Sexuality Lecture Notes Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes about sexuality, laws, religion, norms, sexual victimization, consent, sexual assault, rape myths, stalking, harassment, child sexual abuse, female and male anatomy, menstruation, sexual response, LGBTQIA+, gender, love, and sexual problems.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

A discriminatory policy that faced resistance and legal challenges.

Defense of Marriage Act

A discriminatory act that faced resistance and legal challenges.

Judaism

Considers sexual activity natural and holy (due to procreation).

Greeks and Romans

Believed the only proper human being is a free, adult, gender-conforming, fully reproductive intact man.

Christianity

Permits sexual intercourse only if procreation is the intent and within marriage.

Victorian Era

Emphasized sexual restraint, especially for women, as a cornerstone of morality.

Double Standards

Prohibits premarital sex for women but promotes it for men.

Sigmund Freud

Emphasized the influence of sexuality on behavior.

Henry Havelock Ellis

Studied nocturnal emission (wet dreams).

Alfred Kinsey

Began the scientific study of sexual behaviors through questionnaires.

Masters & Johnson

Observed and recorded the physiological response in humans.

Evelyn Hooker

Argued that homosexuality was not a mental illness.

Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM)

An approach promoted by the U.S. government as part of 'welfare reform' in the 1990s.

Correlation

Relationship between two or more variables.

Experimental Research

Uses two sets of variables.

Consent

Both parties are aware of what’s going on; silence does NOT equal consent.

Sexual Coercion

When someone pressures, uses drugs or alcohol, or forces sexual contact with a person against his/her/their will.

Sexual Assault

Any violent or nonconsensual act involving physical contact of a sexual nature.

Rape

Legally defined as anal or vaginal penetration with any body part or object or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without consent.

Stranger Rape

Committed by someone the victim does not know.

Acquaintance Rape

Perpetrator is a friend or an acquaintance of the victim.

Date Rape

Some sexual interactions but one person continues sexual penetration against the will of the other person.

Statutory Rape

Partner is legally unable to give consent on account of young age, intellectual disability, or unconsciousness.

Rape Myths

False beliefs about sexual assault, such as victims provoking attacks or making false accusations.

Stalking

A pattern of unwanted attention that causes a person to feel fear.

Sexual Harassment

Conduct that is sexual in nature and unwelcome.

Child Sexual Abuse

Sexual activity with a child by an adult, adolescent or older child.

Sex-Positivity

Contains outdated beliefs that prioritized male pleasure and societal norms and limited research downplayed female sexual pleasure and orgasm.

Clitoris

The small and elongated erectile structure in women that develops from the same embryonic tissue as the penis.

Vulva

Refers to outside female genitals.

Vagina

Refers to internal female anatomy.

Uterus

Hollow, muscular organ that is located in the female pelvis between the bladder and the rectum.

Fallopian Tubes

Connect the ovaries to the uterus.

Ovaries

Produce hormones and release eggs.

Gynecological Cancer

Cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal, fallopian tube cancer.

Penis

Passes sperm, urination.

Scrotum

The pouch that sits beneath the penis and contains the testicles.

Testicles

Produce sperm as well as male hormones.

Vas Deferens

Transports sperm out of the male body.

Seminal Vesicles

Contribute many of the substances to the semen.

Prostate Gland

Surrounds the origins of the urethra and is at the neck of the bladder, contributes to the remaining 30% of those substances.

Chromosomes

Contain genetic information that determine a person’s inherited characteristics.

Hormones

testosterone must be produced at a crtiical period (within first two months after conception) during embryonic development for that XY combination to have male anatomy.

Gonads

Internal reproductive organs, will become either testes in the male reproductive system or ovaries in the female reproductive system.

Wolffian

Found in embryos that if allowed to develop, will become the male reproductive system.

Mullerian

Found in embryos that if allowed to develop will become the female reproductive system.

SRY Gene

Is what triggers the transformation of those primitive gonads into the testicles during the seventh week of prenatal development.

Intersex

Refers to people who without medical intervention, develop primary and secondary sex characteristics that do not fit neatly into society’s definitions of male or female.

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

Affects growth and development in infants, ambiguous genitalia in females and enlarged penis in males.

Androgen Insensitivity

Condition in which the testicles release normal amounts of testosterone during embryonic development but the tissues do not respond to it.

Menstrual Cycle

Refers to the regular changes that occur in the activity of the ovaries and the endometrium that make reproduction possible.

Menstruation

Shedding of the uterine lining and contains bleeding.

Follicular Phase

Time between the first day of the period and ovulation, estrogen rises and an egg prepares to be released from the ovaries.

Proliferative Phase

After the period the uterine lining begins to build up again.

Luteal Phase

Time between ovulation and before the start of menstruation when the boy prepares for possible pregnancy.

Secretory Phase

The uterine lining produces chemicals that will either help support an early pregnancy or will prepare the lining to break down and shut itself.

Amenorrhea

Absence of menstruation (can be temporary).

PMS

Includes changes in hormones and can cause mood swings, food cravings fatigue.

Dysmenorrhea

Severe and frequent menstrual cramps.

Menorrhagia

Menstrual bleeding that last more than seven days and can also be heavy bleeding.

Endometriosis

The tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus.

Toxic Shock Syndrome

Threatening complication of certain bacterial infections.

Orgasm Gap

The fact that during heterosexual sexual encounters the men are having more orgasms than women.

Sexual Desire

The motivational component of sexuality (urge, wish, desire to engage in sex).

Sexual Arousal

The experience of sexual excitement in the body.

FGM

Altering or injuring female genitalia for non-medical or cultural reasons.

Lust

Desire for sexual gratification.

Attraction

Involves the brain pathways that control our reward behavior.

Attachment

The prevailing factor in a long-term relationship.

BDSM

A subset of kink — which stands for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism is included.

Sodomy Laws

Laws criminalizing certain non-reproductive sexual acts.

Heterosexual

Physical and emotional attraction to people of the opposite gender.

Heterosexism

The assumption that heterosexuality is the norm.

Sexual Orientation

Pattern of sexual attraction, one that makes people desire sexual contact or show sexual interests in others.

Lesbian

A woman who is attracted to other women.

Gay

A term for men who are attracted to other men.

Pansexual

Relating to or characterized by sexual desire or attraction that is not limited to people of a particular gender, identity, or sexual orientation

Asexual

Broadly refers to someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction or desire for sex.

Queer

A term that encompasses any identity that falls outside of being cisgender, an umbrella term for anything that falls outside cisgender heterosexual individual.

Sexual Fluidity

For some people, sexual orientation and identity are not rigid, are not continuous through their lives and they can change over time.

Gender

Social, construct of femininity and masculinity, used to differentiate between aspects of masculine and feminine from the biological aspects.

Gender Identity

Subjective sense of self as male, female, or non-binary.

Cis-gender

Someone whose identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth.

Transgender

Someone who identifies as a gender different from the gender assigned at birth.

Agender

A person who does not identify with any gender but may still present as masculine, feminine, androgynous or neither.

Bigender

Someone who identifies with more than one gender.

Transition

Can refer to any the medical, social, legal, spiritual personal processes that a trans person may go through in order to live their life in a way that works for their gender.

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Love Styles

Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Agape and Mania are all considered.

Pragma

Practical consideration, treats relationships like partnerships or arrangements.

Agape

Love as self sacrifice, generosity, taking care of someone else

Mania

Worshiping and needing a partner to reinforce one own’s identity

Abortion

Termination of pregnancy

Early Childhood Sexuality

(Birth - 3 years): Learns love and trust through touching and holding

Adolescent Sexuality

(12 - 18 years): Puberty continues, menstruation/sperm production

Youth Sexuality

(19 - 31 years): Sexual activity and masturbation possible

Adult Sexuality

(31 - 45 years): Partner selection, relationship maintenance, parenting responsibilities

Sex Work

Sex workers are individuals who receive money or goods in exchange for consensual sexual services or erotic performances.

Reciprocal IVF

A process that allows both partners in a same-sex relationship to participate biologically in a pregnancy.

Teratogens

Any substance that can harm a developing embryo or fetus.