Human sexuality Flashcards
Sex
The physical aspect of reproduction, gender the psychological and social aspects.
Human sexuality can be thought of from four aspects/pieces of a puzzle:
- Differentiation of the sexes – being man or woman
- The mutual attraction of the sexes
- Communal and social dimension
- The personal dimension of the union
Differentiation of the sexes - being man or woman
- Means there can be no self-sufficiency of each sex.
- They are seen as being complimentary to each other
The mutual attraction of the sexes
- Their reciprocal complementariness
- The phenomenon of falling in love
- Their union in marriage
Communal and social dimension
The union is characterized by
- Conjugal relations
- Establishment of the family that naturally follows the attraction and the complementarity.
The personal dimension of the union
It manifests in
- Free and loving relationship, leads to
- Creation of spiritual bond between the couple
- The relationship is exclusive and permanent.
Luv
- Infatuation is an extremely strong, emotional
sexual attraction. - It causes a lot of emotions and feelings leading to confusion in the mind.
- It often disappears as quickly as it came.
- Many people mistake sexual attraction for love, they also feel that sexual attraction is a sufficient foundation for a lasting relationship. This is very wrong.
- Developing a relationship follows a certain pattern. When we meet someone we feel attracted to that person. With time we get to know their weakness and faults.
Characteristics of infatuation
- It is an extremely strong, emotional physical sexual attraction.
- It is uncertain, possessive, jealous.
- It is more concerned with the physical aspect of the relationship.
- It is more sex-centered than person-centered
- If the physical side disappears, the relationship disintegrates.
- It is a ‘feeling’ which also disintegrates when it meets problems or strain.
- Its problem is that it expects and is afraid that the loved one will find someone more attractive and pleasing and dump him/her accordingly.
Love
- Love is an act of the will by which one develops strong feelings and attraction to another.
- Being an act of the will, it takes time to grow, therefore one works at it.
- For love to develop, the person’s qualities both strong points and weaknesses have to be considered, i.e.
- Enjoying being in his or her company
- Liking his or her character. - A boy who loves a girl will respect her body, care for her feelings and care for her reputation.
- A newly married couple will be deeply in love, but this love should grow and reach higher levels as they stay together and continue to discover each other
Characteristics of love
a) Love is person-centered, is concerned with the qualities of the person, his/her character and the company the person provides.
b) When love is present, one feels confident of their worth and esteemed in the eyes of the one who loves.
c) It is patient, can wait, and is confident of its own beauty. It knows that beauty will fade with time, but time will enhance the character and qualities of the person.
d) It has no resentment or jealousy because the relationship is of trust – One is loved for themselves, not the beauty or outer shell.
e) Love is confident in itself because the person in love is the controller of his/her emotions and is not swept along by emotions from elsewhere.
f) Love will not betray one’s values or themselves
g) Love and loving also means saying ‘NO’. If the person told NO gets angry, then he/she was not looking for love.
h) Love is not afraid of being dumped, because it has a solid foundation of mutual respect, trust and honesty.
Affection
- Being affectionate means we are considerate, loving, with a disinterested love.
- When one is described as being affectionate, indicates one’s warmth of character and personality and the consideration with which he treats others.
- Therefore a man can be affectionate to a woman without sexual overtones.
Complementarity between spouses
- Complementarity implies that each sex can be an inspiration and guide to personal growth and maturity of the other.
- Sex is a power, which God has given to human beings to be used in marriage, whose main purpose is the reproduction or multiplication of the species.
- The conjugal act is the culmination of the love between husband and wife. It is licit, pleasing to God, and necessary to achieve perfect unity between husband and wife. Therefore it must be an expression of total self-giving between the spouses.
Sexual development
- In adolescence, growing young people gradually become aware and conscious of their sexuality.
- For one to grow into an adult who has achieved proper sexual identity, age alone is not enough. One has to put his mind and will into it.
- He/she must have good role models to emulate particularly at the adolescent stage.
Characteristics of sexual donation
- Particular and Exclusive
- Sexual love has exclusive character.
- It is a personal donation where one of the two is exclusive for the other.
- It aims and demands possession.
- It is personal and exclusive.
- If a third party were to love either of the two with a sexual love, it would be an unjust interference. - Fertility
- Sexuality is a means of reproduction because it institutes a form of self-giving which opens to a donation of life as its extension.
- Sexuality should be open to the birth of a new life. The child born is not a biological product of their cohabitation, but properly and truly as part of their love.
- Therefore, a love between a man and woman brings with it the perspective of fertility. A love which closes this possibility is an incomplete love.
- The love of man and woman reaches its highest peak when it is open to the donation life.
Means of chastity
- Proper dressing. It should not be sexually provocative or outline the shape of the body.
- Not meet behind closed doors or go to lonely places with a person of the opposite sex.
- Don’t watch pornographic or sexual movies.
- Guard of the eyes-don’t look at improperly dressed people or magazines.
- Beware of the computer and all the degrading morals it brings.
- Not to participate in erotic dancing.
- Do not take holidays with a person who is not your spouse.
- Cannot share a flat either.
- Lead proper spiritual life.
- Peer pressure- do not do things just because everybody seems to be doing so.
- Avoid vulgar language
- Drinks- do not take hard drinks or drugs.
