Chapter’s 6 and 7 of Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions discuss the important topics of Sex, Power, and Intimacy, as well as Reproductive Justice. Although there are many important things discussed in both of these chapters, I feel by far the most relevant topic to my own experiences, is around asexuality. Given my fairly low sex drive, and emphasis on other aspects of relationships (such as shared activities, and companionship), I can identify with some aspects of the asexual community. Besides my personal experiences, however, I commend the authors for bringing to light, and discussing key issues on this important topic.…
The main idea of “The Puritans and Sex” article is to explain how the Puritans were a religious group, who created sex laws based on their views of marriage and human behavior. It explains in depth how the Puritans seek out different attempts to prevent the people of New World from committing adultery, fornication, and/or rape. The author Edmund S. Morgan uses a few facts to support the main idea of the article. He uses stories written by ministers to inform the reader of sexual events that took place at the time.…
Sex and the cultural regards behind the act seem to fall hand in hand when spoken about in the last thirty years. Sex is such a taboo subject that many don 't know what to say when it comes up in conversation. With sex and sexual relations comes romantic relationships that which is also a very common subject, it is filled with cliches and stereotypes that can shape the choices we make in life. Within the texts “The Sleepover Question” by Amy Schalet and “Marriage” by Gregory Corso cultural images and communication are what these authors believe could be the key to romantic relationships. Although Schalet and Corso initially seem to agree that culture has an effect on romantic relationships, they actually make different assumptions about the…
“I’m not good at stories, Pidge. Why do you need one?” “Because I’m having the anxiety of a lifetime for the testing we have tomorrow.” “You’re smart, you’ll do fine. Go to sleep.”…
Prostitution The Victorian era was infamous for its adultery. This may be due to the fact that some people believed that venereal diseases could be cured by sexual meeting with children. This is why most adultery during this time were no other than children. Since prostitutes made a large sum of money, it was the number one reason that women had adultery. Another reason women went into adultery was because other jobs for women were limited and didn't make nearly as much money.…
Mrs. Henderson Presents is a biographical comedy about Laura Henderson and her general manager Vivian van Damm, and how they challenged the societal norms of London by their productions of “nudie revues” during the 1940’s, around the time World War II began (Frears, 2005). The movie shows a glimpse of sexuality during the 1940’s, permitting an examination of that time; also, how there was an attempt by the United Kingdom government to shut down Mrs. Henderson’s theater due to its explicit nature, and a tendency for a large amount of people to congregate in the area, making it a bomb risk (Frears, 2005). Nonetheless, there has been similar attempts by governments, such as the United States, in the 1940’s that attempted to restrict human sexuality.…
After reading your post Collin, movies, advertisement, and media did indeed change the idea of America's sexuality into a whole new perspective. The 1920's did unleash America's sexuality publicly by women reveling more skin, less clothing and expressing themselves more freely. However, you brought up Josephine Baker as an icon and sex symbol of the era. Is Josephine Baker considered to be an example of a "Flapper?"…
later, Sandra (2013) Sex and Sin: The Historiography of Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Colonial Massachusetts The purpose of this article was to go in depth about what it was like in Colonial Massachusetts. One of the most important things is how everything starts and without a base, you have nothing. When starting a colony, you must have people and to have people you have to have marriage, sexuality, and family. Back in Colonial America sex without marriage was a forbidden thing, but sex within marriage was just a part of the nature of things.…
“Untangling the Roots of Modern Sex Roles: A Survey of Four Centuries of Change.” Signs 4.2 (1978): 237- 252. JSTOR. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.…
Throughout the 1900’s there was a lot of things built up against the United States, from WWII to the civil rights movements there was plenty for the citizens and the government to deal with. One important part of this time that people forget is the attacks and discrimination of different homosexual groups within this time. Thus it is believed that the U.S. should have gotten involved in stopping any persecution of homosexual individuals or groups in the 1900’s because, if they had done something then there might not be any of the difficulties and misunderstanding that there is today. One prime example of this was during WWII. Today when the topic of this horrible period is brought up the first thought is that of the thousands of Jews taken,…
There were always regulations of the concept of sexuality. Sexuality is defined as erotic sexual activities such as physical, intimacy and pleasure that correlate and is reflected by the person's emotions, desires, beliefs and behaviors. Throughout United States history sexuality was always censored, starting from the exporting of foreign books to production of movies in the 1920’s. The movie industry adopted a set of rules in which sexuality was prohibit to be shown to the public, which were know as the Hays codes. It forced guidelines on movies from depicting nudity, long kissing scenes, adultery, and of a man and a woman sleeping on the same bed.…
George Orwell’s 1984 is an oppressive world that drains the citizens that live under the INGSOC regime. The citizens of Oceania become repurposed by the Inner Party into tools that exist to perpetuate the class disparity between the Inner Party and the Proles. To summarize, sexuality’s importance to the narrative of 1984 concentrates on the dynamic thematic representations throughout the novel. This essay will highlight several examples of sexuality and sexual expression within 1984 and how sexuality is an act of freedom against oppression. Winston’s sexual past Winston acts as a window for Orwell to emphasize the importances of the state’s control over sexuality.…
In the early 1900s, most people could not fathom the concept of people liking the same gender. In fact, there was not even a name for being gay or lesbian. People in this era were just expected to be with the opposite gender and to not question sexuality as it was just the way of life. When there finally was a word for liking the same gender, it was labeled “homosexuality” and was treated like a disease. The ones who identified as gay or lesbian often denied it because it was their only choice.…
From a very young age we are taught the “sexual scripts” (pg. 313) that we are expected to follow and this largely dictates how we feel we should conduct our intimate relationships. Sexual scripts in many societies are largely “heteropatriarcical” meaning they are based on a system of heterosexual male dominance (pg. 354). Tight control over what is sexually acceptable can be harmful for the development of healthy intimate relationships especially for those who do not fall within the traditional heterosexual gender binary. A young American female receives mixed messages about her sexuality every day. In her article The Cult of Virginity author Jessica Valenti says that, “present-day American society- whether through pop culture, religion, or institutions –conflates sexuality and morality constantly” (pg. 336).…
Modern musings about society heavily question the unquestioned. Heteronormativity is naturalization of hetero/homo binary thinking about sexual attraction that privileges an investment in ‘straightness’, or how gender normativity is understood in Western contexts. It’s important to distinguish that this investment in straightness is characterized by heterosexual culture rather than heterosexual physical activity (Ingraham 209). It also is perpetuated as a social order and institution in American society since heteronormativity possesses material influence in relation to the distribution of and the accessibility to economic, cultural, and social resources (Ingraham 204).…