Our society’s perception of sex and sexuality is influenced by various factors, such as the media, culture, and religion. The media influences our perception of sex by oversexualizing women and over masculinizing men in advertisements, music videos, television, and film. Female models and actresses may dress or act in a provocative manner to gain attention by the media and particularly from men. Women may be influenced to imitate these behaviors, or even exaggerate their sexuality, to appear desirable to men. Women may also feel unconfident when comparing their bodies to those seen in the media, creating an unhealthy perception of their sexuality. On the contrary, men may also feel unconfident after comparing themselves to the overly masculinized
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From infancy, we learn that boys like blue, while girls like pink. Even the type of toys advertised differ greatly between genders. Boys should play with monster trucks and dinosaurs, while girls should play with Barbie and an easy bake oven. This creates expectations for each gender, which includes the expectations of heterosexual attraction. Additionally, certain languages have gender specific words, which determines one’s degree of femininity or masculinity. For instance, in Japanese women appear unfeminine and rough if they use male-specific words. This results in a negative view of homosexuality and ostracizes those that do not fit into these expectations. Therefore, cultural influences play an important role in guiding male and female perceptions of …show more content…
I was scared that if I ever did have sex, my parents would be disappointed and ashamed of me, especially if I became pregnant since young mothers are looked down upon in Japanese culture. My family’s influence along with the information I learned from school only further frightened me my views of sex and sexuality. My sexual education class in high school mainly emphasized the consequences of sex, such as contracting STI’s and pregnancy. Since I had such strong negative perceptions of sex, I was extremely judgmental of my sexually active peers. If I was using such hurtful words to describe others, I feared that I would be called the same. However, after experiencing my own intimate relationships, I realized that no one else’s judgment matters other than how I view
From infancy, we learn that boys like blue, while girls like pink. Even the type of toys advertised differ greatly between genders. Boys should play with monster trucks and dinosaurs, while girls should play with Barbie and an easy bake oven. This creates expectations for each gender, which includes the expectations of heterosexual attraction. Additionally, certain languages have gender specific words, which determines one’s degree of femininity or masculinity. For instance, in Japanese women appear unfeminine and rough if they use male-specific words. This results in a negative view of homosexuality and ostracizes those that do not fit into these expectations. Therefore, cultural influences play an important role in guiding male and female perceptions of …show more content…
I was scared that if I ever did have sex, my parents would be disappointed and ashamed of me, especially if I became pregnant since young mothers are looked down upon in Japanese culture. My family’s influence along with the information I learned from school only further frightened me my views of sex and sexuality. My sexual education class in high school mainly emphasized the consequences of sex, such as contracting STI’s and pregnancy. Since I had such strong negative perceptions of sex, I was extremely judgmental of my sexually active peers. If I was using such hurtful words to describe others, I feared that I would be called the same. However, after experiencing my own intimate relationships, I realized that no one else’s judgment matters other than how I view