Chapter 7 Sexuality and Intimate Relationships

Chapter Outline Is Sex Natural? The Sexual Revolution Contemporary Sexual Attitudes and Behavior Sex: Diversity, Social Organization, and the Global Context Sexuality and Sociological Theory Sex and Social Issues

Is Sex Natural? Sexuality is socially defined and patterned. People engage in sex not just because it feels good, but also because it is socially meaningful, and sexuality is an important part of our social identity. How we enjoy sex is shaped as much by cultural influences as by physical possibilities for arousal and pleasure.

Social and Cultural Basis of Sexuality 1. Human sexual attitudes and behavior vary in different cultural contexts. 2. Sexual attitudes and behavior change over time. 3. Sexual identity is learned. 4. Social institutions channel and direct human sexuality.

Scientific Studies of Sex: Freud’s View Sexual expression originates in childhood and develops over the lifecycle. Sexual energy is the force behind all human endeavors and leads to creativity in artistic and intellectual expression. Interpretation of women’s sexuality assumes that men are more sexually and psychologically mature.

Scientific Studies of Sex: Havelock Ellis One of the most influential of the early sexologists. Viewed sexual dysfunction as pathologically rooted. Associated lesbianism with insanity, arguing that the professional women emerging during the 1920s and 1930s were particularly prone to this “disease.”

Scientific Studies of Sex: Kinsey Reports First major national surveys of sexual behavior, published in the 1940s and 1950s. Based on a national sample of 11,000 interviews, sample was not representative. All research subjects were White, relatively well educated, and middle class. All the interviewers and staff members were White, heterosexual, Anglo- Saxon, Protestant men.

Scientific Studies of Sex: Master and Johnson Still the primary basis for understanding physiological sexual response. Flawed by a nonrepresentative sample which included 510 married couples and 57 single people. Chose only people who they thought were “respectable”—White, middle-class, well-educated men and women. Like Kinsey, Masters and Johnson carried their own race and class biases into the design of their sample.

Contemporary Social Attitudes 92% now approve of sex education in the schools—an increase from 65% in The public has become more accepting of gays and lesbians, although they are strongly divided on this issue. 51% think homosexuality is an acceptable life style and should be legal—an increase from 43% in the late 1970s.

Changing Sexual Values Adults are much less likely to think that premarital sex is wrong (38% now versus 68% in 1969). In 1974, 46% of College Students agreed strongly or somewhat that it was all right for people who really like each other to have sex even if they have known each other only for a short time. By the 1990s, this had changed to 51%, and has now dropped to 42%.

Sexual Practices of Americans Findings from survey of sexual practices of U.S. Public, conducted in the early 1990s: 1. Young people are sexually active earlier. 2. Proportion of young people who are sexually active has increased, especially among young women. 3. Having only one sexual partner in a lifetime is rare.

Sexual Practices of Americans 4. A significant number of people have extramarital affairs. 5. A significant number of people are lesbian or gay. 6. For those who are sexually active, sex is relatively frequent.

Influence of Race, Class, and Gender Sexual behavior follows gendered patterns that stem from definitions masculinity and femininity in the culture. Because sex is associated with power, it is tied not only to gender in society, sexual politics are also integrally tied to race and class relations in society.

Sex: Functional or Conflict-based? Functionalist theory tends to depict sexuality in terms of how it contributes to the stability of social institutions. Conflict theorists see sexuality as part of the power relations and economic inequality in society.

Social Construction of Sexual Identity One’s sexual identity develops through social experiences. Different sexual identities are possible, and are learned through socialization.

Sex and Social Issues: Birth Control In 1965 the Supreme Court, Griswold v. Connecticut, defined the use of birth control a right, not a crime. This ruling applied only to married people, unmarried people were not extended the same right until 1972, in the Supreme Court decision, Eisenstadt v. Baird.

Sex and Social Issues: Abortion 76% of the U.S. public think abortion should be legal in some circumstances; 22% think it should be illegal. The abortion debate can be viewed as a battle over different sexual values. – Antiabortion activists tend to believe that giving women control over fertility breaks up the stability of traditional families. – Abortion rights activists see women’s control over reproduction as essential for their independence.

Sex and Social Issues: Teen Pregnancy Each year about 1 million teenage girls (ages 15–19) have babies in the U.S. The U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among developed nations even though levels of teen sexual activity around the world are roughly comparable. 1 in 5 teen women who have sex become pregnant in a given year.

Date Rape Forced and unwanted sexual relations by someone who knows the victim. Common on college campuses, though it is the most underreported form of rape. Researchers estimate, about 27 in every 1000 college women will experience either a completed or attempted rape in a given year Only 4% of completed rapes and 8% of attempted rapes are by perpetrators not known to the victim.