Final Exam – Essay #1 When studying sexuality from a sociological perspective, one will undeniably encounter a plethora of unique theories that attempt to explain how sexuality comes about. Many of the earliest theories stem the world of psychology and use science and facts to explain sexual development. According to Seidman, these essentialist theories claim that naturally occurring traits (i.e. biology & genetics) define a group of people. The development of gender and sexuality is a fixed and invariant process that is complete by birth or childhood. The development of any non-heterosexual identity is viewed as abnormal and typically traced back to an alleged “gay gene.” Surprisingly, many people in modern society accept these bold and inaccurate
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Over the past 23 years, roughly 2.5 million adolescents have taken these virginity pledges and, not surprisingly, adolescents who make this pledge are significantly less likely to have sex than those who don’t. It is interesting to note that they observed no difference in non-coital sexual activity, such as oral and anal sex, which reflects (the presence of) the essentialist view of sex as coital procreation in service of families (Plummer). Furthermore, they highlighted several lasting socio-cultural trends among the adolescents who committed to abstinence. Overall, adolescents who took the pledge tended to be religious, heavily supervised by their parents, and have friends with the same views as them; they were also more likely to involved in clubs and less likely to expect any positive outcomes of sex. Then they went on to analyze the social factors that affect long-term commitment to the pledge. They found long-term pledge commitment is best when there are some but not too many other pledgers. This reflects is importance of identity and sexuality; the “moral community” created by virginity pledges is most effective when it is at least partially non-normative (Brückner). Overall, Bearman and Brückner’s study of virginity pledges provides strong evidence that sexuality (both identity and behavior) is shaped by socio-cultural forces and open to variation depending on context; individual commitment and long-term adherence to abstinence are the result of socio-cultural forces that determine what is acceptable and what is
Over the past 23 years, roughly 2.5 million adolescents have taken these virginity pledges and, not surprisingly, adolescents who make this pledge are significantly less likely to have sex than those who don’t. It is interesting to note that they observed no difference in non-coital sexual activity, such as oral and anal sex, which reflects (the presence of) the essentialist view of sex as coital procreation in service of families (Plummer). Furthermore, they highlighted several lasting socio-cultural trends among the adolescents who committed to abstinence. Overall, adolescents who took the pledge tended to be religious, heavily supervised by their parents, and have friends with the same views as them; they were also more likely to involved in clubs and less likely to expect any positive outcomes of sex. Then they went on to analyze the social factors that affect long-term commitment to the pledge. They found long-term pledge commitment is best when there are some but not too many other pledgers. This reflects is importance of identity and sexuality; the “moral community” created by virginity pledges is most effective when it is at least partially non-normative (Brückner). Overall, Bearman and Brückner’s study of virginity pledges provides strong evidence that sexuality (both identity and behavior) is shaped by socio-cultural forces and open to variation depending on context; individual commitment and long-term adherence to abstinence are the result of socio-cultural forces that determine what is acceptable and what is