Gender Sexuality
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Sexuality
Sexuality can be an awkward topic for many people. I am a psychology major and have seen lots of research covering sexuality and sexual orientation. Roles for men and women are at times drastically different and if you veer from societyÐŽ¦s path you may be seen as deviant or wrong for acting or feeling different from the norm. Today it is more common/excepted to see masculine heterosexual women and feminine heterosexual men. Just because they are different does not make them wrong. Adolescents experience much more adult feelings than in the past. They grow up and are faced with adult situations sooner than ever before.
While a major part of the differences between boys and girls stems from genetics, some believe that another large portion is learned from early childhood. Girls are brought home in a pink blanket and boys in blue. Even though most parents buy their child gender specific toys, studies show that they are usually preferred. Studies by Huston and Sedney (1987) disprove the belief that social pressure creates sex roles. Children raised androgynously display their stereotypes just as strong as children raised stereotypically. Boys are seen with a rough and tumble play and their games are focused on competition in large groups. Girls on the other hand play in smaller groups that involve little or no competition. As children grow older sex roles become easier to defy. I agree with these studies in that genetics has the most to do with why we are the way we are. I am a girly girl and loved playing with dolls, even though there were always trucks and GI Joes around too. It was my choice, not something that was forced upon me. But in todayÐŽ¦s world I was also allowed to love participating in sports without being seen as a tomboy.
One way that men and women are the same concerning sexuality is their sexual response. Both men and women have four phases: erotic desire (eros), physical excitement, orgasm, and resolution (Seligman, Walker, Rosenhan 2001). William Masters and Virginia Johnson were pioneers on the topic of sex research. They even developed several forms of sexual therapy. They studied differences in men and women in the bedroom. But you have to wonder how accurate their findings were considering that the participants knew they were being watched in many cases. As far as relations in general are concerned men and women (with the exception of a few) look for opposite things. One stereotype of women is that they are clingy, fall in love very easily, and are highly