Readings on Sexuality and Racism :: Sexuality Sex Racism Racist Essays

Readings on Sexuality As I begun to read chapter four I thought that it would be one of the most interesting and informative for me. The further I got in to the reading I realized I couldn’t relate too much of what was said. The first concept I chose was a basic for the chapter, sexuality is not instinctive but learned from our families, our peers, sex education in school, popular culture, negotiations with partners, and listening to our own bodies. I have never thought about my sexuality in that way. As I read I was asking myself, where did I learn to be so sexual, where did it come from? I never realized what I had learned along the way or who from. The second concept I found interesting was that of the word â€Å"vagina.† As the book has said, for many women the word vagina is associated with shame, embarrassment, and silencing, even violation. As I remember I saw a version of The Vagina Monologues at Portland State a few years back and as comfortable as I thought I was with my gender and sexuality I did feel embarrassed. I felt a little ashamed, but as the production went on I found it entertaining. I grew more and more comfortable as the play went on. I also found interesting V-Day College Initiative, a nationwide project to celebrate women and oppose sexual violence. I have never heard of this â€Å"V-Day,† a day for women to come together. One fact I found very interesting was that of the law passed in the state of Alabama on the ban on the sale or distribution of vibrators and other â€Å"devices designed or marketed as primarily useful for the stimulation of human genital organs.† Politics, religion, and other social institutions put limitations on women’s sexuality and sexual expression. It’s not fair for old men passing these laws to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body; it disgusts me and it hard to think that it still happens today. The third concept happens to be a definition that struck me as interesting, virgin. The word virgin did not originally mean a woman whose vagina was untouched by any penis, but a free woman, one not married, not bound to, not possessed by any man. A woman who is sexually and socially her own person. Why has that definition changed into something held to such high standards?