Human Sexuality: Concepts, Values, and Social Perspectives

Human Sexuality

Core Value Systems

• Absolutism: A belief system based on unconditional allegiance to the authority of science, law, tradition, or religion.
• Relativism: A value system emphasizing that sexual decisions should be made in the context of a particular situation.
• Hedonism: The belief that pleasure is the ultimate value and motivation for human behavior.

Sexual Values and Practices

Sexual values are moral guidelines for making sexual choices in non-marital, marital, heterosexual, and homosexual relationships.

• Masturbation: Self-pleasuring, solo sex, or autoeroticism. (Note: The myth that masturbation causes blindness is false.)
• Oral Sex:
  • Fellatio: Oral stimulation of a man's genitals by his partner.
  • Cunnilingus: Oral stimulation of a woman's genitals by her partner.
• Secondary Virginity: Abstaining from sex for a significant period after having been sexually active.
• Spectatoring: Observing one's own sexual activity, often using a mirror.
• Voyeurism: The practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others have sex.
• Virginity Pledge: A commitment to remain a virgin until marriage.

Note: Sexual activity before puberty or forced sexual acts are not considered consensual sex.

HIV Transmission and High-Risk Behaviors

1. Sexual contact
2. Intravenous drug use
3. Blood transfusions
4. Mother-to-child transmission
5. Organ or tissue transplants and donor semen

Relationships and Social Dynamics

Friends with Benefits: Research suggests women are often more emotionally involved, while men tend to be more sexually focused and polyamorous.

LGBTQ+ Rights and Organizations

• DOMA: Defense of Marriage Act.
• ENDA: Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
• LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.
• HRC: Human Rights Campaign.
• PFLAG: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

LGBT couples face many of the same challenges as heterosexual couples.

Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

The Kinsey Scale

• 0: Exclusively heterosexual
• 1: Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
• 2: Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
• 3: Equally heterosexual and homosexual
• 4: Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
• 5: Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual
• 6: Exclusively homosexual

Anti-Gay Bias and Homophobia

Homophobia refers to negative attitudes and emotions toward homosexuality. Heterosexism refers to the institutional reinforcement of heterosexuality as the privileged norm.

Anti-gay bias consequences:

• Heterosexual victims of hate crimes
• Concern, fear, and grief over the well-being of gay/lesbian family members
• Restriction of intimacy and self-expression
• Dysfunctional sexual behavior
• Violence and loss of rights for individuals in unmarried relationships

Origins of Homosexuality: Research indicates that approximately 90% of people believe sexual orientation is innate (genetic), while 4% attribute it to environmental factors.