Human Sexuality

Research Paper # 99197

Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality > Theories of Gender
Philosophy

Human Sexuality

This paper discusses the philosophy of human sexuality.

2,253 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that the study of human sexuality and gender roles is a discipline complicated by a vast range of biases and prejudices. The writer notes that it may be arguable, with some justification, that it is impossible to approach this study from an unbiased perspective given our common humanity that the degree to which each of us is implicated in social relationships and influenced by our hormonal and physiological conditions. Within this context, this essay explores the questions of how sexuality and gender roles are constructed and the issues associated with medical interventions with regard to determining sexuality and gender roles. This essay argues the thesis that while sex is generally biologically determined, sexual orientation and gender roles are often - though not necessarily exclusively - socially constructed. Given this perspective, it is argued that medical interventions in these areas become highly problematic given the likelihood that they will be based upon not necessarily the patient's best interests, but the social preoccupations and biases of the medical intervenor.

From the Paper:

"Thus, the numbers of truly inter-sexed infants may be assumed to be so small as to be statistically insignificant. While Kessler argues convincingly that physicians' socially constructed biases with respect to sexual orientation influence their interventions in inter-sexed infants, the fact remains that the numbers of such cases are so small as to not affect the overall conclusion that humanity is - in the vast majority - determined biologically by sex into male and female."
"Beyond this, however, evidence suggests that sexual orientation and gender roles may be significantly influenced by social construction to the point that the latter may often be the dominant factor in determining these roles."

Sample of Sources Used:

Aristotle. "On the Generation of Animals."
Feder, Ellen. "Disciplining the Family."
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction Vol.1. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage, 1990.
Freud, Sigmund. "Three Essays on Sexuality."
Kessler, Suzanne. "The Medical Construction of Gender."