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Human sexuality
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Psychosexual behavior
Sexual intercourse
Sexual function disturbances

Human sexuality may be viewed as a personality trait and is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings.[1] The study of human sexuality encompasses an array of social activities and an abundance of behaviors, actions, and societal topics. Biologically, sexuality can encompass sexual intercourse and sexual contact in all its forms, as well as medical concerns about the physiological or even psychological aspects of sexual behaviour. Sociologically, it can cover the cultural, political, and legal aspects; and philosophically, it can span the moral, ethical, theological, spiritual or religious aspects.

Recent studies on human sexuality have highlighted that sexual aspects are of major importance in building up personal identity and to social evolution of individuals:

“Human sexuality is not simply imposed by instinct or stereotypical conducts, as happens in animals, but it is influenced both by superior mental activity and by social, cultural, educational and normative characteristics of those places where the subjects grow up and their personality develops. Consequently, the analysis of sexual sphere must be based on the convergence of several lines of development such as affectivity, emotions and relations”. [2]

Biology and physiology

The biology of human sexuality examines the influence of biological factors, such as organic and neurological response,[3] heredity, hormones, and sexual dysfunction;[4] it examines the basic functions of reproduction and the physical means to carry it out. The biological perspective helps to analyze the factors, and ultimately aids in understanding them and using them to deal with sexual problems.

Sex as exercise burns calories to produce health benefits. Sex also relieves stress, boosts the immune system with higher levels of immunoglobulin A, improves cardiovascular health, increases self-esteem, improves intimacy, reduces pain by production of the hormone oxytocin, reduces the risk of prostate cancer, strengthens pelvic muscles, and promotes good sleep. Sex also improves the sense of smell and urinary bladder control.[5]

Sexual behavior can be a disease vector. Safe sex is a relevant harm reduction philosophy.[6]

Sociocultural aspects


The link between constructed sex meanings and racial ideologies has been studied. Sexual meanings are constructed to maintain racial-ethnic-national boundaries, by denigration of "others" and regulation of sexual behavior within the group. "Both adherence to and deviation from such approved behaviors, define and reinforce racial, ethnic, and nationalist regimes."[8][9]

Sex education

Main article: Sex education

Sex education is the introduction of sexual topics within an educational context. Almost all western countries have some form of sex education, but the nature varies widely. In some countries (such as Australia and much of Europe) "age-appropriate" sex education often begins in pre-school, whereas other countries leave sex education to the pre-teenage and teenage years.[How to reference and link to summary or text] Sex education covers a range of topics, including the physical, mental, and social aspects of sexual behavior.

Psychological aspects

The psychological study of sexuality focuses on psychological influences that affect sexual behavior and experiences.[10] Early psychological analyses were carried out by Sigmund Freud, who believed in a psychoanalytic point of view. He also conjectured the concepts of erogenous zones, psychosexual development, and the Oedipus complex, among others.


Gender identity is a person's own sense of identification as female, male, both, neither, or somewhere in between. The social construction of gender has been discussed by a wide variety of scholars, Judith Butler notable among them. Recent contributions consider the influence of feminist theory and courtship research[11] [12] which are combined in Attraction Theory, a theoretical perspective that courtship processes and parenting responsibilities (rather than male dominance) underpin the production and reproduction of gender identities[13][14].

Sexual behavior

Main article: Human sexual behaviour

Human sexual behavior encompasses the search for a partner or partners, interactions between individuals, physical, emotional intimacy, and sexual contact. Some cultures discriminate against sexual contact outside of marriage; however, extramarital sexual activity is pervasive. Unprotected sex may result unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. In some areas, sexual abuse of individuals is prohibited by law and considered against the norms of society.

Sexual activity and lifestyles

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Main article: Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality involves individuals of opposite sexes.


Courtship, or dating, is the process through which some people choose potential sexual partners. Among heterosexual adolescents in the mid-20th century in America, dating was something one could do with multiple people before choosing to enter a committed relationship.




Main article: Homosexuality

Same-sex sexuality involves individuals of the same sex. It is possible for a person whose sexual identity is mainly heterosexual to engage in sexual acts with people of the same sex. For example, mutual masturbation in the context of what may be considered normal teen development. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who pretend to be heterosexual are often referred to as being closeted, hiding their sexuality in "the closet". "Closet case" is a derogatory term used to refer to people who hide their sexuality, and "coming out" or "outing" refer to making that orientation (semi-) public voluntarily, or by others against their wishes, respectively. Among some communities (called "men on the DL" or "down-low"), same-sex sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure. Men on the "down-low" may engage in sex acts with other men while continuing sexual and romantic relationships with women.


Auto-erotic sexuality

Main article: Autoeroticism

Autoeroticism is sexual activity that does not involve another person as partner. It can involve masturbation, though several paraphilias require a partner.


Coercive and abusive sexuality

Main article: Sexual abuse


Sexual pleasure

Sexual pleasure is pleasure derived from any kind of sexual activity. Though orgasm is generally known, sexual pleasure includes erotic pleasure during foreplay, and pleasure due to fetish or BDSM.[15][16]

Study of sexuality



Michel Foucault wrote in The History of Sexuality, the concept of what activities and sensations are "sexual" is historically (as well as regionally and culturally) determined, and it is therefore part of a changing "discourse".[3][17][18][10][19] The sexual meanings (meanings of the erotic dimension of human sexual experience), are social and cultural constructs, they are made subjective only after cultural and social mediation.[20] Being the main force conditioning human relationship, sex is essentially political. In any social context, the construction of a "sexual universe" is fundamentally linked to the structures of power.[20][3][21][22] The construction of sexual meanings, is an instrument by which social institutions (religion, marketing, the educational system, psychiatry, etc.) control and shape human relationships.[18][17]

According to Foucault, sexuality began to be regarded as a concept part of human nature since the 19th century; so sexuality began to be used as a mean to define normality and its boundaries, and to conceive everything outside those boundaries in the realm of psychopathology. In the 20th century, with the theories of Sigmund Freud and of sexology, the "not-normal" was seen more as a "discontent of civilization" [23][17] In a well known passage of his work, Foucault noted that the development of the notion of sexuality organized sex as a "fictitious unity" of "disparate parts, functions, behaviours, and feelings with no natural or necessary relation among them"; therefore the conception of what is "natural" is a social construct.[24][25] To escape this cultural "sexuality" Foucault suggest to focus on "bodies and pleasures".[26][24]

See also


  1. (Rathus et al. McKenzie, pp. 2)
  2. Boccadoro L., Carulli S. (2008) Il posto dell'amore negato. Sessualità e psicopatologie segrete. Tecnoprint Editrice, Ancona. ISBN 978-88-95554-03-7
  4. (Rathus et al. McKenzie, pp. 18)
  5. Farnham, A. (2003) "Is Sex Necessary?" Forbes
  6. STI Epi Update: Oral Contraceptive and Condom Use. Public Health Agency of Canada. URL accessed on 2007-07-11.
  7. (Rathus et al. McKenzie, pp. 22)
  8. Joane Nagel (August 2000). ETHNICITY AND SEXUALITY. Annual Review of Sociology 26: 107–133.
  9. Joane Nagel (2001). Racial, Ethnic, and National Boundaries: Sexual Intersections and Symbolic Interactions. Symbolic Interaction 24 (2): 123–139.
  10. 10.0 10.1 (Rathus et al. McKenzie, pp. 21)
  11. Buss, D.M. (2002) Human mating strategies. Samdunfsokonemen, 4: 48-58.
  12. Farrell, W. (1988) Why Men Are The Way They Are, New York: Berkley Books
  15. Sex and Relationships - Sex - 4Health from Channel 4
  16. Improve your orgasm: you may have thought your sexual pleasure was the one thing that couldn't get any better. Think again - Sexual Fitness - physiology | Men's Fitness | Find Articles at
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Foucault, M. (1976) The History of Sexuality, Vol I: The Will to Knowledge
  18. 18.0 18.1 Weeks, Jeffrey. Sexuality and its Discontents; Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities, New York: Routledge. pp.176-8
  19. MARY WEISMANTEL Moche Sex Pots: Reproduction and Temporality in Ancient South America American Anthropologist September 2004, Vol. 106, No. 3, pp. 495-505
  20. 20.0 20.1 Parker, Richard G. [Bodies and Pleasures: On the Construction of Erotic Meanings in Contemporary Brazil] Anthropology & Humanism Quarterly. June 1989, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 58-64
  21. Gayle Rubin (1984) Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
  22. Toward a Conversation about Sex in Feminism: A Modest Proposal Vance, Carole S. [Pleasure and danger: Toward a politics of sexuality]
  23. Cáceres The production of knowledge on sexuality in the AIDS Aggleton, Peter; Parker, Richard Bordeaux; Barbosa, Regina Maria (2000). Framing the sexual subject: the politics of gender, sexuality, and power, Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.242-3
  24. 24.0 24.1 Strozier, Robert M. (2002) Foucault, Subjectivity, and Identity: : Historical Constructions of Subject and Self pp.101-2, 108, 118-120
  25. Foucault 1976, p.154-5
  26. Foucault 1976, p.157


  • Rathus, Spencer A.; Nevid, Jeffrey S.; Fichner-Rathus, Lois; Herold, Edward S.; McKenzie, Sue Wicks (2005), Human sexuality in a world of diversity (second ed.), New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, pp. 206, ISBN 1-205-46013-5 

External links
