Television has likely had a significant effect on sexual attitudes and behaviors, given the amount of time people spend watching it. By the time we are 18 years old, each of us has watched TV for an average of 20,000 hours—certainly enough time for it to have some influence on our perspectives about sexuality (Manganello […]

The phenomenon that we know as mass media began less than 600 years ago. The invention of typesetting in 1450 meant that books, instead of being laboriously hand­written, could be mechanically printed, which made them available to the common woman and man. Black-and-white silent movies first played for a paying audience in 1895, and in […]

It was not until the 1960s—after the flurry of post-World War II marriages, the baby boom, and widespread disap­pointment in the resulting domesticity of women—that a new movement for gender-role equality began. In The Femi­nine Mystique, author Betty Friedan’s descriptions of feelings of depression, guilt, and a lack of meaning resonated with many women whose […]

After World War II, living in the suburbs became the ideal and goal of middle-class families, financed by the father as breadwinner. Women returned the workplace to men and devoted themselves to their homes, children, and husbands. Popular media portrayed the postwar housewives as happy and content (Coontz, 2011). Psychology of the era claimed that […]

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) led in changing perspectives about sexual­ity in the 20th century with the first of several books, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). Freud’s belief that sexuality was innate in women as well as in men helped expand Victorian concepts about sexuality. The physician Havelock Ellis (1859-1939), in his book On Life and Sex […]

Slavery’s Assault on Sexuality and Gender Roles An extreme manifestation of gender roles and sexuality was imposed on Black slaves in the United States; stereotypes of Black sexuality provided a justification for the institution of slavery and White power.[2] Europeans’ ethnocentric reactions in their first encounters with black Africans set the stage for the denigration […]

Unfortunately, these progressive views did not prevail. The Victorian era, which took its name from the queen who ascended the British throne in 1837 and ruled for over 60 years, brought a sharp turnaround. The sexes had highly defined roles. Women’s sexuality was polarized between the images of Madonna and Eve (which evolved in the […]

The prevailing view of nonreproductive sex as sinful was modified by Protestant reform­ers of the 16th century. Both Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509­1564) recognized the value of sex in marriage (Berman & Berman, 2001). According to Calvin, marital sex was permissible if it stemmed "from a desire for children, or to avoid fornication, […]

Judaic and Christian Traditions By the time Hebraic culture was established, gender roles were highly specialized. The book of Proverbs, in the Hebrew Bible, lists the duties of a good wife: She must instruct servants, care for her family, keep household accounts, and obey her husband. Procreation (the bearing of children, especially sons) was essential; […]

The second theme and legacy of great significance is a rigid distinction between male and female roles. The gender-role legacy is based on far more than the physiological differences between the sexes. Although physiological differences between males and females create gender characteristics and inclinations in each sex, socialization lim­its, shapes, and exaggerates our biological tendencies. […]