Respond to the following prompt with a minimum of 300 words. Replies to classmates 5 – 6 complete sentences.

Think about how American society “speaks with forked tongue” concerning sexual behavior: On the one hand, we are told that sex is “natural,” that it is a matter of biology—when boy meets girl, just like the “birds and the bees.” On the other hand, we are taught that our sexual feelings must be controlled and carefully monitored; only under certain conditions are we permitted to have sex.

From the text, your personal experiences or from others discuss the hypocrisy surrounding the relationship between biology and human society when it comes to the expression of sexuality. Is sexual monitoring different for males and females, explain your answer. How difficult is it to control our sexual conduct when we see sex everywhere in all types of advertising, in movies/videos, games etc.

from Ashley

There is hypocrisy surrounding the relationship between biology and human society due to the societal differences between men and women that presents themselves everyday. What it really comes down to is the differences in gender that really define biology and human society. Women are taught to have more rules when it comes to their sexuality because men, are incapable of controlling their behaviors. If you take the Victorian era for example this was a time when women were wearing skirts that covered their knees and ankles, and long sleeves to cover their elbows. The collars on these outfits were high up covering the neck. Women are almost objectified by men, if you take something like rape for example, sometimes people say it is because her skirt was too short, or her top was revealing. This gives no man a right to take advantage of a woman, but men have less rules than women do. They wear what they want, they don’t have to walk around with pepper spray or have to worry about leaving their drink alone at a table. Gender is the biggest factor affecting the way we monitor our sexuality. We see both types of sexual conduct displayed in our basic advertising techniques of television and movies. The media sometimes glorifies what a woman should be or a man should be. For example, what is considered an attractive man is often the man over six feet tall who has the perfect six pack abs for their body type. Or in the case of women, with being tall and skinny. Sexual conduct does not just relate to the act of a relationship between a man and a woman that needs to be clear, sexual conduct falls under many of areas including how we dress, how we act, we learn from what we see and what we see is what has been glorified in our advertising outlets. 

from Idalia

I do find it hypocritical that giving children the “birds and the bees” talk is ideal parenting when it confuses them as they grow up when parents heavily control expression in sexuality. This discourages teens from becoming open to their parents about sexual experiences and puts them in greater risk due to the lack of knowledge about safe sex. I think that sexual monitoring is vastly different between boys and girls. The text describes how boys and girls are told scripts when understanding a sexual experience. For example, girls are told scripts that include more romance whereas boys include sexual attraction more than emotional factors. Sexual monitoring is stricter on females than males. There’s a double standard where girls are repressed from friendships, activities, or relationships more than boys. In my personal experience, I did have more rules when it came to things like curfew and activities compared to my brothers. Furthermore, boys are taught to be rewarded when participating in sexual behavior whereas girls are often reminded of the consequences in sexual behavior such as pregnancy, and STDs. These sexual scripts contribute to the double standard by placing emphasis on achievement in men and an emphasis on marriage and exclusivity for women in sexual behavior. Overall, there is a large disparity in sexual monitoring between men and women due to gender-specific scripts. I think that with today’s media culture, it’s rather difficult to not participate in sexual behavior when sexual content is so capitalized. Not only that, but with the amount of sexual content there is In advertisement, it becomes more normalized in younger audiences which explains the increase in sexual behavior. It’s interesting that our society allows for the glamorization of sex, but it’s considered taboo to allow proper sex education in schools that’s not only discussing abstinence.