Inside and beyond the myth and the social impact of the subject as One or Substance. Alan H. Goldman’s essay ‘Plain Sex’ is a central contribution to the academic debate about sex within the analytic area, which has been developing since the second half of the ‘90s in Western countries. Goldman’s purpose is encouraging debate on the concept of sex without moral, social and cultural implications or superstitious superstructures. He attempts to define “sexual desire” and “sexual activity” in its simplest terms, by discovering the common factor of all sexual events, i.e. “the desire for physical contact with another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact produces; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire of the agent” (Goldman, A., 1977, p 40). This minimal criterion, according to Goldman, is both necessary and sufficient to qualify normal desire as sexual. The mentioned above “repression argument” is grounded on a critics of the paradigms of ‘morality’, ‘naturalness’ and ‘normality’. They distort the concept of sex per se by ascribing external goals to it, such as reproduction, expression of love or other communicative intentions. These judgments and biases are allegedly intrinsic to sex itself, but they can only be justified through arguments non-related to the sphere of sexual desire. Goldman terms this kind of analysis that we labelled as ‘intentionalist’ as “means-end analyses” or, with a more cumbersome -though clearer-
Anne McClintock wrote her essay “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap: Portraying the female and male orgasm” to examine pornography and how it has changed throughout history and its effects on how women perform as sexual beings. McClintock focuses on the various roles of pornography such as its emphasis on voyeurism, pleasure, and the male ego. She wants her readers to know that women are still not represented in pornography to satisfy their own desires, but they are there to cater to men and their subconscious. I will analyze how McClintock argues that due to the history of sexism towards women, the roles that men and women have in pornography are inherently different because of the societal belief that women are only seen as objects of sexual desire and are solely there to satisfy the male audience.
Introduction People from all around the world are watching Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show in every year. Especially, this fashion show catches most of teenagers’ attention, not only because the fairy tale-like stage, but also does various supermodels wearing delicate bras shows in the fashion show. There was an evident showed that women in the description of raunch culture were characterized by the increased presence and popularity of female pornographic imagery: high heels, sequins and glitter, bunny rabbit ears and exposed cleavage (Bishop, 2012). Correspondingly, Livingstone (1998) remarked that the number of young women engaged in sex acts with other women has increased and the result was linked with chiefly performed for the titillation of men, rather than reflective of genuine lesbian or bisexual desire. Also, problematic was that young women were positioned in this literature as passively absorbing sexist media and culture.
The hookup culture has taken an arguably new form that wasn’t seen before, which is that casual sex is now the norm (Wade 49). This new form occurs when American’s shifted out of the Victorian Era and
In the short story “Lust,” Susan Minot creates a sense of non-fiction literature through Minot’s narrator nonchalantly expounding upon her sexual history. While the story’s repetitiveness seems to beat a dead horse, Minot uses this style of disjointed paragraphs to show a deeper meaning on the effects of an overload of sex. These sexual experiences, all effecting this promiscuous teenager, present the idea that “lusting” and even this thirst of sexual partners illustrates the notorious and seemingly normal effects that frequent relationships have on young adolescent women. Women such as our no name main character who has “messed around” with at least fifteen different sexual partners on more than one occasion. This extremely descriptive, repetitive,
William Fairbairn is known for postulating that libido unlike what Freud said is object seeking and not pleasure seeking. He said our search for relationships is more primitive than the desire to gratify them. Fairbairn’s structural model proposes, “that the libido is not primarily aimed at pleasure, but at making relationships with others.” Fairbairn’s internal objects are formed directly from actual experiences with external objects. For Fairbairn, badness is the internalization of parents who are actually depriving or rejecting.
Men, Women, Sex and Darwin “Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin” , by Natalie Angier discusses and gives a brief understanding of evolutionary psychology’s about no man or woman completely understands what it is that the opposite sex actually desires. Angier compares and contrast men and women’s sexual life preferences and what they desire in opposite gender while on their hunt for a mate. She also analyzes the various ways in which scientist have studied gender differences. I found a great deal of what she was saying to be interesting, especially, the part about women just wanting a provider and man want someone who is beautiful.
Young people love to have sex. There are many types of sex, with the main type being direct sexual intercourse, where there is penetration using the genitals. The act of having sex is an emotional and private experience to most people. Despite this however, many begin exploring this idea around a young age. Award winning author Mohsin Hamid talks in depth on this topic in his novel “Exit West.”
Novelist, Roxane Gay, in her essay “The careless Language of Sexual Violence”, voices her concerns about rape culture and how it is perpetuated in today’s society. She uses anaphora, imagery, and rhetorical questions in order to demonstrate how society “carelessly” (131) normalizes rape. In her essay, Gay uses rhetorical questions and anaphora to further stress her concerns and talk about how writers are gratuitous when talking about rape. She opens her essay using anaphora comparing “crimes” to “atrocities.
The title of the book “Virgins” communicates more than the first sexual act. It depicts the inability to make personal decisions without basing off other people’s opinions and beliefs. The story is an analysis of the progression of two females and their interaction with men. Though different, each girl has a different perception of sexual anatomy and hence Evans is able to communicate his message that virginity or sexuality is something that is a sole decision of someone despite whether they have had vaginal sex or not. Throughout the story, Erica is unsure with men.
He talked about how the experts began examining sexuality in a scientific manner in order to learn the “truth” of sex. He dismissed the notion that sex was a repressed topic to talk about in the 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. He said that in fact, it was during this time that people started talking more about sex. He argued that this hypothesis of not
Sharon Olds is a contemporary poet and is known for writing intensely personal, emotional and political poems. “Sex Without Love” is an erotic poem that captures the beauty of having meaningless sex without love or pleasure. Sharon Olds shows the reader that the sex described in the poem is a cold and lonely act by effectively using imagery and theme, but she also puts an emotional and personal feeling in the poem. In the beginning of the poem, the imagery created seemed like the poet was not criticizing having sex without love, but rather supporting it.
Other readings have discussed the history of sexuality—A history of Latina/o Sexualities. Throughout history, women were supposed to be passive. Women were there to please the man and ofter were viewed as the inferior. Sex was viewed as something that was essential only for reproduction; it was only to be pleasurable during a marriage and through very strict guidelines set by the church. This is still an influential way which women are being treated today.
Socio-linguist Deborah Tannen demonstrates how men and women communicate differently in her essay “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other?” In her observations of communication styles, she discusses the way in which men and women communicate leads them to conflict because they have different understanding of their partners’ role. She also explains male and female communication differences not only cause ineffective conversation, but also push couples into a dilemma in their relationship; however, as men and women better understand the differences, their relationship improves. In the first part of her essay, Tannen discusses men and women do not have enough effective communication, which damages their marriage.
It’s a cultural production that represents the appropriation of the human body and of its physiological capacities by an ideological discourse. Sex has no history but sexuality does. French Philosopher Michel Foucault thought that sexuality was, “a set of effects produced in bodies, behaviors, and social relations by a certain deployment.” Sexuality for a person can be narrowed down to what a person is attracted to, their desires, and pleasures. In the article, “Is There a History of Sexuality?”
Eliza Haywood writes the cautionary tale Fantomina in order to instruct women against pursuing their sexual desires. The protagonist, an unnamed “Lady of distinguished Birth” (41), secretly pursued her desires for Beauplaisir under the guise of four different personas, ultimately leading to the ruin of her reputation and being sent to live in a monastery. I will refer to the main character when she is not disguised as the protagonist to avoid confusion. I will be discussing female sexuality, where I will be focussing on certain aspects including sexual identity, sexual behaviour, and how social and religious aspects affect this sexuality. I will argue that Haywood uses the cautionary tale in order to represent female sexuality as distinguishable