Human Sexuality Final

Lisa McClure Axia College of University of Phoenix PSY 265 Sally Henzel April 27, 2009 Attitudes about sex and sexual gratification have evolved from the point where sex was seen as a biological process to sex as a way of life. During the 1960s and 1970s, the secret was let out that sex could be an end in and of itself without reproductive considerations. Now comes my generation, not the baby-boomer generation, not generation X, but rather the generation that was spawned during the 80's. I believe I came right after generation X. as Jim Horning (n.d.) was once purported to have said, "Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment” (2008). My generation was the first to be hit hard by sex on television, sex in the movies, even sex on the internet, which was not even possible until my generation was in their teens. As a result I have seen many of my friends from school marry prematurely only to divorce, engage in premarital cohabitation, and premarital sex. I am of course no exception. My adolescent years were full of bad judgments. It is in this context that my female gender identity developed, my sexual relationships matured, and my environment and value systems informed my sexual decision making process in the development of my sexuality also changed. The value system that I have identified with the most is the ethical relativism. Although, I was raised with the legalism value system, being that we were raised in a Roman Catholic home. The reason why I chose ethical relativism is that everyone is different and there really is not a right or wrong moral view. There is just a personal moral view. For that reason, I do not think there is any reason for someone to push his or her views on other people, even if that person feels strongly about an opinion.

I do not see anything wrong with premarital sex as long as you are in a committed relationship with that person. My parents would disagree with me on this. I also think abortions are wrong unless the woman has been raped or it is medically necessary. I do not think a woman who has been raped should have to have that child to be reminded of the torture she had to go through. Some people will think abortion for any reason, even as a form of birth control is ok and others will be completely against it. That includes rape victims in both sides of the argument. I also believe that if I am mature enough to lay down with someone and have sex with them, then I am mature enough to handle whatever consequences my actions have brought me. I believe in the sanctity of marriage and that divorce should not be an option. Sexual Orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person. Sexual orientation exists along a continuum that ranges from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality and includes various forms of bisexuality. Bisexual persons can experience sexual, emotional and affectional attraction to both their own sex and the opposite sex. Sexual orientation is different from sexual behavior because it refers to feelings and self-concept. I consider myself bisexual, meaning I am attracted to both male and females sexually. I have chosen to be monogamous with my husband and live a heterosexual life style. My husband knows about my sexuality and is very open about everything. As a result of the aforementioned legalistic and the ethical relativism upbringing, the first few years of my marriage and relationship to my husband was very rocky. I would say that attitude is the most important factor to me because that is what is going to help hold the relationship together. Attitude can also be viewed as an attractive feature on a physically attractive person or make that person ugly on the inside. This is how many friendships are made through similar attitudes and personalities. I can identify three styles in my relationship with my husband. Theyare game-playing love, selfless love, and romantic love. We met in high school and we were attracted to each other right away but we were never single at the same time. We would play games with the others we dated. I dated his enemy in high school. That is were the game-playing love came into play. There was more than just physical attraction between us. After school we got together and I did anything I could to keep him happy and pretty soon it wore on me because I was not happy. We now have the romantic love we always wanted. We have learned how to communicate our needs and have them met. We have been together for 9 years and married for 3 ½, but we have our times where we get in a rut, but we would be lost without each other. Lastly, contraception or a lack thereof has played a large part in guiding the development of my family. I had my first child at the age of 18, my second at age 21, and my last at age 23. My husband and I are now ready to have another child and have talked about it, where as before my kids were unplanned blessings. They were about two years apart. Even though sex education was offered in our high school years, we were still influenced by the media's portrayal of consequence free sexual activity. To that end, we engaged in coitus often during our adolescent years and with spotty use of contraceptives. My husband used condoms more during his high school years. I on the other hand am allergic to condoms and the polyurethane was not highly recommended back then. After having my first child, I realized how allergic I was too many forms of birth control and became pregnant on most of them, which some ended in miscarriage. Thinking back now, we both had other sexual partners before we met each other and sexually transmitted infections were certainly possible. We were probably very lucky to escape adolescence without any adverse sexual consequences, other than having children out of wedlock that is. As the saying from Jim Horning (n.d.2008),” In America sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it is a fact.” In conclusion, within the context of a legalistic, female upbringing, a strict Christian historical perspective, a media-portrayed consequence free sexual environment, and a female gender identity my sexual development seems more like the result of many factors than a decision-making process. However, after taking this class I can see clearly that these factors informed my sexual development but did not dictate my sexual development. With one last quote from Jim Horning (n.d.2008), how close the sexes sometimes come to one another. It is as much a matter of behavior and the sphere in which they move that separates the masculine part of humanity from the feminine.” Horning, J. (n.d.) Retrieved April 24, 009 from Quotations page Web site: Rathus, S.A., Nevid, J.S., and Fichner-Rathus, L. (2005). Human sexuality in a world of