A bird’s-eye view of sexuality theories, research programs, and sex education in the 20th century industrialized world highlights certain themes and assumptions I call “the sexological model of sexuality.” Ten of its most obvious tenets are: [4]
sexual interests and experiences of women and men, but the desire for sexual arousal and orgasm is built into everyone.
5. Heterosexual impulses are the norm, including desire for coitus, as a result of evolution.
6. Everyone has a sexual identity—heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual, and a gender identity—girl/woman/female or boy/man/male.
7. Sexuality exists in individuals (i. e., is a factor or quality of individual experience and development).
8. Sexual attitudes, interests, and problems are significantly shaped by early-life events.
9. Sexuality is an important component of maturity and mental health. Boundaries can be drawn between healthy or normal and abnormal or pathological manifestations.
10. There are cultural differences in how sexuality is expressed.
The themes of this model stress that sexuality is a universal aspect of individual life and culture, that it makes sense to talk about it in terms of normality and abnormality, that as a bodily based phenomenon it is best understood in terms of acts, experiences, and identities based on physical- ity, that biological factors selected during evolution determine[5] sexuality, and that men and women experience some similarities and some differences in their sexuality. Boiling it down further, we may say that the themes are universality, health, salience, body, biology, and sex differences. You will not, however, find the sexological model listed or discussed in sexology texts, although it provides the backdrop for modem sex research.