Corresponds with Chapter Seven

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Corresponds with Chapter Seven

• Sexuality

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Sexuality

• Prior to 20th century, love and sex were
  considered separate from marriage
• During 20th century, separation of erotic love
  and marriage evaporated

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Emergence of Sexual Identity

• Sexual identity a set of sexual practices and
  attitudes leading to the formation in a persons
  mind of an identity as heterosexual, homosexual,
  or bisexual helps us to define who we are
• Until late 19th century, sexual terms only
  referred to socially approved sex (within
  marriage to procreate) or socially disapproved
  (all other acts).

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Self-Definition via Sexual Relationships with
Others
(Stasia Paper problematized once break
boundiaries ie bi-sexual)
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Emergence of Sexual Identity

• Sexual Identity as Socially Constructed
• Like gender and race.
• Key to understanding changing relationship among
  sex, love, and marriage in the last hundred years

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Colonial Era to 1890 Spiritual Love and Sexual
Restraint

• Sex and romance inappropriate reasons for
  choosing a spouse
• Sex was only allowed within marriage in
  moderation, only for the purpose of having
  children
• Massachusetts Bay Colony forbade adultery, rape,
  sodomy Punishment.
• (death penalty)

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Colonial Era to 1890

• 1750 young adults began to play a greater role in
  choosing spouse
• Chose on the basis of affection and mutual
  respect
• Sex for pleasure within marriage began to be
  acceptable (increased as contraception
  technologies advanced)
• Still must exercise restraint-- fears that it
  could cause insanity or loss of vision

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1890-1960 Connecting Romantic Love and Marriage

• Standard of living increased -people were more
  free to focus on quality of their emotional lives
• Industrialization and urbanization -smaller
  families to focus on
• Fewer children left home sooner couples could
  concentrate on their personal lives
• Resulted in the rise of the private family

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1960 to Present

• Double standard men guarded sexual access to
  their wives - women punished more harshly for
  premarital and extramarital sex
• Idea of sex for pleasure outside of marriage
  spread
• Extramarital sex
• Restriction for keeping sex in marriage
  exclusively weakened
• Changes for women more dramatic -- changes in
  the double standard

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• Left off 6-17-03

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Nonmarital Sexual Activity

• Decline of Double Standard
• Women reported more frequent sex before marriage
• Mens report did not change much
• Since 1960s of sex partners for wmn and men
  (by age 30) almost the same
• Either Gender Married
• Majority self report- no sex partner other than
  spouse in last 12 months

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• NPR Cassette recording on adolescent sexual
  activity.

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Adolescent Sexuality and Pregnancy

• Boys and girls sexually active at about same
  level
• Increase greater for middle class and whites
• Sexual activity among youth is still more common
  for
• African Americans
• The poor
• Led to greater proportion of teenage pregnancies
  and births outside marriage
• Problematic? (See conference papers)

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• Extra material if you are interested

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Violence Anti LGBT Stats

• Hyde, Delamater and Byers' Understanding Human
  Sexuality Canadian Edition. 2001, pg. 386-387.
  "A survey of Canadian LGBs found high rates of
  violence (Faulkner, 1997). Seventy-eight percent
  had experienced verbal assaults, 21 percent had
  been physically assaulted, 21 percent reported
  harassment by the police, and 7 percent had been
  assaulted with a weapon. A study of LGBs in
  Vancouver found similar results 74 percent had
  been verbally abused, 32 percent had been
  physically assaulted, and 9 percent had been
  physically and sexually assaulted. (Vancouver
  Sun, 1995).

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• The 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior
  Survey (NCHRBS) stats include
• 86.1 of all students reported they had had
  sexual intercourse. Female students were
  significantly more likely than male students to
  have had sexual intercourse (87.8 vs. 84).
  Students more than 25 years old were
  significantly more likely than younger students
  (97.8 vs. 79.5), and Black students were
  significantly more likely than either White or
  Hispanic students (92.8 vs. 86.7 and 85.2),
  and students in two-year institutions were
  significantly more likely than those in four-year
  colleges (89.9 vs. 82.9) to have had sexual
  intercourse.
• For a more complete report, the address is
  http//www.siecus.org/pubs/shop/volume2/shpv20059
  .htmlTo my understanding, this is the most
  recent large scale national survey available. If
  anyone else knows of more recent valid numbers,
  I'd be interested in that information also.

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Colonial Era to 1890

• 19th century wage labor separated husbands from
  household
• Women were seen as spiritual and should limit
  sexual passions of her husband
• Focus was on marital love as spiritual, not
  carnal at all
• Women were denied sexual feelings
• Denial also used as a basis for sexual repression
  during the Victorian Era

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1890-1960 Connecting Romantic Love and Marriage

• Marriage seen as a means of self-fulfillment
  through romantic love and sexual gratification
• Husband and wives should
• Be companions
• See to each others needs, including sexual
• Indicators of the health of a marriage
• 1920s Womens sexual needs were acknowledged and
  displayed (cosmetic sales, clothing changes)

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1890-1960 Connecting Romantic Love and Marriage

• Passionate love (flame)
• Sexually charged attraction at the beginning of
  many love relationships
• Companionate love (glowing embers)
• Affection and partnership felt in love
  relationship of long duration