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Sexology Summary
Irene Emilianidou
Understanding Human Sexuality 14th Edition, Chapters: 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,17,19
Chapter One – Sexuality in Perspective
• Sexual behavior: behavior that produces arousal and increases the chance of orgasm
• Sex and Gender Sex can refer to the number of X-Chromosomes or to the act of
merging ones' flesh. Often this is clear form the context but not necessarily always.
• In the following, sex will exclusively be used to describe anatonmy and behaviour
and gender will be used to describe the number of XChromosomes one has or one
would like to have.
• This book is about sex, not gender.
• These two are not independent from each other and gender roles affect sexual
behaviour.
The History of Understanding Sexuality: Religion and Science
There is and was great variety within the "religious community"
Religion:
• At least until about 100 years ago religion provided us with the most information that
people had about sexuality
• Ancient Greeks: acknowledged both heterosexuality and homosexuality in their
society and explained the existence of the two in a myth in which the original
humans were double creatures with twice the normal number of limbs and organs
• Medieval Christians: “wet dreams” were believed that they resulted from
intercourse with tiny spiritual creatures -> was considered guilty of sodomy and
witchcraft
• Muslims generally consider sex as something great but the teachings of the Koran
tend to be inconsistent.
Science:
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Victorian times were characterised by lots of societal rules and lots of people who didn't
care about them. It was among others this tension that brought many people into Professor
Doktor Sigmund Schlomo Freud's office.
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723): discovery of sperm swimming in human
semen
• Oskar Hertwig (1849-1922): observation of actual fertilization of an egg by the sperm
in sea urchins
• Havelock Ellies (1859-1939): was a very objective and tolerant scholar; believed that
women, like men, are sexual creatures and also that sexual deviations from the norm
are often harmless; can be seen as the forerunner of modern sex research
• Richard von Krafft-Ebing (!840-1902): interest was in pathological sexuality, but
neither objective or tolerant BUT coined the concepts of sadism, masochism, and
pedophilia and the terms heterosexuality and homosexualty.
• Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935): first sex research institute and administered the first
large-scale sex survey, introduced the term transvestite.
The Media:
The media is full of increasingly explicit exual depictions. Theorists believe, media can have
three influences:
• Adolescents are exposed to sexual talk or sexual behavior on an average of 17
instances within one hour of viewing tv.
• References to safer sex are rare, only 2 percent portray sexual precautions.
• Three types of influence:
1. Cultivation theory: refers to the notion that people begin to think that what they
see in media really represents the mainstream of what happens
2. Framing theory: Media draw attention to certain topics and not to others,
suggesting how we should think about or frame the issues
3. Social cognitive theory: characters in media may serve as models, whom we
imitate – media influences our behavior, thoughts and emotions through
modeling, imitation and identification
4. Selectivity: People select and pay attention only to certain media and ignore
others – we select media according to our needs and seek information that is
consistent with our views
5. Reinforcing spiral theory: One’s social identities and ideologies predict one’s
media use and in turn media use affects our identity and beliefs (dynamic
interplay)
6. Differential susceptibility model: Some people are more susceptible to certain
media than others
Exposure to sex on the internet is big and easy to get, while many people will be able to
identify pornhub among other websites, few will be able to identify or name the websites of
governmental health and sex education agencies, such as bzga.de
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Sexuality:
• Culture: traditional ideas and values transmitted to members of the group by
symbols
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• Individualistic culture: Stress independence and autonomy and the individual rights
• Collectivistic culture: Emphasize interdependence and connection among people.
The group is more important than the person
• Honor cultures: Stress “face” that is individuals’ reputation and the respect or honor
that people show towards others (middle east)
• Ethnocentrism: your own culture is superior to others, tends to influence our
understanding of human sexual behavior
• All societies regulate sexual behavior in some way, but this way varies from one
culture to the next
• Every culture has felt the need to regulate sexual behaviour somehow.
E.g. incest taboos are nearly universal (excluding ancient Egyptian pharaonian
families). Beyond this, regulations vary considerably.
Variations in Sexual Techniques:
• Kissing is unknown in some societies or is practiced very differently
• Kissing is absent in 87% of African cultures, In some islands kissing consists of sucking
the lips
• Cunning linguists are commonly found in western societies and in a few other
societies as well, however, sometimes with, to us, bizarre variations involving fish.
• Inflicting pain on the other partner is also a part of the sexual technique in some
societies (bite partner)
• Few societies promote sex at certain times but many prohibit it during certain times,
such as shortly after having given birth.
• Special techniques of sadism are common in some societies and also the frequency
varies considerably, with Irish natives of Inis Beag having the least horny marriages
and some asian communities having as often as 5 times a day.
Frequency of intercourse for married couples varies from one culture to the next
(Irish islands = intercourse 1-2 times a month, South Asia: 4-5 times a day)
Masturbation
Masturbation: Most societies at least express disapproval of adult masturbation. Some
societies encourage it during juvenile years. Curiously, females also appear to have this urge.
Opinions about this vary from "A masturbating woman cought by her husband is to be
beaten severely" to "If she is horny and there is no penis available then a woman's gotta do
what a woman's gotta do" (the keen reader might notice the inavailability of a penis being
the only justification but this information is from 1933 so turn a blind eye)
Premarital and Extramarital Sex:
• Premarital sex: 90 % of Pacific Island societies permit premarital sex, as do 88% of
African and 82% of Eurasian societies, but 73% of Mediterranean societies prohibit
premarital sex
• The views on this vary from "Have as much sex as you like before marriage, sweety"
to "Let's remove this girl's clitoris, so she won't enjoy sex before marriage and let's
marry her away very early, to shorten the time of unjust temptation [evil laughter]".
• Extramarital sex is the most universally forbidden sexual behaviour, second only to
incest. It may be subject to regulations such as "Only the husband may do so".
Sex with Same-Gender Partners:
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• Two general rules do seem to emerge:
1. Same-gender sexuality is found universally in all societies
2. Same-gender sexual behavior is never the predominant form of sexual behavior
for adults in any society of the societies studied
• In some cultures, sexual identity is seen more as the product of the situation than of
lifelong personality traits.
• This varies considerably but in any culture it can be considered given that this is not
predominant and no matter the regulations, it always occurs in at least some
individuals.
• Some regulation might be that juveniles are allowed but adults are not.
• So far only one society did not know homosexuality. In western societies, the sexual
identity is mostly considered stable. In e.g. some asian societies it is not considered
at all.
Standards of Attractiveness:
Cultures vary considerably in what they consider attractive. Some cultures mostly value the
shape of the ears, others value the shape of the genitals.
Just ocunting the number of societies and not the number of people, plump women are
considered attractive in more societies, than thin or sporty ones.
Racial microaggressions: Subtle insulsts directed in the direction of less power.
Social Class and Sex:
• Social class influence sexual behaviors.
• Bidirectional relation between social class and sexuality in women.
• Premarital cohabitation: First time a couple live together and after this they get
married.
Ethnicity and Sexuality in the United States:
• African Americans:
- is influenced by many of the same factors influencing the sexuality of Euro-
Americans
- but three other factors that contribute: the African heritage, the forces that acted
upon Blacks during slavery and current economic and social conditions
- Afro-Caribbean’s emphasize sexual propriety and teach girls to be honest
- Blacks les likely to engage in oral sex before they firstly engage in vaginal
intercourse. But in general, no difference for oral sex between blacks and whites.
