Human Sexuality in a Diverse World

Sexuality Now

Human Sexuality in a Diverse WorldHuman Sexuality in a Diverse World

Подпись: t is often difficult to imagine how sexuality and gender are viewed outside the United States. We become accustomed to norms, practices, and behaviors where we live and may not understand how other cultures may view the same practices differently. For example, sexuality and gender in China are very different from in the United States. Taking a historical look at China, we find that in its earliest history, China was a matriarchal society. Women ruled the majority of families and were highly respected. During Confucius's reign, however, things changed. Women were seen as inferior to men. They were taught to be respectful and obedient to their fathers and older brothers when they were young, to their J husbands when they were married, and to their sons when their husbands died. Women's importance during this time was in their reproductive role—and in their role to reproduce male descendents. A woman's position within her family was "temporary and of Подпись: no great importance" (Ruan & Lau, 2004, p. 184). Because of this, a woman's education and skills training was not encouraged. Her responsibilities centered on childcare, cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks. In 1950 the People's Republic of China passed a marriage law that contained a statement on the equality of men and women. This law enabled women to obtain work and education so that by 1988, women accounted for 37% of the workforce, up from 7.5% in 1949. Even with these changes, however, many would say that men and women are far from equal in China. Some employers refuse to hire women, and various graduate schools reject female students. Today, 70% of China's illiterate population is female. SOURCE: Much of this information was adapted from Ruan, F., & Lau, M. P (2004). China: Demographics and a brief historical perspective. In R. T. Francoeur & R. J. Noonan (Eds.), international encyclopedia of sexuality. New York: Continuum International.

What’s It Like to Be a Woman in China?

Sexual intercourse in marriage is a good religious deed for the Muslim male, and the Koran likens wives to fields that men should cultivate as frequently as they want. All forms of sexuality, including anal and oral sex, are permissible. A man with a strong sex drive is advised to marry many wives, even more than the normal limit of four (Burgel, 1979). Islam restricts sex to the marital union exclusively, and when this is not adhered to, extreme measures are taken.

Подпись: harem Abbreviation of the Turkish word haremlik (haram in Arabic), meaning "women's quarters" or "sanctuary." Подпись:In traditional Islamic communities, women who were married to wealthy men usu­ally lived in secluded areas in their husbands’ homes, called harems. Harems were not the dens of sex and sensuality that are sometimes portrayed but, rather, were self-contained communities where women learned to become self-sufficient in the absence of men. Among the middle and lower classes, men had less wealth to offer potential wives, which gave women more power.

Islamic society has had a much freer, more open attitude to sexuality than Christian society. Erotic and love writings from medieval Islam are very common, and some of the books are quite explicit. There are many Arab love poems that are clearly sexually charged poems about the love of boys (Roth, 1991), for, like Greeks, Arabs celebrated young boys as the epitome of beauty and allowed sexual contact between men and boys.

The Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled most of the Islamic world from the 15th to the 20th century, had between 300 and 1,200 concubines, mostly captured or bought slaves. The Sultan’s mother ruled the harem and even sometimes ruled the em­pire itself if she was strong and her son was weak-willed (Tannahill, 1980). Because each woman might sleep with the Sultan once or twice a year at most, eunuchs (YOU-niks) were employed to guard against the women finding sexual satisfaction elsewhere. Some eunuchs had their testicles removed, some their penises, and some both; young eunuchs might have their testicles crushed. Many died under the surgeon’s knife.

Updated: 02.11.2015 — 12:12