and yang powers of men and women.

Muslims valued (4)

1) Male sexual honor
2) Female virginity before marriage
3) Gender segregation
4) Sexual purity of children

Puritans

Christian-sect renowned for having prudish sexual practices.

Puritanism

Morally upright and socially strict beliefs and practices of the Puritans: influence how America has viewed nudity, premarital sex, extramarital sex, virginity, and pornography.

Symbolic boundary

Divides people according to their religious beliefs about what are good and bad sexual behaviors.

Radical inclusion

New sexual and cultural norm that grants everyone the right to be a member of a religious community regardless of color, gender, sexual identity, or any other characteristic.

Chivalry

- 19th century
- Code of Christian knights that focused on purity of heart and body, chastity for females, and honor in war.

Victorian Era

Women were expected to be submissive, motherly, and asexual. They were much different behind closed doors.

Companionate Marriage

Cultural idea that man and women are not just sex partners, but also social and intellectual companions and equals for life.
- saw an increase in premarital sex around this era around WWII

What happened during WWII

Women became factory workers, bank tellers, and airplane mechanics.

Important 20th century dates (3)

1963- Birth control pill becomes a readily available form of contraception.

1971- The gay liberation movement gained momentum

1981- Aids began to take its toll claiming the lives of thousands of gay men in the U.S.

Sexual norm

Standard of sexual behavior expected of people in a particular role, relationship, and situation

Sexual socialization

Application of the culture's blueprints to sexual feelings

Polygamy

Marriage between one man and more than one woman at the same time "sister wives TV show"

Cultural Relativism

Viewing of people's attitudes and behavior in the context of their own culture

Cultural Chauvinism

Belief that one's cultural norms are superior to the norms of another group

Sexual Chauvinism

Belief that one's sexual culture is superior to others.

Sex-approving

Culturally supportive of positive attitudes toward sexual expression and behavior

Sex- Disapproving

Negative cultural attitudes toward sexual expression and behavior

Sexual individuality

Unique expression of an individual's most basic sexual needs and attraction.
- based on individual's body anatomy, DNA, hormones, orientation, fantasies, feelings, behaviors, and relationships

Sexual unlearning

Process of unlearning something about sexuality that may have been learned at a very young age.
- especially difficult for older generations.

Transgender

A person who expresses gender behaviors that vary from the norm; self-identification as women, man, neither sex, or both sexes does not match their assigned sex, which was identified by others as XY or XX.

Shared Sexual images

Content that contains explicit or hidden sexual messages, whether real or imagined, visual or auditory

Sexual consumerism

The use of sexuality to market and sell products to consumers

Social Networking Sites (SNSs)

Sites that allow people to form online relationships, for business and pleasure, extending networks that encompass friends and sexual and romantic interests.

Sexting

Sharing highly explicit sexual images of oneself through the internet to express sexual individuality

Virtual sex

Sexual activity through online communication

Hooking up

Meeting a partner online or in a physical setteing for a casual sexual encounter outside of a romantic or committed relationship.

Avatar

An online representation or alter ego for someone playing a game.
- Connects virtual sexuality to nature, spirituality , and falling in love.

Pornography

Involves sexual images being sold for any personal titillation; any form of media used to create sexual arousal, especially for commercial use.

Soft Pornography

Nude images that do not depict any form of penetrative sex.

Hard Pornography

Nude images that do depict penetrative sex and raw sexual interactions between adults

Kinky sex

A form of sexual interaction that may involve pain, ritual rules, and pushing sexuality to the extreme.

Pornification

Turning popular culture sexual images into porn even those that are not pornographic

4 ways sexual content in the media has transformed society

1) Making private sexual imagery PUBLIC
2) More EXPLICIT sexual images are now shared in public.
3) Sex TALK is acceptable in everyday conversations
4) Sex in pop culture has TRANSFORMED public attitudes about sexuality as a whole

Forms of media that have a significant impact on sexual socialization

1) Internet
2) Music
3) Advertisement
4) TV
5) Social media

Internet facts

- 75-80% of all Americans have access to the internet.
- China has 125 million users
- 31% of teens have search about topics such as sex and drugs
- Allows worldwide access to pornography
- Provides a safe, neutral environment for people to experiment and embrace their sexual desires which otherwise would not be accepted

Social Networking sites have three main characteristics

1) Allow people to construct public or semipublic profiles
2) Offer a list of other users with whom people share a connection
3) Allow people to view other people's networks

Six areas Gays and Lesbians use the internet to help develop

1) Identity
2) Sex
3) Intimate relationships
4) Coming out
5) Community
6) Freindship

Benefits of the internet and sexual socialization

- People may enhance their sexual individuality
- The anonymity of the internet has made it a sager, more neutral area for people to learn about sex and explore their sexuality
- Individuals can locate others who have similar sexual desires and create their own online communities.

Risks of online sexuality (6)

1) Distorting personal boundaries
2) Online pornography
3) Factuality of online information
4) Authenticity of people online
5) Ability to detect fakery
6) Sexual predators and pedophiles

Aspects of virtual sexual identity online (3)

1) Time- can be in two places or more at the same time.
2) Space- can be in multiple places around the globe simultaneously
3) Sexual individuality- Allows people to change their sexual individuality if they want to, can create multiple identities if they want to

What do men look for when looking for matches online

- Women with education

What do women look for when looking for matches online

- Want to be equals with their man, in terms of being career oriented, intelligent, and emotionally available.

Pornography Industry facts

- Global industry is worth $56 billion
- First mass produced in the late 1800's
- 420 million pornographic web pages on the internet
- 68 million porn searches daily
- $3,075.64 is spent on porn every second

Hardcore porn became the focus of three things

1) Publicized censoship battles and lawsuits
2) Government commission on pornography
3) Court decisions that upheld the right to publish hard core pornography by virtue of the 1st amendment.

What does F.A.M.E stand for and when was it started

Fans of Adult Media and Entertainment
- developed in 2006

4 things that draws people to play online games:

1) Science Fiction
2) Market products
3) Fantasy
4) Socialize

What percentage of teenagers use social media to view photographs, home videos, and personal opinions?

73%

Shared sexual images can be: (4)

1) imagined
2) auditory
3) visual
4) real

The mass media's depiction of sexuality is meant primarily to:

Entertain and Exploit

Internet boundaries allow individuals to

1) Check to see if limits we impose on ourselves and on others are accurate
2) Check whether our reactions to others are reasonable
3) Help know what is unique about our own sexual individuality

Thelarche

First stage of breast production

Menarchy

- First female period
- Secretory glands form at the end of the milk ducts

Estrogen

Hormone that produces female reproductive and secondary sex characteristics.
- Impact the functioning of the menstrual cycle

Female Genital Mutilation

Female circumcision: Removal or shortening of the clitoris.
- may involve sewing the labia together to prevent sexual intercourse or the rupture of the hymen

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)- Performing female circumcision without antiseptic or anesthesia.
- Traditional procedure associated with the transition from being a girl to a women.

Gonads

Glands that make sex hormones and reproductive cells.
1) Testis in males
2) Ovaries in females

Testosterone

Steroid hormone
- Organizes male reproduction
- Produces secondary sex characteristics in males
- Impacts sexual functioning in both sexes. Responsible for the libido of both sexes.

Neuropeptide hormones

Influences the emotional aspects of sexuality, including attraction and arousal.
Ex) Oxytocin- responsible for falling in love, butterflies, attraction, connection etc.. Also responsible for contractions during childbirth.

Oxytocin

Influences feelings of erotic attraction and love
- Facilitates the flow of milk during breastfeeding
- Elevates our feelings of love and attraction as we cuddle
- Helps form strong emotional bonds with those to whom we're close
- Responsible for contractions during childbirth

At what age does menstruation begin?

Secular trend: Average age has declined steadily from 17 to 12 years of age.
- May have to do with the presence of more body fat, fat contains estrogen
- nutrition
- Inheritance