Sexology
Chapter 1
Sexuality in perspective

Sex and gender

Gender: being male, female, or some other gender such as trans.
Sexual behaviour: behaviour that produces arousal and increases the chance of orgasm.

The history of understanding sexuality: religion and science

Religion

Throughout most of recorded history, religion provided most of the information that people has about sexuality.
These religions have profound impact.

Science

The scientific study of sex began in the 19^th century, although religious notions continue to influence our ideas about sexuality.
Freud gave a great contribution to the understanding of sex.

Havelock Ellis (1896)
Believed that women, like men, are sexual creatures
He believed that sexual deviations from the norm are often harmless, and he urged society to accept them.

Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902)
Was interested in ‘pathological’ sexuality.
His work was neither objective nor tolerant, but had a long-lasting effect.
He coined the concepts of sadism, masochism, and paedophilia, and the terms heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)
Founded the first sex research institute and journal devoted to the study of sex.
Established a marriage counselling service and gave advice on contraception and sex problems.

The study of sex tends to be interdisciplinary.

The media

The mass media in America today may play the same role that religion did in previous centuries.
Media can have three types of influence

• Cultivation
  The view that exposure to the mass media makes people think that what they see there represents the mainstream of what happens in our culture
• Agenda setting
  The idea that the media define what is important and what is not by which stories they cover
• Social learning
  The idea that the media provide role models whom we imitate, perhaps even without realizing it

The internet has a powerful mass media influence.
It has potential for both positive and negative effects on sexual health.

Cross-cultural perspectives on sexuality

Cultural learning accumulates over time.
Culture: traditional ideas and values passed on from generation to generation within a group and transmitted to members of the group by symbols.

Ethnocentrism tends to influence our understanding of human sexual behaviour.
Ethnocentrism: the tendency to regard one’s own ethnic group and culture as superior to others and to believe that it customs and way of life are standards by which other cultures