Sexuality And Social Change - Article Example

Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to bring light the societal changes in the region of sexuality. The racial discrimination and gender biases in today’s society are brought to the forefront. A flash back on the treatment of Black women and African– American women on sexuality are presented. The fairer sex is still exploited and ill-treated in today’s media. Women and sex is like commodities that are used to sell goods. They are sold just like Black women for money, publicity and entertainment. A complete study on how media has changed the meaning and dimension of sex in the lives of today’s youth and how they treat sex are the basic foundation of this article. Sexuality and Social Change The world has undergone a tremendous change due to which society’s outlook on life has also changed. Some societal views on various issues like racism, gender discrimination, sexuality and the like has seen a drastic transformation. Many feminists groups have been formed. Men and women are equal today (in papers only). Somewhere gender discrimination is still prevalent. Racism is also prevalent. Sexuality and sex is still the buzz word around. Nobody discussed about “sex” since it was an embarrassing word. Bedroom words were not brought into boardroom discussions. (Sexuality and Identity , Pg 1) But now it is talked widely without any embarrassment due to over exposure of sexuality through the media. Education has not brought in much change in the observance of students regarding sexual acts committed at colleges. Number of gays and lesbians are increasing. Drinking, partying has become the order of the day and more numbers of people are indulging in unsafe sex baring themselves to n number of sexual diseases. (Simons, Lori; Lantz, Valerie; Klichine, Stephanie; Ascolese, Laura (September 1, 2005), Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education ) Effect Of Media On Sexuality Media is bringing sex live into the living rooms. More and more children are getting affected. Has education brought any kind of change in the sexual activities in today’s youth? Media is doing its job of spoiling the thoughts of many youngsters today wonderfully. Lot of social sexual crimes are enacted and telecasted with enough spice. Porn websites are the most visited sites. Society has become very modern and meaning of family, togetherness has completely changed due to media exposure and money. Media show the unbelievable and people want to achieve it. Sex workers are increasing for money, and customers who do not need to be in a marital relationship for conjugal pleasures are increasing. Media exposes sex to children too. The reality shows exploit young girls. They are made to wear makeup, false eyelashes, lipsticks and sexy clothes. What do the media want to achieve? Young girls and boys are made to be aware of their sexuality. They will get aware of them with time, why an urgency? Women are made sex symbols for all advertisements, even to promote men’s shaving cream! When adolescents watch television shows depicting sex they just want to mimic and experiment. Most of the children watch shows which are saturated with sex without parental guidance or observance. Many working parents do not have time to regulate their wards on watching television and also it is a very good babysitter. Cartoon channels also depict lot of sexual activity. The mothers are always shown with low necks showing their cleavage and kissing scenes are many. Girls and boys attaining their puberty are aroused and just want to enact the entire act with someone. Gay and lesbian stories are shown with hype. When there is nothing so much to show, media just adds in some sexual content to increase their TRPs. Sex is such a concept that attracts all. Media takes this concept for higher selling and marketing. Newspapers cover a lot of sex stories to increase its sales. News of Clinton linking up with Monica was flashed in all news papers and it was the talk of the town for days. Even lady athletes are not spared, pictures of tennis players showing their underwear are flashed everywhere and all only see that and not her performance. Why, the paper didn’t get any decent photo to publish? Or the photographer was assigned to take only such pictures. Media whether through paper or television show lot of adultery which is spoiling all kids and young alike. Even aged are not spared, they see bay watch with open mouth. Even worse, professional sports women are figured in playboy magazines. Money has become a necessity and all shamelessly indulges in these for extra cash. Condom ads are published openly in huge posters and magazines covers. TV shows such ads very openly that a five year old will understand its purpose. Sex was the act which was known to people only after certain age or marriage. It is now public and out of the bedroom. Sexual activities of famous people are oft and on shown in the news. Either the hero gets divorced or has an extra marital relationship or the women has cheated on her husband and eloped with her lover. If kids only hear such stories throughout then when will they learn the sanctity of marriage? They will never learn about family relationship and love. Military Sex Soldiers in the borders far away from their hometown and family find pleasure in gay relationship or visit prostitutes for heterosexual acts. Military sex as it can be said has become very prominent. Even they find solace in watching adult shows on Television. They indulge in masturbation and like. Society And Relationships Those days’ people carried an emotional attachment to such relationships. Today it is just like changing clothes. Society now compares race with sex. Racial discrimination still prevails. Black skin is not entertained. Girls with fair skin are shown as beautiful in many TV shows. Media is responsible to bring in racial and color discrimination among the mass. Racialism- Treatment Of African-Americans Blacks were and still treated very badly in terms of sexuality. Most of the pornographic images and videos contain black women in action. Many prostitutes are blacks. They are raped each and every day. White men find pleasure in doing so and for very little money. Economic problems have brought in such black women to this trade. They are exploited everywhere. Black women feminists groups are fighting for justice. Since nineteenth century African black women are depicted as an object of sexuality and a piece of entertainment by walking on ramps with very little clothing to entertain white men. Many of African-American women were and still exploited in the name of sex. They are represented in submission posture always with two white men. Black women are symbolized as always breaking away from the chains and the Asian women are shown tortured. Black or white all women are made whores to the elite white men today. Black women are treated as animals and while women as bodies. As animals can be killed, eaten and sold African-American women were treated as such. (Patricia Hill Collins, Sexual Politics Of Black womanhood ,pg 174) Black women were an object or exhibit like animals in a zoo. All looked at them and enjoyed their sexuality. High society European women teased these ladies and compared them to orangutans. The author Patricia Hill Collins says “She had a way of putting her lips exactly like what we have observed in orangutans” (Patricia Hill Collins, Sexual Politics of Black womanhood, Pg 175). The image of a African – American lady is of a prostitute and an easy sex provider. Elite people employed only blacks since they were very cheap. Such girls after reaching puberty were an entertainment for the white men in the house hold ( Patricia Hill Collins, Sexual Politics Of Black womanhood pg 175). Exploitation was in form of force and rape. If black women refused to get auctioned for sale as slave she was killed or raped brutally. Every house hold had such black women as slaves who were used freely as whores too. if refused they were forced or left without work and money. They could ultimately commit suicide or willingly go for the entertainment business. Black men were also not spared. They also suffered similar tortures. Contemporary Sexuality-Societal Changes Today in this modern world the fair sex is being exploited in media, by always depicting them as sex symbols. The Chinese say women with tiny feet are very beautiful; Africans claim women’s oval faces are attractive. Americans go ahead and feel women’s breasts are the most attractive ( 2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Pg 15) Gay and lesbian movies are shown without an A tag. Too much of sexual exposure is bad for the whole family. Researches show that public rest rooms are used for same sex intercourses. By mid to late twentieth century, American society reported diversity in sexuality. (Sexuality and Identity, Pg 3) Gender exploitation is rampant in most countries and culture. Today’s America tells that sports persons and muscular men, the so called “Macho” men are heterosexual and tobacco chewing females are lesbians. It is not so such “Butch” women can be straight and macho men can be gay. Sexuality and Identity, Pg 4) Definition of sex varies. It is learned today from movies, porn clippings and the like. Prostitution has made this possible. Many young boys experiment with older ladies and learn the art. They want the conjugal pleasure in different poses or positions. Lots of new brides are tortured for these so called postures. (2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Pg 15) Girls too are no less in today contemporary society. They are also following the man thing. Experiencing in inquisitiveness and then falling prey to unwanted pregnancies and diseases. Even when media on the other side shows the consequences none want to take in the reality or the truth. They all believe in bliss and the fun part. Science and biology has a different definition. They treat sex as any anatomy class. Nature is beyond science. The mating of a sperm and egg develops into a new being. The entire animal kingdom is multiplied by this theory. When animals know the limits and dimensions, why can’t human draw a line? Americans give a wide angle to the term sex. The famous love story between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky brought in oral sex as something forgiving. Most of them feel they are still virgin by getting involved with oral sex. So virginity is measured bodily! If a person doesn’t have a vaginal sex but gets involved in oral sex then the person is virgin. The author Tracy L Steele says, “The ambiguity inherent in these questions was actually illustrated in 1997 with the eruption of a sexual political scandal involving former President Bill Clinton and White house Intern Monica Lewinsky. Amid intense political pressure and media scrutiny, the president made a public address in which he vehemently denied “having sex” with Ms. Lewinsky. However, later the public learned that the President and the intern had been involved in oral sex. “(2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Pg 16) Americans believe sex is oral, anal and vaginal. When anyone asks a definition for sex, it is always said as penetration, whether anal or vaginal. That is an intercourse between male and female reproductive organs. Then what is homosexual? There is no penetration. (2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Pg 17) Historically sex is for reproduction of any race. To be pregnant penetration of penis into the vagina is necessary. When all talk about sex it is not said penetrating sex. It is understood and any girl when she says she had sex, she refers to vaginal or anal sex. Oral sex is not considered there. (2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. pg 18) Due to advancement in science, any woman can pop in pills to avoid pregnancy. Media markets all the brands and it is available off the counter. So, teenage girls use it liberally spoiling their body by hormonal imbalances. Pills are introduced to stop unwanted pregnancies in case you made a mistake and not to find a solution to make a mistake. Pregnancy is avoided by operation to stop fertilization and even further women can become pregnant without any kind of intercourse. That is surrogacy or test tube babies, where she may not necessarily use her eggs or her partner’s sperms. The eggs may be of any other women’s and the sperm of some stranger. So here reproduction takes place without any contact of the genitals of a man and woman. (2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Pg 19) Further cloning is done without any human intervention that is they do not need a womb too for the fertilization and growth of the fetus. Such is the growth of science, then where does sex become a necessity for human reproduction? It can be said today’s youth only use the act for pleasure alone. Love and romance is necessary for a fruitful sex. Many agree to this too. The author Tracy L Steele says, “Structurally, S-E-X and romantic love may be conceptually defined as separate and distinct categories of human activity but at the interpersonal level such normative distinctions appear to dissolve quite readily. “ (2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. pg 19) Conclusion It is sad that lot of people are getting affected with so called STDs today with increased amount of sexual awareness through media. More number of people fall prey from minutes pleasures to unwanted disturbances and emotional traumas. Depressions and other bodily disease hamper ones advancement in career and education. There may be culture advancements, society might be changing, but one has to draw a line somewhere. Society plays a major role in determining what is right or wrong. We analyze and decide on many things keeping the society in mind. The culture of a particular place is decided by the social constructions built by human interactions. The values, attitude, behaviors all depends on the societal rules and regulations. Sexual differences and treatment will differ from society to society, like African-American has a different outlook or treated in such a way by people. Asian culture sexuality or Caucasian society differs according to their outlook in life. (Sexuality and Identity, Pg 9) References Simons, Lori; Lantz, Valerie; Klichine, Stephanie; Ascolese, Laura (September 1, 2005) Drinking Games, Binge Drinking and Risky Sexual Behaviours Among College Students. Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education  Cagle, John G.; Bolte, Sage. Sexuality and Life-Threatening Illness: Implications for Social Work and Palliative care. Health and Social Work Hennessy, Michael; Bleakley, Amy; Fishbein, Martin; Jordan, Amy (Nov 1, 2009). Estimating the Longitudinal Association between Adolescent Sexual Behaviour and Exposure to Sexual Media Content. The Journal of Sex Research 2005 Tracy L. Steele(ed) Sex, Self and Society: The Social Context of Sexuality. Toronto: Thomson/Wadsworth. Read More