Bodies, Sexualities, and Identities - Essay Example

? Bodies, Sexualities and Identities Varying theories presented by Locke, Freud, Rousseau and other theorists regarding bodies, genders, sexualities, and identities are employed in this essay. This is in line with understanding of some aspect of gender, sexualities, or identities by specifically using the case of child masturbation. It is found that child masturbation in particular could hardly be understood by looking at it merely from a single perspective. Theoretical concepts about sexuality should therefore be integrated in order to understand the multifaceted nature of bodies, sexualities and identities especially within the issue about child masturbation. Keywords: body, child masturbation, mind, sexuality Introduction I would like to use varying theories regarding Bodies, Sexualities and Identities. How have these theories transformed my understanding of some aspect of gender, sexualities, or identities from experience or the world around us is the main focus of this paper. There are varying theories presented by Locke, Freud, Rousseau and other theorists regarding bodies, genders, sexualities, and identities. Regarding this, it is important to integrate personal experience and other’s encounter with these aspects in order to somehow prove or justify the importance and relevance of the theorists’ ideas on the subject matter involving bodies, sexualities and identities. It is the intention of the proponent to justify that these theories are not hopelessly outmoded in today’s modern society, but in fact, would actually help the people understand the complexity and richness of ideas within the intricate subjects embodied within bodies, sexualities and identities. Regarding this, the issue about child masturbation is discussed in detail. In the end, I would like to prove that it takes to dig in detail the social, biological and psychological aspects in order to understand the multifaceted nature of bodies, sexualities and identities by specifically using the issue about child masturbation. The case of child masturbation Masturbation is not just an issue in modern times. In fact, the classic story about it dates back to the Old Testament in the bible. In the book of Genesis, Onan, the son of Judah initiated masturbation which was illustrated by spilling his semen on the ground in order to prevent from producing offspring with his brother’s wife (Genesis 38:9). This is the first time that the very act of masturbation is illustrated in the scripture. This literature remarkably gave birth to a coined word “onanism” which in the modern times is strongly associated with the very act of masturbation or self-sex pleasure. This is of no surprise that masturbation was mentioned to be initiated by an adult. Onan was of the right and advanced age when he initiated masturbation by withdrawing his semen from the womb of his brother’s wife. Even in the times of Locke, Freud and Rousseau, masturbation was considered prevalent among adults as integral issue about sex. In fact, the idea about masturbation was strongly opposed within the classical period as it would strongly contradict with the ultimate view within religious principle. Even until today, religious individuals would most likely view at it as an act of immorality before God. Surprisingly, masturbation and even addiction with it in the 18th century was also associated with children (Egan & Hawkes, 2011). Today, masturbation is reportedly initiated by some children even at the age below 12 years old. Even then, this paved the way for taking into account child sexuality as an important area of concern among theorists like Locke, Freud, and Rousseau. It was of great interest to understand child sexuality in the first place as things in line with sexual matters would concern most about adults who are considered to be mature in this area. However, there are many things that need to be learned more about child sexuality as they are also humans who could be potentially sexually aroused at some specific point in time. This is the very point agreed by Louis Kahm and Alfred Vogel emphasising that masturbation can be learned from actual example or experience due to biological response. In this belief, the possibility that whatever it is that may potentially cause sexual stimulation which could lead to masturbation cannot be certainly emasculated. At this point, the basis of child masturbation can be purely physical or biological in context. However, Freud, Locke and even Rousseau would substantially explain things far greater than biological issues. For them, child’s actual sensation or reason when it comes to sex-related concerns could be both explained within the context of the environment and psychology. For John Locke, children would require adult supervision in order for them to substantially learn the concept about sex and morality. In other words, in the absence of adult supervision, children will be left with their own standard or ideas about what is good or bad about sex. In other words, the concept about child masturbation could be substantially deterred as the society continues to be silent about it and even continuously look at it as should suppose to be only associated with adult sexual needs. However, it is a reality that some children are influenced by what they observed from their actual environment (Angelides, 2004). In other words, peer groups, the media and other means of communicating sexual images that would promote masturbation are elemental components of an environment that could motivate children to masturbate. However, Freud significantly would try to look at this situation deeply from the context of psychological response. For Freud, child’s perception of reality is necessary to be involved because it would substantially lead to understanding fantasy and reason (Angelides, 2004). In this case, there is a sense of understanding more about the mind and how it formulates reason which at some point could be highly associated with experiencing the concept about sensation. However, Locke, unlike Freud does not only confine his argument only at this level, he substantially included the ultimate issue occurring between the mind and body. Observing these varying arguments and theoretical views, it is in this reason that it would be important to understand child masturbation within the context of the environment, physical or bodily, and psychological response in order find it in a clear perspective. The social perspective Everyone comes from an environment where there is a need to consider the opportunity to grow both physically, psychologically, and in all aspects in line with human survival. Understanding the concept of sex is not an exclusion from this experience. After all, from the biological point of view nature orchestrates human to proliferate as all living things have one thing in common and that is to reproduce. This reproduction makes sex a very important subject that should be included in the human drama for survival prior to understanding the idea behind sexual pleasure. Masturbation is associated with sexual pleasure. The question on how a child may potentially acquire it and addicted to it is also one of the important concerns from an environmental perspective. This pleasure can eventually be understood from the point of view of how a child receives information from his or her actual environment. Children are under the supervision of adults when it comes to understanding sexual pleasures and other related concerns (Egan & Hawkes, 2011; Angelides, 2004). Considering the point that children should be under the adult supervision, as the latter is assumed to be sexually mature, children are therefore to be guided with the right information about sex and other related sexual issues without distorting their perception about them. It is clear that when it comes to sexual issues, the primary concern should potentially include everything in line with sexual acts in its broadest and general sense. This particularly involves masturbation. It is therefore clear that as sexually mature individuals, adults have the responsibility in imparting children the ideas about sexual pleasures and even to the point of influencing them. In fact, the case of child sexual molestation initiated by adults in the 21st century only proves that sexually mature individuals have the power or capacity to influence young people’s minds about their actual perception on sexual pleasures (Miles, 2000; Yahia & Tamish, 2001; Fanslow et al., 2007). Furthermore, as supported by the claim of Rousseau that the actual experience should substantially result to formulation of reason, adults have contributed a significant influence on children on the issue of sexual pleasure. However, it would be a sad reality that children may eventually create reason based on experience even though from the standard of the society there are things they are not supposed to experience just prior to becoming sexually-mature individuals. This is eventually agreed by Locke that is why he commends that children should require substantial adult supervision. Masturbation among children therefore could be deliberately considered as an elemental natural response when children are exposed to the actual experience of sexual pleasure in their surrounding environment. The argument in this case is not about the issue of physical response, but how such act or behavior was ignited and clearly elaborated to them by adults. The point is that specific culture has corresponding impact or influence on viewing sexual-related activities (Berlant & Warner, 1998). Therefore, the ignition of behavior towards understanding sexual acts should be essentially attributed to the actual environment. The premise should be considered from the point of view of Locke, which as stated, substantially elaborates the fact that children require adult supervision. For example, when a mother sees his child cuddling his penis and observes erection from such act, the natural response of an adult should be to impose necessary actions to prevent the child from doing it based on the idea of Locke. Furthermore, seeing pornographic materials and masturbation initiated by adults could substantially create specific reason or arguments within the mind of a child based on the idea of Freud and Rousseau. Therefore, the environment places a very crucial part to play in creating specific sexual response or behavior of a child which would primarily include masturbation as a specific case. However, on the other hand, it cannot be contested that people also learn from their experience (Feldman, 2003). In fact, the idea of what is morally good or bad is learned from the actual experience of a person from his or her environment (Egan & Hawkes, 2011). Thus, personal experience from this case may provide essential argument. Thus, in a specific case, the physical response of a child from stimuli cannot be clearly overlooked. The biological perspective It is true that not only in classic times children were exposed to masturbation. Child’s sexual desire could be rooted from personal experience as well. This is proven by the fact that those children who were sexually molested have varying responses regarding the said experience. This according to Freud and as agreed by Rousseau would only prove the fact that children have potentially created varying meanings with their actual sexual encounters. Based on Freud’s seduction theory, accidently cuddling sexual organ could be an ultimate encounter that would eventually lead to discovering masturbation as a wonderful experience. It is at this point that reason, mind, body or fantasy has become a debatable issue among Locke, Freud and Rousseau. After all, the human mind can substantially take both reality and fantasy (Sullivan, 2003). On the other hand, it cannot be refuted that masturbation as an environmental response as discussed earlier is also a physical response. To justify this claim, it is important to remarkably identify the basic ideas of Louis Kahm and Alfred Vogel who actually provided the sense of considering masturbation from the point of view of biological response. For them, experience could be elaborated from actual physical response. For instance, accidentally cuddling sexual organ could potentially result to masturbation as explicated by Kahm and Vogel. Masturbation in this case is a physical response. If it gives substantial sensation, then it is viewed to be good from child’s reason based on the idea of Rousseau provided that there is absence of adult supervision to inculcate definition of moral actions in line with Locke’s argument. Kahn and Vogel however did not take into consideration the interrelation between mind and body. Therefore, in the absence of ideas from Rousseau, Freud and Locke, it is important to consider that the issue about child masturbation would solely remain as a technical definition as a bodily or biological response. However, it is also important to integrate the fact that sensationalism could be integrated within the bodily response. In other words, there must be a concrete inclusion of mind and body. As a physical or bodily response, child masturbation cannot just be disregarded as an issue that would just be confined within physical explanation. In fact, if it is to be defined as such, Rousseau or Freud would not have possibly created concepts associated with how the mind feeds something that would be manifested through physical or bodily responses. In fact, if child masturbation is just a physical response, majority, if not all of the child should have undergone this behavior. Even Freud, Locke and Rousseau could not actually determine the truth or some empirical evidences at what age a child actually starts to masturbate. However, in modern times some would argue that at least 16.3 percent of men have masturbated before age 12 and 33.33 percent between age 12 and 13 (Francoeur & Noonan, 2004). If this would be the case, child masturbation therefore could not be entirely attributed solely as a biological or physical response considering the fact that there is a higher possibility to consider it as a behavior associated with bodily or physical changes of a person, which obviously linked with puberty and sexual maturity. Locke believes that a child is not yet sexually mature, but Rousseau also points out that a person at this age could actually feel sensation, but whether it is based on reason or fantasy, it remains a significant problematic issue in his argument. The psychological perspective In psychology, it is the action that speaks for the actual behavior of a person. Understanding the actual behavior therefore is the key to knowing an individual. Child masturbation is a specific behavior. Regarding how it is acquired, so far as discussed there is a strong case about the idea of reason, experience and environment, and the body to be integrated in order to understand it in great and exact detail. However, by looking at it from the point of view in psychology, child masturbation could just be merely a specific psychological response. The case of children addicted to it in the 18th century and even at present could substantially prove this claim. Freud may have potential point in proving this. Considering his idea about conditioning would substantially make sense. For instance, it is a natural bodily response of a child that once his penis is cuddled, it would result to erection. At some point, this proves the point of biological perspective. However, the case of a child who would stop crying once his penis is cuddled is another story. And this is the very point of Locke and Rousseau stating that sensation plays a crucial role regarding the child’s actual understanding of a specific experience. If cuddling the child’s penis result to a positive sensation, then reinforcing it would substantially create a specific behavior. Hence, this could probably explain the presence of child masturbation and children addicted to it as reported in 18th century and even today. Psychological perspective about child masturbation is therefore aligned with both mind and body. This makes the combined arguments of Locke, Freud and Rousseau to be more convincing compared to purely biological or social perspective. Integrating different theoretical concepts regarding this matter proves the fact that child sexuality is a complex issue. This is one of the concrete reasons why child sexuality requires detailed studies at present time (Davies & Rogers, 2006; Celik & Odaci, 2012). Conclusion It is true that issues related to child sexuality are complex in nature. Child masturbation in particular could hardly be understood by looking at it merely from a single perspective. Various theoretical concepts about sexuality should therefore be integrated in order to understand the multifaceted nature of bodies, sexualities and identities by specifically using the issue about child masturbation. References Berlant, L. & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in Public. Critical Inquiry 24: 547-560. Angelides, S. (2004). Sex and the Child. Meanjin, 63, 28-36. Celik, C. B., and Odaci, H. (2012). The effect of experience of childhood abuse among university students on self-perception and submissive behavior. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 200-204. Davies, M., and Rogers, P. (2006). Perceptions of male victims in depicted sexual assaults: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 11, 367-377. Egan, R. D., and Hawkes, G. (2011). Constructing the Modern Sexual Child in Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity. New York, NY: Palgrave. Fanslow, J. L., Robinson, E. M., Crengle, S., and Perese, L. (2007). Prevalence of child sexual abuse reported by a cross-sectional sample of New Zealand women Child Abuse & Neglect, 31, 935-945. Feldman, R. S. (2003). Essentials of Understanding Psychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Francoeur, R. T., & Noonan, R. J. (2004). The Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. Miles, G. M. (2000). “children don’t do sex with adults for pleasure”: Sri Lankan children’s views on sex and sexual exploitation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24, 995-1003. Sullivan, N. (2003). A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Yahia, M. M., and Safa, H. Y. (2001). The rates of child sexual abuse and its psychological consequences as revealed by a study among Palestinian university students. Child Abuse & Neglect. 25, 1302-1327. Read More