Human Sexuality

What is human sexuality? The New World Encyclopedia defines human sexuality as the expression of sexual sensation and related intimacy between human beings. “Human sexuality plays a major role in everyone's life. Regardless, whether we are young or old, man or woman, American or Japanese, it is an integral part of what we do and who we are.” (e.g., Abramson & Pinkerton, 1995).

Some people say that sexuality is God's good gift to all persons. Some peoplebelieve that they may be fully human only when that gift is acknowledged and confirmed by themselves, the church, and society. Humans are not sexually active just for the sake of reproduction. Macionis said, “sexuality is about much more than having sex. Sexuality is a theme found almost everywhere—in sports on campus, in the workplace, and especially the media,” (p. 188). There are a variety of complex factors that lead people to have sex. Human sexuality is a primary source of motivation. The factors of human sexual motivation are pleasure, attraction, learning, culture, and attitudes. The determining factors in sexual orientation are theorized to be birth order, genes, or environment.

Hormones are one of the major driving forces of sexual behavior. Biological factors involved in sexual arousal and response remain fundamental to human sexual experience. “Human sexuality is distinct from non-human sexuality in that it is neither immutable nor static but is highly responsive to social forces. Human sexuality is imbued with symbolic meaning and social significance…given that humans are social beings, human sexuality is inevitably influenced by a person’s social location...forms of social stratification, relating to class, status, gender, ethnicity, age and so on, will influence modes of individual self-expression” (Hawkes and Scott 2005, 7). Their habits, desires, hopes, fears, and beliefs are shaped by the various societies into which they are born.

It is known that human sexuality...