Gender Roles and Sexual Behavior in Women

Gender Roles and Sexual Behavior in Women

Gender Roles and Sexual Behavior in Women

Shinell Jordan

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3/20/2015

        Throughout history the sexuality of women has almost been a taboo subject. The prevailing mentality was that women should be chaste and save herself for her husband. Those women that did not hold on to their chastity were considered to be loose. In some cultures, like those that have deeply religious beliefs, tie a woman’s marriageability to her chaste. For instance, in the Christian Bible, if a woman is not a virgin when she is married it is said she should be put to death (Det. 22:20-21 King James Version). Our media also shows how theocratic countries stone or hang women to death for the crime of adultery showing how the sexuality of women is still looked at as something to be controlled (Skynews 2015).

There’s another factor that determines how women sexual behavior is perceived and its gender roles. Gender roles are socially accepted norms for a specific sex that are considered proper (Roscoe 1998). Gender roles vary by society and are not all encompassing. Instead, gender roles are relativistic in nature.  Gender, by mainstream standards, is determined by the sexual organs you are born with. However, there are many other cultures that recognize up to five genders (Maccoby, Andrade 1966). This may be due to people that are born with genitalia for both sexes. Gender roles for women in western countries have changed. This is due to the change in family structure, lifestyle, education and income of women (Dunleavy 2007). As the income gaps become narrower, more and more women are choosing to get married later in life and have children later in life as well. What does this have to do with traditional gender roles? Some think this is leading to a revolution in the way women view sex in general and a less culturally suppressed female sexuality (Baumeister, Twenge 2002). Gender roles and woman sexual behavior go hand in hand. Both have effects on the other and the changes that are occurring in society will lead to a less oppressive view of woman sexual behavior.

Sexual identity, or sexual orientation, describes how a person thinks of themselves and whom they are attracted to sexually (Reiter 1989). In today’s age the sexual identity of many people have become more fluid as society becomes more tolerant of behavior that was once considered very taboo. Sexual identity begins in childhood when one begins to recognize themselves (Rosario et al 2005). For people that consider themselves straight the cultural backdrop of their lives reflects their identity in mainstream media and family. For those that are born liking the same sex historically did not have the same privileges. For the latter group growing up being attracted to the same sex can be met with ostracizing, violence and ignorance. All of those lead to a person becoming more oppressed and thus trying to change their sexual behavior to fit into a preset mold. When it comes to women, a group that has historically had their sexual views come secondary to those of men with added restrictions not imposed on men, this can lead to behavior that will lead to her being stigmatized (Baumeister, Twenge 2002).