Human Sexuality

From the commercials are see on television to the looks we gets on the street, we are constantly bombarded by messages about our sex and our sexuality. We are influenced by society in the way we walk, talk, dress, flirt, and even mate-and these influences differ according to our sex. The messages start in the cradle, when our parents choose between pink clothing for a girl and blue for a boy. By adolescence we are fully aware there is something important, even explosive at times, about sex and sexuality. The way we think and feel about sex and our sexuality with the clothes we done in the morning. Yet rarely do we take time to examine our attitude about these issues. In this chapter we’re going to explore this emotion laden topic.

One quick question before we go on: what exactly is the difference between sexuality and sex? By sex, we usually mean either our gender (our maleness or femaleness), or the way we physically express affectionate or erotic feelings, from kissing and hugging to sexual intercourse. By sexuality, we mean our masculinity or femininity, the way in which our gender, male or female, is integrated into our personality, what it means to be a man or a woman in our society. We express our sexuality in every situation, from deciding how to ask for a raise at work to deciding who will make dinner at home.

We will discussing our sexuality, because the way we feel about being male and female in our society directly affects the quality of our sexual live and the way we feel about ourselves generally.