Chapter 7 Blog

Summary:

The chapter starts off with stating that in some relationships people weighs sex as a very important factor because it provides physical contact and expressing many emotions such as loyalty, passion, and affection. Sexual identity, sexual orientation, and gender roles are a big part of human sexuality. There are two theories, biological and social constructionist, that state several different things that determine the components of human sexuality. It also that states even though people think they are being spontaneous humans follow a sexual script that shapes most of our sexual attitudes, activities, and relationships.

The chapter goes on to talk about people receive their education on sex. The United States policy varies from state to state, but is generously funded if it the abstinence approaches of the matter. This is why the media and our peers are able to give information that is fallacies. Then goes on to explain that most people think that sexual activity is only sexual intercourse, but in reality it is having fantasies, masturbation, petting, and oral sex. This is some ways that the media and our peers give us false information by not defining things as to what they truly are considered.

It goes on to view the perspective of adolescent boys and girls. Girls tend to fantasize sex as a romantic ordeal while boys see it as an end in itself. This is why causes for premarital sex are peer pressure, environmental factors, and cultural expectations. Then the chapter goes on to talk of the perspectives of different age groups. Marital sex decreases in frequency over the course of marriage, but it becomes more varied of what activities are done. The age groups of seventy and older still continue to have sexual intercourse despite common stereotypes.

Then it goes on to talk about the homosexual perspective. The major factors that divide the experiences of homosexual couples and heterosexual couples is society’s disapproval of homosexual practices and their consequent lack of legal rights in many places.

The chapter finishes off with talking about how people are more knowledgeable today about sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Now people know how you can contract these diseases and who is more likely to receive these diseases.

My Opinions:

I was very surprised about a lot of the things I did not know was characterized under certain categories such as what is considered sexual activity. I also enjoyed that touched on the topic of people being misinformed about sexual education. I feel that this is a major problem in America. Because right now I am reading the book the Culture of Fear by Glassner and he touches on this topic but in another way. He researches about teen moms and how they are supposedly the reason are economy is tanking and that they are just a menace to our society that we know today. I actually think though it is the government’s fault for not providing these children with the truth. I know that abstinence is the ideal that young adults should live their lives, but let’s face reality that is never going to happen. People will always find ways to have sex. The matter of fact is that they should be educated about the risks and consequences of their actions and the meaning behind all of it. That is why the rate of teen pregnancy has basically doubled over the last decade. I strongly feel that the government should put more priority on that instead of worrying about teen pregnancy being the ultimate decline of our economy.

Questions:

I found the spouses and partners being unfaithful to be an interesting topic to touch based on. I was just wondering if they are just saying that even though it may be appear that it is these macro and micro reasons that it all just comes down to the sex? I feel that is what they were hinting at even though they gave other reasons. Also what do others in our class classify as cheating? And the second part of my question is does the level of how they are cheating on you mean there are different levels of forgiveness that can be applied?