Sexual Health and Family Planning - Annotated Bibliography Example

Sexual Health & Family Planning Name Date Course Sexual Health & Family Planning Journal Entry 1 Sexuality is an individual’s relationship with his/her body’s ability for sexual activities and sexual feelings. Sexuality is also about an individual’s feelings about sex, sexual desires, habits and their sexual identity as well. In most cases, sexuality is about how an individual contends with his/her own sexual desires or feelings regarding sex. For example, if an individual seems to be extremely erotic, such a person may be said to be comfortable with his/her sexuality. In contrast, if an individual seems not comfortable with his/her ability to attract other people in a sexual manner, such an individual can be deemed to have repressed sexuality. Sexuality also refers to an individual’s sexual habits and hence a person studying sexual habits of a group of individuals can refer that as sexuality. For instance, a research can be conducted on sexuality of university students. Everybody has a distinct sexuality. Some individuals can be attracted to one sex while others have attraction to multiple people irrespective of their gender and this is why there are women who have sexual desires towards their fellow women and men who have sexual desires towards their fellow men. However, sexuality should not be confused with sex orientation because sexuality does not simply mean being “gay” or “straight” but refers to the feelings, desires and habits as well. This is why some homosexual or bisexual individuals claim that since they were young they “felt different’ and were attracted to friends of the same sex and only associated these feelings with being homosexuals or bisexuals later in life. Generally, a lot of people do not find out their sexual attractions until later on in life and this can be very confusing at times. However, this should not be a big issue because when people are young it the appropriate time to figure out what works for a person in terms of sexuality and strong feels and exploring are regularly part of that. With time, people get to find out whether they are have sexual attraction towards women, men, both genders or none and this is when one discovers his/her sexuality. Sometimes people may fail to like one’s sexuality. Some individuals within society may have difficulties in accepting individuals who have different sexuality from them and hence it is important for everybody to recognize that people are all different from each other and hence people should respect and be positive regarding individuals’ sexuality or sexual relationships and support those individuals’ rights to explore their sexuality safely, consensually and responsibly as well. Similarly, people should understand that everybody has the right to decide regarding their sexuality according to how they feel and their sexual desires. In addition, it is important for people to take care of their sexual feelings and desires in order to avoid engaging in negative sexual behaviors. For instance, if someone finds it difficult to control his or her sexual habits such as having excessive sexual feelings toward many people, it would be important for such a person to seek help to control his/her sexuality to be able to control the sexual feelings and desires because such a sexual habit can make someone to end up engaging in irresponsible sex, which can have many negative consequences such as sexually transmitted diseases and feeling of loneliness when one’s sexual desires are not met. Journal Entry 2 Anne Underwood, Want more sex? Here's how, Yahoo Lifestyle, 21st August 2014. < https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/prevention/sex-love/g/24774141/want-more-sex-heres-how/>. The content of the article is the importance of having a lot of sex in relationships and marriages and what the couples should do to ensure that they revive back their sex life. The target group includes men and women who are in relationships and are married and are having some dissatisfaction in their sex life and would like to revive or increase the frequency of sex in their relationships/marriage. The article cites an Australian study in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, where both women and men reported that they would love to have more sex in their relationships/marriage. Individuals in relationships are the ones who are supposed to do something regarding the issue in order to revive their sex life. Who’s having the Best Sex? Cleo Magazine, 20th August 2014. < http://www.cleo.com.au/you/sex/2014/8/kinsley-study-on-orgams-2014/>. The article has addressed who has the best sex between heterosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals. The article suggests that lesbians are likely to have the best sex considering that they have more orgasms when compared to other sexual orientations. The target group is women because the article tried to inform women on what they can do to have the best sex by ensuring they get orgasms whenever they have sex. The article cites a research published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, which showed that sexual orientation can impact the amount and variations of orgasms that women have and hence affects the quality of their sex life. Both men and women are the ones who should do something about the issue because sex takes two tango and hence both sexual parties should work out to ensure they achieve the best sex for each other. Sex spreadsheet goes Viral, Cleo Magazine, 21st July 2014. < http://www.cleo.com.au/you/sex/2014/7/sex-spreadsheet-goes-viral/> The content of the article is about a man who posted in the internet the number of times his wife denied him sex. The target group is women because the article tries to show women that it is not good to deny their partners sex without any good reason. The article also targets couples and is trying to show couples that they should address their sexual issues in a mature way. The article does not cite any source. It is women who should do something about the issue by ensuring that they satisfy their partners sexually devoid of flimsy reasons. On the other hand, partners should sort out their sexual issues in a more diplomatic manner. 10 Things You Should Know About Sex By Age 40, Yahoo Lifestyle, 24th October 2013. < https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/prevention/sex-love/g/19528232/10-things-you-should-know-about-sex-by-age-40/>. The content is about what women should do to ensure a more satisfying sex. The target group is women who are sexually active. The article does not cite any sources. Women are the ones who should do something about the issue for instance by ensuring that they observe hygiene some unhygienic conditions can result to a less satisfying sex. 50 Shades of Sex Toys, Cleo Magazine, 28th July 2014. < http://www.cleo.com.au/you/sex/2014/7/50-shades-of-sex-toys/> The article talks about a movie that is promoting use of sex toys by women. The article goes ahead and predicts that the movie will surely cause an upsurge of sex toy usage by women in Australia, thanks to the movie release. The target group is the entire society where the article is trying to indicate how the media, for instance movies have power to impact sexuality of people. The article only cites the previous website publications that predicted an increase in pregnancy and parenting after the release of 50 Shades of Grey book, and thus a similar increase in sex toy usage has been predicted after the release of the 50 Shades of sex toys movie. The society at large should take action by ensuring that not everything that comes from media should influence their sexuality. Journal Entry 3 Biologic Sex Biologic sex refers to people’s anatomy as a male, female or intersex and encompasses the internal and external sex organs, reproductive anatomy, hormones and genetic makeup as well. There are some individuals who are intersex which means they are neither males nor females because they have both male and female sex organs (Siemsen, 2009). Gender Identity Gender identity is an individual’s conception of oneself as being a male or a female. It is an individual’s private sense of being a woman or a man and includes principally acceptance of belonging to either male or female. Normally, gender identity is self-identified resulting from natural and extrinsic or environmental factors. For instance, if an individual perceives herself as a female and is most comfortable referring to his individual gender in feminine terms, her gender identity is female (Siemsen, 2009). Gender Role Gender role is the outward expression of personality that reflects the gender identity of an individual and it is manifested in society through observable aspects, for instance looks or behavior. For example, the gender role of an individual is female if the individual demonstrates typically female characteristics in terms of their dressing, behaviors, appearance or mannerisms. Therefore, gender role is mostly an outward expression of gender identity. However, it is noteworthy that cultural differences thrive in regard to an individual’s expression of his/her gender role (Siemsen, 2009). Bibliography Siemsen, C, 2009, Doing gender as canon or agenda: A symposium on West and Zimmerman, Gender and Society, 23 (1): 72–75. Journal Entry 4 Promotion to Reduce Risky Sexual Behaviors The activity is promoted in both television and print media where the youths are advised not to engage in risky sexual behaviors for instance have unprotected sex with multiple partners. The promotion targets youths and teenagers. The activity is funded by the government of Australia and nongovernmental bodies to promote safe sexual behavior among Australian youths. Educating People on Sexually Transmitted Diseases The activity is promoted in print media by educating people on the importance of have regular tests for STDs, to ensure one has a healthy sexual anatomy and seek treatment if one has the STD. The target group includes everybody who is sexually active even if one is in a monogamous relationship because everyone who is sexually active is at risk of getting STDs. Everyone who is sexually active should take a step and get tested. Having regular testing is important because not all STDs cause noticeable symptoms. The activity is funded by National Women's Health Organization. Promoting Contraceptive Use The activity is promoted in both print media and television as well. The promotion of contraceptive use is aimed at encouraging people to use contraceptive to avoid unplanned pregnancies. The target includes families and also single people who are sexually active. The Australian government funds the activity with the aim of controlling population growth. Promotion to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy The activity is promoted through visits to schools and colleges where most of teenagers are and educating them how to avoid teenage pregnancies. The promotion is aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies because this can have a big impact on the teenagers including cutting short their education. The promotion targets teenagers in high schools and colleges as well. The promotion is funded by the Ministry of Health. Promoting Sexual Health including Preventing STIs and HIV/AIDs This is promoted using community based programmes where members of society are educated on sexual health by educators in the community based programmes. The promotion is aimed at promoting sexual health and educating people on how to prevent themselves from contracting STIs and HIV/AIDs. The promotion targets all society members including the people with disabilities and the minority society members as well. The promotion is funded by community organisations and nongovernmental bodies. Read More