Sexuality

Sexuality

Sexuality is often defined simply in terms of sex, but sexuality encompasses many different aspects of our lives beyond just sex alone. Sexuality is determined in part by our genetics and in part by the social expression of our underlining heredity and interaction with others. Three common ways in which sexuality has been described are in terms of: sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and sexual identity. However sexuality like many other aspects of our lives can be best understood holistically whereby both the internal (i.e. sexual identity, sexual orientation, etc.) and external (i.e. gender socialization, voluntary celibacy, etc.) factors that influence sexuality can be addressed.

The majority of educational resources available on sexuality focus on internal factors such as sexual behavior, sexual identity, and sexual orientation. These factors are important to sexuality given that they are responsible for influencing how we think, feel, and act out our unconscious expressions of sexuality. Although the internal factors related to sexuality are in part genetically determined (also referred to as biological determinism), human beings are rational beings and therefore have the ability to exercise choice in determining whether or not these internal factors get expressed publicly. Moreover, internal factors are not necessarily static and thus can change over time as we age and experience new places, situations, and people.

However what often gets neglected in discussions on sexuality is a dialogue on the diversity of external influences on sexuality. The most well known external influence on sexuality is gender socialization, which occurs in almost all aspects of our community including our family, school, media, and even politics. Some external influences that are less often associated to the development and expression of sexuality are sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, the presence of conflict or war, and spirituality, which could be thought of as both internally and externally influencing.