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THE CULTURAL DIMENSION SEX
David and Lynn's lives, like all of ours, reflect the input of the culture in which they live. For example, Lynn's parents refused to let them sleep in the same bedroom although they knew David and Lynn were living together. As another example, Lynn's sense of guilt toward masturbation stemmed largely from her religious upbringing. And David's anxiety over his sexual difficulties was partly a reaction to the prevailing American notion that men should be instantly erect at the first moment of a sexual encounter.
Our own cultural attitudes toward sexuality are far from universal. In some societies, a man's special obligations to guests or friends are discharged by an invitation to have sexual relations with his wife. Ford and Beach listed eight cultural groups in which kissing was unknown, pointing out: "When the Thonga first saw Europeans kissing they laughed, expressing this sentiment: 'Look at them - they eat each other's saliva and dirt.' " While these cultural differences may shock or amuse us, they can also help us understand that our viewpoint is not shared by all people in all places.
Sexual topics are often controversial and value-laden, but the controversy is often relative to time, place, and circumstance. What is labeled as "moral" or "right" varies from culture to
culture, from century to century. Many of the moral issues pertaining to sex relate to certain religious traditions, but religion has no monopoly on morality. People who have no closely held religious creed are just as likely to be moral as those whose values are tied to a religious position. There is no sexual value system that is right for everyone and no single moral code that is indisputably correct and universally applicable.
In America, messages about sexual behavior that prevailed in the first half of this century now appear to be changing. Three trends deserve particular mention. The first is a loosening of gender role stereotypes. Gender role is the public expression of gender identity - that is, how an individual asserts his or her maleness or femaleness in social settings. Traditionally, women and girls were cast as sexually passive and unresponsive creatures, while men were seen as virile sexual aggressors. According to this view, the male was expected to be the sexual initiator and expert, and the female who was aggressive or enjoyed sex too much was frowned upon. This notion has now been replaced for many people by a concept of mutual participation and satis faction. A second trend is the greater degree of openness about sexuality. All forms of the media from television to cinema to the printed word reflect this change, and, as a result, sex has become less shameful and mysterious. The third trend is the growing acceptance of relational and recreational sex as opposed to reproductive sex. This shift, which has been especially evident in the past twenty years, is due partly to improved, contraceptive techniques and concern for overpopulation. The emergence of a positive sex philosophy is also tightly intertwined with the sexual emancipation of women and greater societal openness toward sex.
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Men's Health Erectyle Dysfunction
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Pharmacy Information
SEXUALITY DEFINED: PAGAN-POLYTHEISTIC INFLUENCES - ROMAN SEXUALITY
Although there is reasonable agreement among most authorities regarding the characteristics of Greek sexuality, Roman customs and values are a matter of considerable debate. Conventional wisdom holds that the Roman society was as sexually promiscuous as the Greek; and it is popularly believed that the collapse of the Roman Empire was due, in no small part, to the sexual excesses of its citizens (Canter, 1963). These views have been challenged, however, on the grounds that the sexual excesses of Roman society have been greatly exaggerated and that the accounts of these events are biased and inaccurate (Bullough, 1976). Whatever the actual case, certainly Roman culture was more complicated and multidimensional than Greek society. The Roman Empire endured for a relatively long period of time; and, whereas the Greeks retained their beliefs and customs, Roman culture changed in the light of the changing empire and in the face of continuous exposure to other cultures.
The Romans, of course, shared the polytheistic religion of the Greeks, as well as the sexuality of their deities. Thus, they shared the Grecian religious approval of sex. As Grimal states:
To love was to obey the gods and achieve one of the requisites of the human condition. Chastity could be required by religious rites in certain cases, but it was not a good thing in itself; not even a desirable thing; it was rather an impairment of what was good and desirable for among the gifts of the gods to man, love is always to be found. [Grimal, 1967, p. xiii]
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