The main difference is that women’s motivation is to avoid having to give sex rather than to gain a higher price in exchange for sexual favors. We think several findings point to the relevance of exchange for other resources, such as the fact that women seem to relax their suppression of female sexuality when their economic opportunities increase. Still, we do not think that the evidence is thorough or powerful enough at present to reject this alternative explanation entirely. One may also suggest that insofar as the lesser sexual interest of women is relative rather than absolute, the discrepancy may be a matter of artificially heightened desire among men rather than artificially reduced desire among women. For example, McIntosh (1978) proposed …show more content…
If the goal is to obtain a high price for sex, then one might accomplish this either by restricting the supply or by stimulating higher demand. Still, we think some of the evidence points unmistakably toward suppression of female sexuality rather than stimulation of male sexuality. The gossip and bad reputation punishments meted out to sexually loose girls are clearly directed toward female targets. Likewise, the genital surgeries performed on some Islamic girls seem clearly designed to stifle female sexuality rather than to enhance male sexuality, especially because, as we noted, many men in those cultures oppose the practice and prefer genitally intact women. In sum, the social exchange theory can offer a full explanation of the findings, but the …show more content…
In the West, women have essentially all of the rights and opportunities of men and have vastly reduced the gap between themselves and men in power, status, money, and other resources. Hence, their need to rely on restricting sex to yield a favorable exchange is much lower than in the past, and so a return to the extensive suppression found in the past is unlikely. In other parts of the world, however, women remain at a much more substantial disadvantage in political and economic spheres, and hence the continued suppression of female sexuality in those places may be something women will perceive as needed. Although there are important moral arguments against subjecting infants and children to any surgery against their will (other than when life is at stake), Germain Greer (1999) and others have warned against imposing Western values on women in other cultures, including forcing them to relinquish sexual suppression. Sexual liberation without political and economic liberation could leave those women in an even weaker position in society. Before we predict the imminent demise of the cultural suppression of female sexuality, however, one may also consider that the advantages women accrue by restricting sex continue to be there for the taking, and Western women may rediscover that some degree of suppression of female sexuality
In “The Medical Construction of Gender” by Suzanne Kessler, Kessler argues that gender is socially constructed. She conducts an ethnography on intersex babies, the doctors and parents involved, and how society puts constraints on genders. Kessler uses different anthropological methods to prove her argument. One method Kessler uses is a humanistic approach when she puts quotations around “true hermaphrodite” and “natural/normal genitalia” (p.52). This shows that while staying objective, Kessler is also trying to humanize these intersex babies by suggesting that there is no such thing as normal genitalia.
20 Total possible points 75 Thorough explanation of ways culture contributes to sexual behavior and expectations Different communities and culture have different views related to sexual behavior and expectation. In some culture, a woman’s role is more conservative and restrictive
She states that sexism comes from how women have been perceived sexually throughout history and that this heavily influences pornography. McClintock sets up this argument by saying “Women’s desire, by contrast, has been crimped and confined to history’s sad museum of corsets, chastity belts, the virginity cult and genital mutilation” (113). She is saying that women were never given the chance to define their sexual wants and sexual desires because they have always been decided for them. Her main argument is based on her belief that men and women have formed the way that women’s sexuality is portrayed, even before the porn industry existed. McClintock disputes that society wrongly accused women of not wanting to participate as sexual beings and therefore that assumption is why pornography is focused on satisfying the needs of men over the needs of
In her pilgrimage to fight for women’s rights, activist Margaret Sanger created a speech on a severely controversial topic not only during her time period, but during our present time period as well. While many firmly disagreed with her and still do, she did bring to light a major disparity between sexes and social classes. By vocalizing her qualms with the rights of women, mainly in the middle and lower classes, to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not. By voicing her opinions in an extremely misogynistic era she made herself a totem in women’s history. Women do have a right to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not.
In Leslie Bell’s “Hard To Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, the author describes how women a lot of women fear expressing their sexuality openly for fear of being labelled names in the male-dominated society. This is a result of the same environmental limitations that prevented New Yorkers from speaking out against the crimes, making many people to think that it was the “new normal”. Leslie Bell notes that “young women hear advice across the self-help spectrum which admonishes them to pretend to be independent to get into a not-so-serious relationship in their twenties, but expects them to be engaged and ready to be married by 30 years (page 31).” This one way through which the environment manipulates women’s
To further women’s rights activists’ demands, Sanger explains the relationship between birth control and freedom. Sanger does this by writing, “She gains food and clothing and shelter, at least, without submitting to the charity of her companion, but the earning of her own living does not give her the development of her inner sex
Remaining chaste as a personal choice, rather than a societal one, gives them control over their own
To initiate, the implementation of gender equality laws will help conclude unequal treatment towards women and create opportunities for women to refuse unsafe work and treatments. Also, without the right to make individual choices for body, women 's prosperity, well-being, and potential in society are restricted and gender inequality is therefore perpetuated. According to the academic article, Sexual Health’s Women’s Rights, “120 million girls worldwide have experienced forced intercourse” (Ngcuka) activities against their own individual soul. Many women are suffering from forced physical and sexual violence because of the limited laws and regulations that allow women to refuse unsafe treatments and practices. According to reports, the “ 32
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.
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).
Moreover, this restriction on expressing sexuality encourages passive behavior amongst women. In addition, linking a woman’s ethics to her body reinforces the double standard related to sexuality between men and women. Ultimately, being sexual is “stigmatized in women, but encouraged in men” (Heldman, Part 2). This double standard, combined with the expectations of passivity, reinforces the concept of rape culture. Women are expected to refrain from sex in order to embody purity and thus, are defined by what they do not do.
For Goodness Sex, by Al Vernacchio, is a welcome relief from the two previous books; Girls & Sex and Man Interrupted, as the focus is about sexuality as a whole; gender, sexual orientation, etc., rather than on the culture of females and males. In a chapter titled “Gender Myths,” Vernacchio (2014) asks the question, “male and female, is that all there is” (Vernacchio, A., p. 112, 2014)? In teaching his class on Sexuality and Society, Vernacchio asks these questions and questions similar, demonstrating that he takes into consideration that there are feelings at stake and keeps in mind the human aspect of sex and sexuality as he is intentionally behind challenging students to foresee and develop their sense of values about sex, instead of constantly being “in the moment.”
Women use formalities to gain an upper hand like men do, but women do this more politically than aggressively. Fidget states, “You would have found us modest women in our denials only” (Wycherley 1189). Meaning, they are modest in conduct but immodest in thought. This gets across the idea that women desire sex just as much as men do, and crave it without requiring compensation in the same way that men do. To his surprise, this presents Horner with an "alternate economy of feminine desire” (Burke 237).
Social Exchange Theory Introduction I. I am going to start my speech with a corny joke. What do you call the “Children of the Corn’s” father? Popcorn. II.
It suggests that all men will generally enjoy the same thing while all women will not wish to consume porn. This informs the misleading ideologies that are often present in culture about sexuality. In studying the misleading conceptions of sex, often supported and established by the porn industry, a dimension of sexuality can be examined in defining culture. When we dig into what we consider erotic or sexual and our emotion’s impact on that, we are inevitably analyzing culture and what it