GECC 108a: Understanding the Self

UNFOLDING ONESELF
LESSON 7: THE SEXUAL SELF

SEXUAL SELF
- totality of oneself as a sexual being including sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity,
expression and values around sexuality
- part of the self that leads to learning and understanding of the sexual development, sexual
activity, beliefs, misconception and other access to internet on sex that can influence behavior and
responses

What is Sexuality?
Sexuality
- one of the fundamental drives behind a person’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated
with being male or female, being attractive, and being inlove

Contexts of the Sexual Self

1. Biological Context
Sex
o refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define a person as male,
female or intersex
o being a female means having a vagina, ovaries, two X chromosomes, predominant
estrogen, and can grow a baby in the uterus
o being a male means having a penis, testes, an XY chromosome configuration,
predominant testosterone, and can put a baby in a female’s uterus
o being intersex may have chromosomes, genitals, or internal reproductive organs that
don’t fit into the typical male or female category or may possess characteristics of both
male and female sexes

Difference of Sexual Development (DSD)

- term used when a person with reproductive or sexual anatomy doesn’t fit the typical
definitions of female or male (i.e. hormones, chromosomes, and internal/external
reproductive structure)

An intersex person is described as a person with differences of sex development. An intersex

infant may have:
o No vaginal opening
o Labia that do not open
o A penis without urethral opening
o A smaller penis than expected
o A larger clitoris than expected
o During the adolescent stage, secondary sex characteristics have unusual development
or absence of it (e.g. absence of menstruation, or male breast growth)
 o During the adulthood stage, they may discover upon trying to conceive, or others may
find out during an unrelated medical procedure (e.g. having no uterus, or having
undescended testes).

**At birth, the sexual genital is a biological feature that distinguishes males from females.

**The observable changes in the human body that start to begin during puberty are known as the
secondary sexual characteristics.

2. Psychological Context
Gender
o refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms,
roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men that varies from
society to society and can be changed

- Gender Identity (Who you think you are?)

o how you think about yourself
▪ It has been accepted that we develop our gender identities around the age of
three, and after that age it is incredibly difficult to change them. Formation of
identity is affected by hormones and environment just as much as it is by
biological sex. Oftentimes, problems arise when someone is assigned a gender
based on their sex at birth that doesn’t align with how they come to identify.
 - Gender Expression
o how you demonstrate your gender through the ways you act, dress, behave, and
interact–whether that is intentional or unintended
o perceiving your gender based on traditional gender roles (e.g., men wear pants, women
wear dresses)

- Attraction (Who you are attracted to?)

o how you find yourself drawn (or not drawn) to other people
o Sexual Orientation
▪ enduring pattern of emotional, romantic and/or sexual attractions to men,
women, or both sexes

Kinds of Sexual Orientation

- Heterosexual
o attracted to the opposite sex
o also known as “straights”
- Homosexual
o attracted to people of the same sex, often called gay or lesbian
- Bisexual
o attracted to both men and women
- Pansexual
o attracted to other people regardless of gender
- Asexual
o people who don’t experience any sexual attraction to anyone

**Gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation are independent of one
another (i.e., they are not connected).

- Sex
o physical character traits you are born with associated to your sex assigned at birth

3. Social Context
- deal with the effects of human society on one's sexuality

- Gender Roles
o societal expectations of how men and women should act and behave (how we are
expected to act, speak, dress, groom and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned
sex)
- Sexism
o stereotyping about gender that cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a
person’s gender, especially women
o includes the use of sexist jokes, excluding participation due to gender, comments on
appearance, using rigid gender roles, shaming, sexual harassment and condoning
violence against women
 - Gender Bias
o preference or prejudice toward one gender over the other

HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AS AN INNATE NEED FOR SOCIAL CONNECTION

The Triangular Theory of Love by Robert Sternberg
a) Passion
- drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and related
phenomena in loving relationships.
**The passion component includes within its purview those sources of motivational and other
forms of arousal that lead to the experience of passion in a loving relationship.

b. Intimacy
- feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships.
**It includes within its purview those feelings that give rise, essentially, to the experience of
warmth in a loving relationship.

c. Decision/Commitment
- decision that one loves a certain other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to maintain
that love.
**These two aspects of the decision/commitment component do not necessarily go together,
in that one can decide to love someone without being committed to the love in the long-term,
or one can be committed to a relationship without acknowledging that one loves the other
person in the relationship.

**Nonlove refers simply to the absence of all three components of love.

**Liking results when one experiences only the intimacy component of love in the absence of the
passion and decision/commitment components.

**Infatuated love results from the experience of the passion component in the absence of the other
components of love.

**Empty love emanates from the decision that one loves another and is committed to that love in the
absence of both the intimacy and passion components of love.
**Romantic love derives from a combination of intimacy and passion components.

**Companionate love derives from a combination of the intimacy and decision/commitment

components of love.

**Fatuous love results from the combination of the passion and decision/commitment components in
the absence of the intimacy component.

**Consummate, or complete love, results from the full combination of all three components.

HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE

PHASE 1: EXCITEMENT
- this is when the penis and the vagina including the nipples changes preparing for the next stage
a) muscle tension increases
b) heart rate quickens and breathing is accelerated
c) skin may become flushed
d) nipples become hardened or erect
e) blood flow to the genitals increases causing the swelling of woman’s clitoris and labia minora
and erection of the man’s penis
f) vaginal lubrication begins
g) woman’s breast become fuller and vaginal walls begin to swell
h) man’s testicle swell, scrotum tightens, begins secreting lubricating liquid

PHASE II: PLATEU

- changes in phase 1 are intensified and extends to the brink of orgasm
a) vagina continues to swell from increased blood flow and vaginal walls turn to dark purple
b) woman’s clitoris becomes highly sensitive and retract under the clitoral hood to avoid direct
stimulation from the penis
c) man’s testicles are withdrawn up into the scrotum
d) breathing, heart rate and blood pressure continue to increase
e) muscle spasms may begin in the feet, face and hands
f) muscle tension increases

PHASE III: ORGASM

- climax of the sexual response cycle
- shortest phase
a) involuntary muscle contraction begins
b) blood pressure, heart rate and breathing at their highest rates with rapid intake of oxygen
c) muscles in the feet spasm
d) sudden and forceful release of sexual tension
e) muscles in the vagina contract and the uterus undergoes rhythmic contractions (women)
f) rhythmic contractions of the muscles at the base of the penis result in the ejaculation of
semen (men)
g) rash or sex flush may appear in the body
PHASE IV: RESOLUTION
- last stage that refers to the return to a normal or subnormal physiologic state.
- males and females are similar in their response sequence
- males return to normal even if stimulation continues but continued stimulation can produce
additional orgasms to females
- females are physically capable of repeated orgasms without the intervening “rest period”
required by males

PRE-MARITAL SEX
- sexual activity practiced by people outside marriage

**Having sex to different people can lead to different kinds of diseases especially sexually
transmitted infections/diseases (STIS/STDS) that could lead to worst level, HIV/AIDS. To ensure
safety of the sexual health, have sexual intercourse only to one partner after marriage.

FAMILY PLANNING AND RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD

**Family planning allows couples to anticipate and attain desired number of children, spacing and
timing of their births. This is very important in the marriage life of a couple. They will be able to
become responsible parents when they can finance the needs of their children because of family
planning.

METHODS OF CONTRACEPTION
a) Natural Birth Control Methods: do not include any chemical or foreign body introduction into
the body
- abstinence
- calendar
- cervical mucus
- ovulation detection
- symptothermal
- lactation amenorrhea
- coitus interrupts
b) Artificial Birth Control: employment of surgery or chemicals in the prevention of unintended
pregnancy
- birth control pills
- diaphragm
- condoms
- spermicide
- cervical caps
- intra-uterine device
- birth control patch and shot and
implant
- tubal ligation/vasectomy
- tubal implants
- emergency contraception pills
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE
a) Make sure to always change your undergarments at least twice a day.
b) For girls, make sure to wash your private area especially during your menstruation and to change
your napkins as regularly as possible.
c) For boys, make sure to wash your hands after urinating.
d) Regularly wash your private organs.