Lesson 4

The Sexual
Self
Understanding the Self

MARIE CRIS R. MENDOZA, RPM

 • is a central aspect of being human throughout life
encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual
orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and
reproduction.

• Sexuality experienced and expressed thoughts,

fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors,
(WHO, 2006A as cited in practices, roles and relationship.
Defining Sexual Health,
2018, para 16

• While sexuality can include all of these dimensions,

not all of them are always experienced or
expressed.
Sex Education is NOT promoting sexual
intercourse but to promote sexual health and
safety from sexual violence.

“Withholding information about sex

and sexuality will not keep children
safe; it will only keep them ignorant”
(Hauser, 2013, para 2 )
 Sex Gender
• person's characterization
as female or male at birth • social characteristics
that may be (or not be)
• based on the appearance aligned with a person's
of external genitalia or sex and adopted by an
other biological individual as their
characteristics including gender identity
chromosome
The Genderbread Person (Killerman, 2016)
TYPES OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Sexual orientation refers to our sexual preferences
towards males, females or both.
(Cole, 2009; King , 2014)

• HOMOSEXUAL (gay/lesbian) sexually attracted to members

of same sex

• BISEXUAL sexually attracted to people of both sexes

• HETEROSEXUAL (straight) sexually attracted to members

of opposite sex

• PANSEXUAL/ OMNISEXUAL can be sexually attracted to

any sex or gender identity

• ASEXUAL not sexually attracted to any sex or gender

TYPES OF GENDER IDENTITES
The T in LGBT which stands for transgender or gender non –
conforming, pertains to gender identity. “Some who do not identify
as either male or female prefer the term “genderqueer”
(Lesbian, gay, 2018, para 2)

• CISGENDER/CIS gender identity consistent is with the sex they

were assigned at birth

• TRANSGENDER/ TRANS gender identity does not match the sex

they were assigned at birth

• AGENDER people who do not identify with any gender

• NON-BINARY people who do not identify strictly as a boy or a

girl- they could identify as both, or neither, or as another gender
entirely
Puberty
• One to three-year process of hormonal and
physical changes that causes young person
to reach sexual maturity

• Girls usually entering it about a year [ or two]

earlier than boy” (Pickhardt, 2010, p3)

• Puberty is not a one size fits all experience. It

could manifest in varying rates and specific
ages.

• Every individual “develops and reacts in

different ways” due to factors like stress,
weight, “nutrition, hormonal activity, and
inherent characteristics” (Cole, 2009, p4)
 Puberty
• On average, the pubertal growth spurt for the
girls starts at 9, peaks at 11 in half; • for boys, it starts at 11 in half peaks at 13 in half”
• Secondary sex characteristics are traits that differ between the two sexes but
are not part of the reproductive system; they include breasts in females and
facial hair in males

• “the emotional region of the brain develops maturity ahead

of the part controlling the rational thought” (Cole 2009, p.8)

• Emotion tend to take over which makes the transition to

adulthood and sexual maturity more challenging.

• Since most teenagers are not oriented on the drastic

transformations and temporary emotional takeover,
sentiments and anxieties are not communicated and
handled well – which may be misconstrued by adults/
relatives as mere drama, attention seeking rebelling
maneuvers ( Palean et. Al. page 95)
 EROGENOUS ZONES
• Erogenous or sexually stimulating
zones of both sexes appear to be
interesting or embarrassing when
discussed in class.

• When the erogenous zones are touched,

there is an expected sensation.

• However, the quality of sensation

depends on who and how the zones are
being touched. (Evans, 2015)
 Male circumcision
africa, some part of asia,
female genitile mutilation
middle east
Male circumcision besides from being a tradition, if done
correctly has, “hygiene and medical benefits such as
lowering the risk of pro state cancer and helping prevent
sexually transmitted diseases” tradition
(Ty, 2012, p4.), 2012, para 6.)

Moreover, “wives and girlfriends of circumcised men

had lower rates of HPV – which in rare cases may lead
to cervical and other cancers”
(Chui and Lapena p6)
 Sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to
obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual
comments or acts to traffic person's
sexuality using coercion, by any person
regardless of their relationship to the victim,
in any setting, including but not limited to
home and work
NO, means NO!
“Falling in love is
stronger than the
sex drive”
( Fisher 2005, p.60)
 UNDERSTANDING HUMAN
SEXUAL RESPONSE
• Sex is also sometimes referred to as "love making" giving a
premium to act based on and done out of love.
LOVE
noradrenaline - produced by brain
dopamine - feel good chemical
phenylephrine - feel tummy butterfly when
nasabat si crush
• According to Fisher “we are drawn to certain people not only for
cultural reasons, such as socioeconomics, intelligences and values
but also for biological reason”
(Zamosky, 2009 para 2).
love is just a function of brain
 feeling, emotion, or choice

Three stages of love

The three stages of love as far as our brain chemicals are concerned: lust, attraction
and attachment (Greenberg, 2016)

1 2 3
is an infatuation stages is driven
• sex hormones present in both mainly by dopamine and involves the hormones of
males and females motivate norepinephrine coupled with a oxytocin (known as the love
individuals to find a mate decrease in serotonin levels. hormones or cuddle chemical
hormones: testosterone
estrogen males are more aggressive and vasopressin.
• being the main hormones This cocktail of chemicals causes
• increased alertness and arousal Concentrations of these in the
responsible for sex drive
of the body when somebody is body increase the following
indeed experiments have
attracted to another, orgasm in both men and
shown that altering levels of • including a feel – good reward
these hormones has women.
pathway associated with the The release of these hormones
implication upon sexual person
desire is believed to be important
• increasing the desire to spend factor in long term attraction
more time with them.
and love.
Models of the sexual pattern

EXCITEMENT DESIRE
PLATEAU EXCITEMENT
ORGASM ORGASM
RESOLUTION RESOLUTION
 The Sexual Pattern

EXCITEMENT PLATEAU ORGASM RESOLUTION

arousal, penis continuation peak or body returns

erection, and intense to normal
vagina heightening of pleasure state
lubrication the arousal
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED
INFECTIONS
Involvement in sexual contact, either vaginal, oral or anal
may give temporary intense pleasure and the possibility of
transmitting more than 30 different bacteria, viruses and
parasites ('Sexually transmitted' 2016, para. 2) that may result
in a lifetime of sexually transmitted infections.

In our country the number of HIV and AIDS cases increase

every year.

In August 2017, the Philippines was said to have the highest

HIV growth rate in the Asia – Pacific ( Reuters2017)
FAMILY PLANNING
Family planning aims to provide accessible information on
sexual and reproductive health for people to choose from,
depending on their needs and preferences (Family
Planning 2018)

Contraception focuses on how to prevent pregnancy in line

with family planning.

For – in depth information and safe decisions on sexual

health, it is always best to consult with a medical expert.

Misuse or abuse of use of artificial contraception may lead

to serious high risks.
understanding the Self
-Amy Bloom
 Why Do I Look Like Myself?
• Science explain that our parents are very much instrumental in
understanding why we look how we look.

• Gregor Mendel first figured out how genes are passed from
parents to offspring in plants, including humans.

• His experiments on pea plants showed that genes are passed

intact from generation to generation and that traits were
passed from parent to off spring through several generations (
Cummings, 2016)
Why Do I Look Like Myself?

• From our skin tone, our hair color, to our height,

our physical characteristics are confirmation
that we are the offspring of our parents.

• When heredity is actually at work, we find

ourselves being the reflections of our ancestors,
the product of their DNA ( deoxyribonucleic acid)
at work in us, and for others, also looking like
carbon copies of them.
 Different cultures have different standard beauty .

Originally used as a post on a veranda in Nigeria, this

carving is of a senior royal wife was created by a famous
artist, Olówé of Ise. The scarification indicates her high
status.

For some African cultures, scarification,

including on the face, is a way to enhance
someone’s beauty — especially that of a
woman.
In addition to having light, clear skin, Japanese
beauty standards value having large eyes and
a double eyelid, or 二重 (futae).

Some people in Japan think that a

snaggletooth is cute or sexy

Elongated Necks
Many cultures adopted the neck ring beauty
concept, but it’s mostly common in Africa
and Asia.

For a woman to have a long beautiful neck, it

means wealth and good family lineage.
Earlobes

In Kenyan tribes, they used to believe the more

stretched your earlobe, the more beautiful you
were.

According to a paper published by Harvard University,

“Western beauty ideals include being thin and tall,
having long hair, having light/tanned skin, having big
breasts, large eyes, a small nose, and high
cheekbones.”
In the Philippines, the development of local standards of beauty can be
traced back to our colonial influence.
Skin color is the characteristic of culture.

• Rondilla states that the lighter skin is the

best in the hierarchy of being than the
brown and black skin. In terms of social
rank and status.

• As a result, the Philippines was colonized

by fairer skinned races of Spaniards,
Americans and Japanese.
But...
there are others who feel like they still need to
adjust some aspect of their body, because they
feel like they don't look good, even though you
tell them that they already are.

BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER

Those who are suffering BDD are so obsessed
about their appearance, thus think about their
flaws, real or not incessantly and uncontrollably
(Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Quest for
Perfection., 2012)
excessive worry to the
self
 ANOREXIA NERVOSA
Anorexia is defined as “A serious mental illness where
people are of low weight due to limiting their energy
intake. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, or
background. As well as restricting the amount of food
eaten, they may do a lot of exercise to get rid of food
eaten. Some people with anorexia may experience cycle of
binge eating and then purging (Anorexia, 2017). pica disorder

Body shaming is not only suffering of those who have

been criticized for their weight.
• The advent of social media has put pressure on us to look
even better.

• We post our visually attractive self and more often than

not, we use filter-application, where we cover our
imperfections, build and re-construct self that is better
accepted by our online
friends.

• Unfortunately, today's youngsters are victims of this, since

we live at a time when our self-approval depends on the
likes, the sharing and the responses of our social media
posts.
 is the Japanese art of
putting broken pottery
pieces back together with
gold
 Women should stand
against the cultural requirement on what they
should do with their bodies
 CELEBRATING BEAUTY IN
Diversity
At this time, we are urged to speak out against body shaming in particular
as we live in an image-driven virtual society.

We should never allow ourselves to be victims of this, since we are

supposed to celebrate true us, where we do not need to conceal our physical
defects and fight the demands of a deprecating picture guided by society.
You are beautiful.
Thank you and God bless us all!