Sexuality and Sexual Orientation (Essay Sample)

Sexuality and Sexual Orientation
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Sexuality and Sexual Orientation
Gender, culture and age have a significant influence on sexuality and sexual orientation of people. Concerning gender, males and females have different sex hormones: estrogens for females and androgens for their male counterparts. Nevertheless, the continuum of sexual orientation has seven levels ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual (Santrock, 2009, p. 508). Research further indicates that men think about sex more than women do. In fact, men think about sex everyday while women think about it only a few times a week. This implies that men are more sexually active than women.
Cultural factors also influence sexual orientations. This is because sexual values vary across cultures. Some cultures repress sex while others are more liberal. The people of Ines Beag consider some sexual pleasures such as tongue kissing and masturbation as abnormal (Santrock, 2009, p. 506). Their men avoid sexual instances and only do it at night for the shortest possible time. People in such a culture do not develop their sexual identities. On the other hand, the Mangaian culture is more liberal towards sex.
There is also the concept of the narrative of silence (Weststrate, 2010, p. 228). In most societies, a heterosexual narrative prevails, silencing the gay or lesbian narrative. In such an environment, gays adopt duplicity of character whereby their personal self is different from their public self. This is because most societies marginalize any sexual orientation that deviates from the norm. Lastly, people develop their sexual identities at an early age. In most cases, people become sexually acti...