1.
Chapter One Perspectives on Human Sexuality

2.
Sexuality in Popular Culture Is Shaped by the Mass Media, So We Should Ask: <ul><li>What kinds of sexuality are portrayed by the media? </li></ul><ul><li>What messages about sexuality are sent? </li></ul><ul><li>Who are the messages intended for? </li></ul><ul><li>What messages are ignored or avoided? </li></ul><ul><li>What shapes the selection by the media? </li></ul>

3.
Mass Media Portrayals of Sexuality Occur in Multiple Forms <ul><li>Television </li></ul><ul><li>Movies </li></ul><ul><li>Music </li></ul><ul><li>Magazines, tabloids, books </li></ul><ul><li>Hand held technology </li></ul><ul><li>World Wide Web </li></ul><ul><li>Advertising </li></ul>

4.
Media Portrayals of Sexuality: <ul><li>Sell products </li></ul><ul><li>Produce sexual arousal </li></ul><ul><li>Increase sexual behavior </li></ul><ul><li>Provide sexual information </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Correct or incorrect </li></ul></ul>

5.
Media Effects Live by: <ul><li>Keeping sexual behavior visible </li></ul><ul><li>Reinforcing sexual and relationship norms </li></ul><ul><li>Including irresponsible models </li></ul>

6.
Mass-media Depictions Are Meant to Entertain, Not Inform <ul><ul><li>Rarely present reality scenarios </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Perpetuate the status quo </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Create a social context by defining: </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>What behaviors are appropriate </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>With whom they are appropriate </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Why they are appropriate </li></ul></ul></ul>

7.
Television <ul><li>Increasing exposure </li></ul><ul><li>Increasing sexual content </li></ul><ul><li>Rare presentation of risk </li></ul><ul><li>Rare presentation of responsible action </li></ul><ul><li>Unrealistic presentation of sexuality </li></ul>

8.
Television <ul><li>FCC regulation of public airwaves </li></ul><ul><li>Enforces regulations via fines </li></ul><ul><li>Responds to public grievances </li></ul><ul><li>Does not regulate cable </li></ul><ul><li>Parental responsibility </li></ul>

9.
Television Genres <ul><li>Comedy series </li></ul><ul><li>Soap Operas </li></ul><ul><li>Crime/action-adventure programs </li></ul><ul><li>Drama series </li></ul><ul><li>Commercials </li></ul><ul><li>Music videos </li></ul><ul><li>Games </li></ul><ul><li>Other </li></ul>

10.
Television Genres Emphasize Different Types of Content <ul><li>Comedy series – Taboos </li></ul><ul><li>Soap Operas – Sexual transgressions </li></ul><ul><li>Crime/action – Sexual variation </li></ul><ul><li>Drama series – Situations </li></ul>

11.
Television Genres Emphasize Different Types of Content (cont.) <ul><li>Commercials – Attitudes </li></ul><ul><li>Music Videos – Individual expression </li></ul><ul><li>Games – Exploitation & aggression </li></ul><ul><li>Other – Variations </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Note absence of risk or responsibility </li></ul></ul>

12.
Feature Length Films <ul><li>Sexy content </li></ul><ul><li>Nudity </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Sexual double standard </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Vulnerability </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Rare presentations of risk or responsibility </li></ul></ul>

13.
GLBT People in the media <ul><li>Historically absent from mainstream films </li></ul><ul><li>Historically presented stereotypically </li></ul><ul><li>New trend to present GLBT in positive ways </li></ul>

14.
Online Sexual Activities <ul><li>Global </li></ul><ul><li>Cybersex </li></ul><ul><li>Online sex Web sites/chat rooms </li></ul><ul><li>Meet new partners </li></ul><ul><li>Safety </li></ul>

15.
Triple A Engine <ul><li>Access </li></ul><ul><li>Affordability </li></ul><ul><li>Anonymity </li></ul>

16.
Cybersex <ul><li>Real time event involving two persons </li></ul><ul><li>engaging in sexual talk for the purpose of </li></ul><ul><li>sexual gratification </li></ul>

17.
Online Sexual Activities Effect on Culture <ul><li>Crosses distance </li></ul><ul><li>Promotes intimacy without physical contact </li></ul><ul><li>Creates a new level of plasticity and expression </li></ul><ul><li>Positive for expression of under represented groups </li></ul><ul><li>Negative if it becomes compulsive or addictive </li></ul>

18.
Dial-a-Porn <ul><ul><li>Commercial telephone sex lines that enable the caller to anonymously “talk dirty” with someone </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Phone worker is paid to respond to the caller’s fantasies </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Creates a sense of “pseudo-intimacy” with the voice </li></ul></ul>

19.
Cell Phone Sex <ul><li>Easy access </li></ul><ul><li>Privacy </li></ul><ul><li>Mobility </li></ul><ul><li>Potential billion dollar industry </li></ul>

20.
Sexuality Across Cultures and Times <ul><li>What is considered “natural” varies between cultures </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>In America, kissing is considered erotic </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>The Mehinaku of the Amazonian rain forest consider kissing to be a disgusting sexual abnormality </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Culture molds and shapes our sexual interests </li></ul>

21.
Cultural Differences: Mangaia of Polynesia <ul><li>Adolescence have a high level of sexual desire </li></ul><ul><li>Adolescents are instructed on how to please their partner </li></ul><ul><li>A woman may leave a man who does not satisfy her </li></ul><ul><li>Adulthood is marked by a decrease in sexual desire </li></ul>

22.
Cultural Differences: The Dani of New Guinea <ul><li>Little interest in sexuality </li></ul><ul><li>Sex for reproduction </li></ul><ul><li>Extra relational sex and jealousy is rare </li></ul><ul><li>Female orgasm is unknown </li></ul><ul><li>5 year sexual abstinence between pregnancies </li></ul>

23.
Cultural Differences: Victorian Americans <ul><li>Women had reproductive desire rather than sexual desire </li></ul><ul><li>Women with sexual desire classified as suffering from “nymphomania, or furor uterinus ” </li></ul><ul><li>Men were viewed as animal like </li></ul><ul><li>Men had raging, uncontrollable sexual appetites </li></ul>

24.
Victorian Americans: Long Lasting Effects <ul><li>War between sexes </li></ul><ul><li>Madonna – Whore dichotomy for women’s roles </li></ul><ul><li>Women’s responsibility to tame men’s impulses </li></ul><ul><li>Sexual double standard </li></ul>

25.
Sexual Orientation: The Pattern of Sexual and Emotional Attraction Based on the Gender of One’s Preferred Partners <ul><li>Heterosexuality: between men and women </li></ul><ul><li>Homosexuality: between persons of the same sex </li></ul><ul><li>Bisexuality: both males and females </li></ul>

26.
Contemporary American Culture <ul><li>Heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation receiving full social and legal legitimacy </li></ul><ul><li>State by state recognition of civil unions </li></ul><ul><li>Who knows which states currently have legislation? </li></ul>

27.
Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Culture: Ancient Greece <ul><li>Roles for men </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Highest form of love: Same-sex relationships between men </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Between an older and a younger man </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Men were also expected to be married </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Roles of women </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Child bearing was associated with marriage </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Courtesans </li></ul></ul>

28.
Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Culture: Sambians of New Guinea <ul><li>Sexual orientation is malleable across lifespan </li></ul><ul><li>Young males engage in sexual activity with one another </li></ul><ul><li>Adolescence marks the occurence of sexual activities between males and females </li></ul><ul><li>Adulthood marks the end of sexual activities between males </li></ul>

29.
Gender and Culture <ul><li>Gender: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>What makes a person a man or woman goes beyond simple anatomy. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Gender is the set of culturally-influenced characteristics associated with being male or female </li></ul></ul>

30.
Gender and Culture <ul><li>The characteristics associated with being male or female </li></ul><ul><li>Culturally defined </li></ul><ul><li>Not always defined by genitals only </li></ul><ul><li>Fully explored in Chapter Five </li></ul>

31.
Transsexual and Transgender Persons <ul><li>Genitals and gender identities are discordant </li></ul><ul><ul><li>A person born with a penis self-identifies as a woman </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>A person born with a vulva and vagina self- identifies as a man </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Not the same as transvestite </li></ul>

32.
Gender and Culture: Two spirits <ul><li>Biological males who assume female dress, gender role, and status </li></ul><ul><li>Accepted as a “man-woman” and given spiritual status in several cultures worldwide </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Includes some Native American, Filipino, Lapp, and Indian cultures </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Some females considered “two-spirit,” but more rare than with males </li></ul></ul></ul>

33.
Societal Norms and Sexuality <ul><li>Diversity across cultures and times </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Calls into question what is inherently natural or normal </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Words like “natural,” “unnatural,” “normal,” and “abnormal” are value judgments </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>They often state how we feel about behaviors, rather than objectively describing those behaviors </li></ul></ul></ul>

34.
Natural Sexual Behavior <ul><li>How do we decide if a sexual behavior is natural or unnatural? </li></ul><ul><li>What is natural? </li></ul><ul><li>What is unnatural? </li></ul>

35.
Natural Sexual Behavior <ul><li>We have internalized the norm since infancy </li></ul><ul><li>Is a part of “the cultural air we breathe” and like the air is invisible </li></ul><ul><li>We have learned our culture's rules so well, they seem instinctive </li></ul>

36.
Normal Sexual Behavior <ul><ul><li>Behavior that conforms to a group’s average or median patterns of behavior </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Not related to moral or psychological judgments </li></ul></ul>

37.
Normal Sexual Behavior <ul><li>Many people feel pressure to behave like the statistical norm </li></ul><ul><li>Ironically, most of us actually don’t know how others behave sexually </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Most people do not talk about their sexual activities, especially those that they perceive as being outside the norm. </li></ul></ul>

38.
Sexual Behaviors and Variations <ul><li>Researchers view human sexuality as characterized by sexual variation, i.e. sexual variety and diversity </li></ul><ul><li>Understand sexual activities as existing on a continuum of frequency and behavior </li></ul><ul><li>People’s activities can be typical or atypical of the group average—does not necessarily indicate deviance </li></ul>

39.
Sexual Behaviors and Variations <ul><li>Many activities thought of as “deviant” are engaged in by most of us to some degree: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Exhibitionism </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Voyeurism </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Fetishism </li></ul></ul>

40.
Authors’ Standard <ul><li>The authors of the text believe that the basic standard for judging various sexual activities is: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Whether they are between consenting adults </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Whether they cause harm </li></ul></ul><ul><li>It is up to the individual to evaluate the ethical or moral aspect of behavior in accordance with his or her values. </li></ul>

41.
Summary <ul><li>Popular culture </li></ul><ul><li>Sexual behaviors and norms vary </li></ul><ul><li>Understanding diversity </li></ul><ul><li>Influence of culture </li></ul>

42.
Summary (cont.) <ul><ul><li>Popular culture </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Sexual behaviors and norms vary </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Understanding diversity allows us to acknowledge that there is no such thing as inherently “normal” or “natural” sexual behavior </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Sexual behavior strongly influenced by culture </li></ul></ul>