Naturalist Approach To Sexuality Essay

For the greater part of the twentieth century, human sexuality was largely ignored as it was a focus of social research and reflection. Naturalist sexologists like Havelock Ellis recorded histories of reactions to sexuality but did little to explain why and how sexuality shaped human societies. On the other hand, sexologists who embraced the meta-theoretical approach like Ken Plummer fell short when it came to empirical evidence, because they relied too heavily on their theoretical constructs which were derived from psychodynamic or Neo-Freudian theory. Only in the recent years has this marginalization of sexuality has begun a social and political analysis. Weeks argues that the historical approach to sexuality is to understand it as product of shifting historical circumstance rather than biology or nature. He argued that sexuality has to be understood as a complex set of social practices that change over time and that it …show more content…
Sexuality has to be understood as a complex set of social practices that change over time. Weeks argues that the historical approach to sexuality is to understand it as product of shifting historical circumstance rather than biology or nature. Exploring ones sexuality was not always an easy task. At first, sexuality may seem to exist predominantly in our organs, bodies, systems, and sensations. But our realities are constructed by concepts, knowledge and ideas. This is why looking at sexuality is a complex set of social practices and institutionalized forms -such as legal, religious, and educational practices. They further our understanding by taking into regard the historical circumstances that cultivated it.
When analyzing sexuality, one cannot disregard history because it helps us understand where sexuality stems from on both an individual and societal basis, specifically how it’s largely based on constructs and where power comes into