Explore how sexuality has changed over the past 100 years - Essay Example

Explore how sexuality has changed over the past 100 years Sexuality and the ways in which sex creates both pleasure and results in procreation has been revolutionized in the last one hundred years. In the early 20th century the concept of reproduction was being examined through the ideas of eugenics. This area of research was somewhat based on the developments by Charles Darwin about the idea of selection as a method for putting the best traits together in order to support increases in the ‘quality’ of human beings being born.

The problem that emerged with the concept of eugenics is that anyone that was considered undesirable was also then deemed unfit to procreate. This included the different races, prostitutes, those with developmental difficulties, and even the Romani who were considered to be innately born as thieves and miscreants (Sinclair, 2007). Along with the concept of eugenics began a movement within the women’s rights movements that were emerging at the time which suggested that women should have the right to choose desirably traited men in order to procreate with them.

The emergence of a call for equality began to suggest that the power to create life should accompany the ability to make choices concerning desirable mates. Where patriarchal frameworks of gender control had held onto the power to determine procreation up to this time, the beginning and progression of the women’s movement changed not only gender relations but began to change the nature of sexuality and procreation dynamics. In the 1960s as the women’s movement raged forward, creating a deep shift in the gender dynamics and prescribed roles, William Masters and Virginia Johnson were doing some of the most daring and controversial research on the subject of sexuality.

Through direct observation of sexual partners they began to study how the physicality of sexual experience occurred. During these 10,000 observations of sexual experiences through volunteers from the academic community, they watched for the signs of arousal and continued to record observations about how bodies functioned during sexual arousal and release through a variety of different sexual situations. This significantly impacted the way in which sexuality was viewed through the development of anecdotal research as well as measurements from different devices (Crooks & Baur, 2011). 2. Explore how technology has and is changing the world of conception, pregnancy, and parenthood.

The science of having babies has dramatically changed the concept of procreation as human beings have been able to take some control over conception. Although there is still a great deal of mystery involved in how and when conception occurs, science has been able to replicate much of what it takes to get pregnant so that women who would have remained barren have the opportunity to have children. In addition, the ability to use surrogates and to influence the hormonal production has provided for further opportunities for women to have children, even when they might not be the one to carry the child.

Science has also changed the control that a woman has over when she gets pregnant. Through understanding how children are conceived, science has been able to influence the female body so that some control over child-bearing can be achieved. Contraception has a number of different methods through which women can protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy