Sorry I'm putting it back up because it was deleted, same now it's in the correct category.
Hello welcome to my mega post about sexuality. I hope you like it 😊
The professor Ana Lucia Belen is going to teach them.
The concepts of sexuality.
Observations
The concept of sexuation relates to a process that coincides with the evolution of the same life cycle of each individual in the broader framework of different evolutionary phases of general history. Every individual starts from an embryonic life that develops as a project. From what constitutes zero moment in the conception of a human being, with the fusion of a spermatozoon and an ovum, scholars have highlighted factors or elements that contribute to the creation of the new being of one sex or another. It is currently accepted opinion that the first sexual elements depend on the sperm carriers bearing that germinal factor, which is the chromosome XX or XY from which the first structures originated by genes depend. Therefore, some, from Natural Sciences, speak of genetic sex. However, as the first step of a long process, its most proper denomination is not sex but rather the general sexuation genetic factor. The reason is that, although it is very important, neither is absolutely determinative nor is the only one in the process, since there are others.
New discoveries
The organization of the first cell groups on their part gives rise to the activation of other factors that give rise to tissues and organs throughout the organism. In the journey of the first weeks of embryonic life, some basic processes of great interest occur. One such case is the appearance of undifferentiated progonada from which different gonads will derive through hormonal induction and from which, independently of chromosomes - and their genes - the future being will head towards one or another direction that we call, in a very primary way, male or female. A curious and important discovery: if this induction does not occur, evolution will be. This is what has been formulated under the maxim Eve precedes Adam. Other factors especially studied are those related to sexual differentiation of the brain that take place, according to current data, around the sixth-seventh month of embryonic development and whose result is an effect of the impregnation of certain or other hormones.
3. Other data
It is equally important to highlight studies related to the assignment of name at birth, as well as its presentation in society as one or the other sex and the corresponding start of new factors in the process. The study of these and similar data have led to a deeper understanding of the question regarding the construction of sex of subjects from early life stages so that what seemed like evidence when sex was related only to organs or natural data has become an object of inquiry when we depart from a global and integral concept such as general sex. The study of these processes and their different elements at play seems inexhaustible for explaining not only the differentiation between one and another sex but equally the variety of each one in particular. Through them, this evolutionary thread of biographical sexuation is woven, of which these data are only some indicators.
Intersexuality vs Dimorphism
Intersexuality is the modern concept situated as a base instead of the old dimorphism. Dimorphism is a term of Greek origin that means two forms. And it was adopted by biology to denote, on one hand, male and, on the other, women.
The Modern Era has thought of human subjects as sexed subjects. And it has placed general sex as a key to explain its biographical process, situating both sexes in interaction. From there, its interest lies in constructing their identities, which participate with materials from one and the other sex.
Intersexuality is therefore the notion that allows understanding how different indicators or factors configure general sex, always with the participation of both sexes. We all have elements of both sexes, even if the result of the process will always be one preferred over the other.
At the beginning of our Western civilization, when we established the bases of our thought, Plato asked his friends at The Banquet:
— What is the origin of that feeling we call love, how to explain it?
And Aristophanes, one of the guests, responded in this way:
— In the beginning, before we were as we are now, humans did not have the forms they had then nor were they as they are now. Those were spherical and rounded. They were complete and self-sufficient. Each one was sufficient for himself. They were neither men nor women but both together. They were androgynous.
The guests laughed. Aristophanes was known for his comedic character. In real life, he was an author of comedies. When the laughter allowed him to speak, Aristophanes continued his story:
— Because they were self-sufficient, they were proud and unbearable. And that's why they were punished. One day Zeus, tired of them, sent them to be cut in two, to be divided. And since then, some have seen themselves as needing the others, each one seeking to coexist with his other half, just the amputated other half. The diners stopped laughing and saw that Aristophanes, despite his extravagant air, had answered the question with a background that left them thoughtful. And the comedian concluded: — From then on all human beings seek each other. They seek the other part that is missing from them. And that's why they're attracted to each other and when they meet they hug and kiss. What we now call love is the consequence of that cut, of that differentiation.
The 5 sexes and their aspects
It's convenient, therefore, not to lose sight of the central line beyond these aspects. It is the vertebral line of this centered process around one or the other sex. Some disciplines have extended notions of sex such as biological sex, psychological sex, social sex, etc. and have adjectived different sexes based on studied factors. These denominations have extended, in turn, others such as genetic sex, endocrine sex, assignment sex, etc. to finally speak of social sex which they called gender. With this the central and vertebral concept of sex of subjects has become, at times, blurry and diffused. The aspects of sex should not distract us from the main line that is the sexualization of subjects. What's central to our object of study should not get lost behind debates on aspects nor should general lines be confused with their segments.
It's the subject that gets sexualized
From the logic and framework of human sexual fact, the concept of sex refers to subjects and not their elements or aspects, which as such aspects are merely factors of subjectification in its entirety, which is the main interest. The schema that has accustomed us to regrouping these aspects as fundamentally biological, psychological, or social, as it has been extended, may be useful but in Sexology we insist more on the biographical character of these aspects with a view to not losing the thread and thus prioritizing the subject itself over said aspects. It is, we insist, the subject, the protagonist of all of them. And it is its biography that best unites and accounts for its unity and coherence within its variety. It is important to explain not only the differentiation between one and the other sex but also the varieties in each of the two.
Casuisticity and inconsistencies
These cases are well known of all female athletes with male chromosomes and that, due to this fact, have been excluded from major competitions. This has led to repeatedly posing the strange question about the definition of men and women in various fields but with curious precision. Also known are the cases, although minority and therefore shocking or sensationalist, of other ambiguities such as those referred to as transgender individuals and the subsequent dispute over having to undergo mandatory surgical interventions to adapt their ID to their sexual condition that, ultimately, is neither normal nor abnormal but theirs and to which they therefore have a right.
The Minorities Added
If these cases are rare, it is still convenient not to lose sight of the fact that they serve for better knowledge of the phenomenon itself of sexuation and its complexity. Simplification creates problems among those who usually consider anomalies, precisely due to this excess of simplification.
As the meticulousness advances in the analysis relative to those different elements or aspects and their complexity, greater nuances emerge both in subjects and systems established around old notions that have not been renewed.
In any case, the casuistry of these minorities —which, added up, are not so minor— demands clarifying this great concept of sexuation for the configuration of subjects. It is known that, although they may be minorities, they do not cease to be human subjects and, therefore, non-uniform witnesses of that value which is the diversity in which we all participate.
At the bottom of these difficulties to understand diversities is not so much the phenomenon of normality or abnormality as the weight of identifying sex with reproduction and, ultimately, with the organs of generation.
The transition from males and females to men and women has been slow, and therefore, the remnants and vestiges of this old reference model still weigh heavily.
The modern concept of sex has taken an important step forward since the break with the old model of the genital locus, but it is evident that that ancient shadow continues to linger and constitutes a great number of misunderstandings.
The continuity of sexes is a notion that explains better the construction of each person's sex with its diversities without having to resort so frequently to normal and abnormal criteria, notions already outdated.
The Triple Criterion
Before these and similar situations —and especially incited by the debate of sexes and their continuous masculine-feminine—, the first great modern sexologist, Havelock Ellis, one of the first-generation sexologists, established in 1894 a criterion that, with slight adjustments, has remained and remains in force. This criterion is known as the characters of sexual characteristics at three levels of exclusivity, preference, and simultaneity. In this distribution of traits by reason of sex resides, ultimately, the phenomenon of compatibility between both sexes in the continuous formation they form. And in said repartition the notions of sexual characteristics help to understand what belongs to one and what to another —or what forms one and what another— constituting the differential between both always in mutual reference between the two.
Primary Characters
Sexual characters are referred to as primary when they are exclusive to each sex and not the other. This exclusivity has been frequently confused with 'biological' to deduce, from that equivocal denomination, other characteristics such as invariants or natural functions, etc., and, from there, social or moral consequences like 'normal', 'natural'. It is important to clarify this confusion. The old and entrenched criterion of classifying biological aspects on one side and derived aspects on the other served until the Modern Era and continues under other designations, such as in current discussions about biological aspects of sex or psychological and cultural aspects. If it is true that those designations have their reason for being, it is important not to confuse that called biological character with what is exclusive but not necessarily biological or natural, rather biographical. Examples of these primary sexual characters are genitals, but not only them. The case of self-perception or feeling of belonging to one sex and not the other is also an example.
The secondary characters
Secondary sexual characteristics are those that, after the exclusive ones, result in preferences for one of the sexes according to the development of their own biography with all its sexual elements. These can be more than one from the other sex, even if they occur in both. This is why they have a character of priority or preference for one of the two and are not exclusive to either.
Following the old criterion, these secondary sexual characteristics have been called psychological and cultural by opposition to those designated as biological or attached to them. But if you want to understand the phenomenon of sexes in detail, it's important to remember once again the mirage of old criteria centered on reproductive function and its limits, as well as the contribution of new classification to explain the process of differentiation between both.
Examples of secondary sexual characteristics according to this classification are different desires and their attractions. This is the case of homosexual subjects whose desires are oriented towards subjects of the same sex.
The tertiary characters
The tertiary sexual characters, for their part, are so variable and compatible by both sexes that they can be simultaneously identical to one or the other according to tastes, desires, or values. With these three levels of sex, the sexes move in their continuity.
In this way, the old reference to what is natural and what is not has given way to the new reference of the sexes as they structure themselves along their biography. What needs to be understood, then, is not so much what is or is not natural but the dynamic of these three traits of exclusivity, preference, and simultaneity that constitute the integrating materials of the differences between one and the other sex with regard to their relationships.
Although this may seem a theoretical issue, its practical implications are when, under other motives, it is spoken, for example, of equality or difference between one and the other sex. Both are equal as subjects and both are different as sexualized.
Aspects and Debates
The interest in this triple notion of sexual characters, as well as their contributions, lies in its horizontal presentation, that is, relative to the sexuation of one and the other of the two sexes in their reciprocity. And not vertical from one on top of the other.
These notions undoubtedly contrast with others from other fields of knowledge, which have maintained a recurrent scheme between nature and culture, less attentive to sexual fact —to its continuity— and more concerned about debates related to certain aspects of sex in order to explain other questions.
The main interest of the subjects is not so much the question of what is natural and what is cultural as what explains the differentiation between one and the other sex in the development of their biographies, which offers keys for understanding and coexistence among them.
If we take into account, along with the contribution of sexual characters, the other notions already mentioned of the continuum of sexes and intersexuality, it will be understood that the sexuation or sexual differentiation of subjects does not follow straight lines or separate between them but rather interactive curves between the elements of the two sexes in which sexual characters are shared to varying degrees and levels.
The excessive weight of gene protagonism and the little appreciation of memes —expressed in the language of some scientists— has led to giving more importance to the debate about nature and culture than to the biographical dimensions of the same subjects at the time of explaining their differentiation by reason of sex.
The extended expression the feminine part of men and the masculine part of women is a way of formulating this increasingly confirmed fact that needs more study and dedication for its development.
The Biographical Vertebrae
Another important notion in the same direction as the previous one —also introduced by first-generation sexologists to maintain continuity with the biographical sexual aspect of subjects between their aspects—, is the concept of sexual history.
The biography of every human subject is tiered by a series of stages or phases. There are therefore many and very diverse stages throughout the vital cycle depending on the aspects considered since there are many elements in this singular set that is each individual or subject as well as its variations.
One of the most well-known criteria is the one of chronological ages within which sex and its construction have usually gone unnoticed, although it's not entirely true because it always involves a masculine or feminine subject.
The thread of sexualization
The lack of consideration for this perspective on gendered condition has caused excessive attention to be focused on aspects such as health, general growth, language evolution, psychological conflicts, etc. The history of sexuation processes has tended to dissolve into these other aspects, as well as the even more global one of socialization. And it is this thread that our notion of sexual history accounts for, without the various style anecdotes making us lose sight of the central argument, which is situating ourselves within the framework of the sexes.
A 16-story history with routes
In third place, regarding sexualization, our culture has followed a rather implicit and informal direction, not necessarily hidden, with this chain of elements and processes that configure the sexual history. The consideration of these trajectories as points on a line allows one to see one's own sexual history as a linked chain of sequences and no longer as a series of isolated phenomena. Modern times, especially since the 19th century, have seen a great surge in literature that has formed, on its own, a distinct genre: that of autobiographies and diaries, or, put another way, the spaces of privacy and intimacy of subjects in which these trajectories are inscribed. Against certain cases, only sporadic before, the modern subject has become increasingly concerned with making one's history and recording it: conceptualizing it and counting on it. In these diaries and autobiographies is where one can best find the thread of the sexuated history. The biographies of these subjects are sometimes used by the media to show rare cases. But it would be important to see that, more than rare cases, this is about peculiarities that result strange due to a lack of a general framework for understanding and the still valid criterion of what is normal and abnormal, which converts many of these cases, by definition, into abnormal ones. Studied in another way, we see it's not like that. The great weight of a tradition that has given excessive prominence to genital functions more than to the dimensions of sex has caused everything to be interpreted or seen from those more than from these. If the physical presence of genitals and their effects has been great, this has been even greater through so-called symbolic interpretations from them. Freud has been, in part, the greatest responsible for this genital interpretive strategy. The modern turn proposed by sexologists that has consisted in giving more interest to sex that relates to genitals has opened a horizon through which the discovery of the other sex with its modes, nuances, and peculiarities offers greater richness than what is provided by genitals. Ultimately, these are just some elements among others of sex.
From there, the invitation to explore sex results in an invitation to depth from the surface, to complexity from simplicity. This is the path taken by this infantile stage, characterized by curiosity and questions. In short, it's about the desire to know and discover. Someone said that children are open-ended questions.
The sexual history belonging to the biography of every subject can be seen as a narrative in which each person is the protagonist and is constructed - written - through stages, phases, or chapters.
On the other hand, in every biography, there may be risks of sudden cuts or alterations due to various problems. Here we have preferred to highlight the general sexual history rather than focusing on those problems.
The most important thing in a biographical story is for it to keep moving forward. And many times, the same description of problems loses sight of the thread that runs through every stage in the story itself of the subjects whose narrative makes copulation nothing more - as Havelock Ellis wrote - only an incident: just an incident that should not be mythologized but rather relativized and placed within its entirety.
It is necessary to insist: trees of problems prevent seeing the forest of sexual history, sometimes turning it into a clinical story. It's important not to medicalize life by converting general biography into a clinical case.
Even the aspects under which these problems are considered do not reveal the narrative thread and conduct of the subjects themselves: their history that, in occasions, it breaks or gets messed up or changes to then keep going, always keep going.
On one hand, the discovery of sex —of the other sexed— contains large doses of curiosity and intrigue. The general law of sexual attraction leads subjects to empirical and experiential experimentation.
This is the distinctive seal that usually expresses itself by saying each person is himself and only himself, distinct and irreproducible. And from there, the relationships between sexes have all that character of uniqueness and distinction that seem destined to discover the universe for the first time.
On the other hand, the reasonable dimension of those same subjects brings forth the minimum doses of measure and prudence capable of relating things with things, phenomena with phenomena, feelings with thoughts, etc. And this allows each person to contrast their own discoveries within the general framework of others. In the end, do not believe that you are discovering the Mediterranean when it is already discovered, but discover something new about it.
In scientific order, one usually calls an experiment without a frame and without taking into account those already made and what they have given as a result, test/error experiment. And one usually calls organized and reasonable experiments to those that take these into account.
Both can give their own results. Also their own risks. Between both, it is about choosing. The sexual experience as discovery and encounter of the sexes invites experimentation, which can be either test/error or with reasonable variables.
Idea of Sexuality
The main dictionaries of different languages define sexuality as a quality. Thus the Oxford English Dictionary: “The quality of being sexed or having sex”. In the same direction is the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged dictionary; and, following this, the Robert and Larousse. Although the Royal Spanish Academy's Dictionary is more concise, they all agree in highlighting the capacity or quality of living as one or the other sex or belonging to it.
Why is it a quality
When we say someone is cordial, we're saying that person has the trait of cordiality, that they have that gift. When we say someone is sexual, we're attributing sexuality to them. This idea of quality, trait, value or dimension is the one that best fits the definition of sexuality. Hence, we can state that sexuality is the dimension each individual gives to being sexed (the inherent quality of each person due to their sex). Every human subject is sexed, but each one develops their own sexuality.
A way of living
If we translate these observations into the everyday life of the subjects, we observe that, following the biographical rhythm of their growth, they sexualize their sensations, perceptions, emotions, and feelings. In short, they sexualize all their experiences: their acts and attitudes, their morals or customs, their behaviors and values.
The sexuality of a subject is central and personal to its history. Or, as I would say, making reference to the general map, one of the modes: masculine or feminine through which it situates itself in existence.
Some philosophers and thinkers, such as Sartre or Simone de Beauvoir, have especially described this human dimension very importantly.
Trying to summarize this series of phenomena, Merleau-Ponty wrote: Sexuality permeates our existence, sexuality is all our being. Or also: There are two ways of situating oneself in existence —in relation to the world and others—: one is masculine and the other, feminine.
By his part, the philosopher J. Marías has described it as the most fundamental dimension of empirical life: that of being a man or woman. One can read this from his work La educación sentimental, (Edit. Alianza, 1998).
Sexuality and sensuality
Due to the weight of genitalia on the sex, this quality that is sexuality has been confused with a series of behaviors that have been improperly called sexual. This is the case of confusing sexuality with reproductive instinct or lust. The terms sexuality, like those of sex or sexual, have suffered deformations and ambiguities that can be understandable but not justifiable when analyzed from the logic of the fact of sexes. Thus, two similar but distinct concepts have been confused and blurred: sexuality and sensuality.
Sexuality and Copulation
Other misunderstandings are even more substantial and dense. This is the case of equating sexuality with the generative or genetic function, or rather, genital. This misunderstanding, which is also explicable in historical and semantic terms, has been caused by the association of a part with the whole and its subsequent reduction of the whole quality to one of the functions of some organs. In this way, we still speak today of sex as a synonym for sexuality and of this, in turn, as a synonym for activities exclusively related to the generation organs. Thus, it is usually said that sexual relationship refers to genital, or rather, copulation.
22. Sexuality and Libido
One of the factors that have most influenced the confusion of sexuality with sensuality and the pleasure of copulatory behavior has been the expansion of Freud's notion of libido as a general interpretive postulate of 'the sexual'. The other factor, similar to the previous one, has been the progressive implantation of the term sexual by the libidinal until it was not only confused but equated. Sexuality, therefore, occupied by that content, has been populated with its complexes, especially the ones of guilt and morbidity. Like the long shadow of the cypress, the shadow of libido has covered a concept that, although related to it, needs to be clarified and explained in itself. It is important to clarify these ambiguities if one wants to have an elementary idea of what this quality is. The lack of attention paid to contents and concepts, as well as the abundance of careless language, have fed into this series of ambiguities and corresponding confusions. These clarifications may seem of little interest when dealing with some general aspects, but they are indispensable when dealing with problems that require, on occasion, the untangling of many 'small confusions'. Many great problems are not just the result of these small ambiguities that, added up, ultimately yield a non-trivial idea of sexuality.
[
Hello welcome to my mega post about sexuality. I hope you like it 😊
The professor Ana Lucia Belen is going to teach them.
The concepts of sexuality.
Observations
The concept of sexuation relates to a process that coincides with the evolution of the same life cycle of each individual in the broader framework of different evolutionary phases of general history. Every individual starts from an embryonic life that develops as a project. From what constitutes zero moment in the conception of a human being, with the fusion of a spermatozoon and an ovum, scholars have highlighted factors or elements that contribute to the creation of the new being of one sex or another. It is currently accepted opinion that the first sexual elements depend on the sperm carriers bearing that germinal factor, which is the chromosome XX or XY from which the first structures originated by genes depend. Therefore, some, from Natural Sciences, speak of genetic sex. However, as the first step of a long process, its most proper denomination is not sex but rather the general sexuation genetic factor. The reason is that, although it is very important, neither is absolutely determinative nor is the only one in the process, since there are others.
New discoveries
The organization of the first cell groups on their part gives rise to the activation of other factors that give rise to tissues and organs throughout the organism. In the journey of the first weeks of embryonic life, some basic processes of great interest occur. One such case is the appearance of undifferentiated progonada from which different gonads will derive through hormonal induction and from which, independently of chromosomes - and their genes - the future being will head towards one or another direction that we call, in a very primary way, male or female. A curious and important discovery: if this induction does not occur, evolution will be. This is what has been formulated under the maxim Eve precedes Adam. Other factors especially studied are those related to sexual differentiation of the brain that take place, according to current data, around the sixth-seventh month of embryonic development and whose result is an effect of the impregnation of certain or other hormones.
3. Other data
It is equally important to highlight studies related to the assignment of name at birth, as well as its presentation in society as one or the other sex and the corresponding start of new factors in the process. The study of these and similar data have led to a deeper understanding of the question regarding the construction of sex of subjects from early life stages so that what seemed like evidence when sex was related only to organs or natural data has become an object of inquiry when we depart from a global and integral concept such as general sex. The study of these processes and their different elements at play seems inexhaustible for explaining not only the differentiation between one and another sex but equally the variety of each one in particular. Through them, this evolutionary thread of biographical sexuation is woven, of which these data are only some indicators.
Intersexuality vs Dimorphism
Intersexuality is the modern concept situated as a base instead of the old dimorphism. Dimorphism is a term of Greek origin that means two forms. And it was adopted by biology to denote, on one hand, male and, on the other, women.
The Modern Era has thought of human subjects as sexed subjects. And it has placed general sex as a key to explain its biographical process, situating both sexes in interaction. From there, its interest lies in constructing their identities, which participate with materials from one and the other sex.
Intersexuality is therefore the notion that allows understanding how different indicators or factors configure general sex, always with the participation of both sexes. We all have elements of both sexes, even if the result of the process will always be one preferred over the other.
At the beginning of our Western civilization, when we established the bases of our thought, Plato asked his friends at The Banquet:
— What is the origin of that feeling we call love, how to explain it?
And Aristophanes, one of the guests, responded in this way:
— In the beginning, before we were as we are now, humans did not have the forms they had then nor were they as they are now. Those were spherical and rounded. They were complete and self-sufficient. Each one was sufficient for himself. They were neither men nor women but both together. They were androgynous.
The guests laughed. Aristophanes was known for his comedic character. In real life, he was an author of comedies. When the laughter allowed him to speak, Aristophanes continued his story:
— Because they were self-sufficient, they were proud and unbearable. And that's why they were punished. One day Zeus, tired of them, sent them to be cut in two, to be divided. And since then, some have seen themselves as needing the others, each one seeking to coexist with his other half, just the amputated other half. The diners stopped laughing and saw that Aristophanes, despite his extravagant air, had answered the question with a background that left them thoughtful. And the comedian concluded: — From then on all human beings seek each other. They seek the other part that is missing from them. And that's why they're attracted to each other and when they meet they hug and kiss. What we now call love is the consequence of that cut, of that differentiation.
The 5 sexes and their aspects
It's convenient, therefore, not to lose sight of the central line beyond these aspects. It is the vertebral line of this centered process around one or the other sex. Some disciplines have extended notions of sex such as biological sex, psychological sex, social sex, etc. and have adjectived different sexes based on studied factors. These denominations have extended, in turn, others such as genetic sex, endocrine sex, assignment sex, etc. to finally speak of social sex which they called gender. With this the central and vertebral concept of sex of subjects has become, at times, blurry and diffused. The aspects of sex should not distract us from the main line that is the sexualization of subjects. What's central to our object of study should not get lost behind debates on aspects nor should general lines be confused with their segments.
It's the subject that gets sexualized
From the logic and framework of human sexual fact, the concept of sex refers to subjects and not their elements or aspects, which as such aspects are merely factors of subjectification in its entirety, which is the main interest. The schema that has accustomed us to regrouping these aspects as fundamentally biological, psychological, or social, as it has been extended, may be useful but in Sexology we insist more on the biographical character of these aspects with a view to not losing the thread and thus prioritizing the subject itself over said aspects. It is, we insist, the subject, the protagonist of all of them. And it is its biography that best unites and accounts for its unity and coherence within its variety. It is important to explain not only the differentiation between one and the other sex but also the varieties in each of the two.
Casuisticity and inconsistencies
These cases are well known of all female athletes with male chromosomes and that, due to this fact, have been excluded from major competitions. This has led to repeatedly posing the strange question about the definition of men and women in various fields but with curious precision. Also known are the cases, although minority and therefore shocking or sensationalist, of other ambiguities such as those referred to as transgender individuals and the subsequent dispute over having to undergo mandatory surgical interventions to adapt their ID to their sexual condition that, ultimately, is neither normal nor abnormal but theirs and to which they therefore have a right.
The Minorities Added
If these cases are rare, it is still convenient not to lose sight of the fact that they serve for better knowledge of the phenomenon itself of sexuation and its complexity. Simplification creates problems among those who usually consider anomalies, precisely due to this excess of simplification.
As the meticulousness advances in the analysis relative to those different elements or aspects and their complexity, greater nuances emerge both in subjects and systems established around old notions that have not been renewed.
In any case, the casuistry of these minorities —which, added up, are not so minor— demands clarifying this great concept of sexuation for the configuration of subjects. It is known that, although they may be minorities, they do not cease to be human subjects and, therefore, non-uniform witnesses of that value which is the diversity in which we all participate.
At the bottom of these difficulties to understand diversities is not so much the phenomenon of normality or abnormality as the weight of identifying sex with reproduction and, ultimately, with the organs of generation.
The transition from males and females to men and women has been slow, and therefore, the remnants and vestiges of this old reference model still weigh heavily.
The modern concept of sex has taken an important step forward since the break with the old model of the genital locus, but it is evident that that ancient shadow continues to linger and constitutes a great number of misunderstandings.
The continuity of sexes is a notion that explains better the construction of each person's sex with its diversities without having to resort so frequently to normal and abnormal criteria, notions already outdated.
The Triple Criterion
Before these and similar situations —and especially incited by the debate of sexes and their continuous masculine-feminine—, the first great modern sexologist, Havelock Ellis, one of the first-generation sexologists, established in 1894 a criterion that, with slight adjustments, has remained and remains in force. This criterion is known as the characters of sexual characteristics at three levels of exclusivity, preference, and simultaneity. In this distribution of traits by reason of sex resides, ultimately, the phenomenon of compatibility between both sexes in the continuous formation they form. And in said repartition the notions of sexual characteristics help to understand what belongs to one and what to another —or what forms one and what another— constituting the differential between both always in mutual reference between the two.
Primary Characters
Sexual characters are referred to as primary when they are exclusive to each sex and not the other. This exclusivity has been frequently confused with 'biological' to deduce, from that equivocal denomination, other characteristics such as invariants or natural functions, etc., and, from there, social or moral consequences like 'normal', 'natural'. It is important to clarify this confusion. The old and entrenched criterion of classifying biological aspects on one side and derived aspects on the other served until the Modern Era and continues under other designations, such as in current discussions about biological aspects of sex or psychological and cultural aspects. If it is true that those designations have their reason for being, it is important not to confuse that called biological character with what is exclusive but not necessarily biological or natural, rather biographical. Examples of these primary sexual characters are genitals, but not only them. The case of self-perception or feeling of belonging to one sex and not the other is also an example.
The secondary characters
Secondary sexual characteristics are those that, after the exclusive ones, result in preferences for one of the sexes according to the development of their own biography with all its sexual elements. These can be more than one from the other sex, even if they occur in both. This is why they have a character of priority or preference for one of the two and are not exclusive to either.
Following the old criterion, these secondary sexual characteristics have been called psychological and cultural by opposition to those designated as biological or attached to them. But if you want to understand the phenomenon of sexes in detail, it's important to remember once again the mirage of old criteria centered on reproductive function and its limits, as well as the contribution of new classification to explain the process of differentiation between both.
Examples of secondary sexual characteristics according to this classification are different desires and their attractions. This is the case of homosexual subjects whose desires are oriented towards subjects of the same sex.
The tertiary characters
The tertiary sexual characters, for their part, are so variable and compatible by both sexes that they can be simultaneously identical to one or the other according to tastes, desires, or values. With these three levels of sex, the sexes move in their continuity.
In this way, the old reference to what is natural and what is not has given way to the new reference of the sexes as they structure themselves along their biography. What needs to be understood, then, is not so much what is or is not natural but the dynamic of these three traits of exclusivity, preference, and simultaneity that constitute the integrating materials of the differences between one and the other sex with regard to their relationships.
Although this may seem a theoretical issue, its practical implications are when, under other motives, it is spoken, for example, of equality or difference between one and the other sex. Both are equal as subjects and both are different as sexualized.
Aspects and Debates
The interest in this triple notion of sexual characters, as well as their contributions, lies in its horizontal presentation, that is, relative to the sexuation of one and the other of the two sexes in their reciprocity. And not vertical from one on top of the other.
These notions undoubtedly contrast with others from other fields of knowledge, which have maintained a recurrent scheme between nature and culture, less attentive to sexual fact —to its continuity— and more concerned about debates related to certain aspects of sex in order to explain other questions.
The main interest of the subjects is not so much the question of what is natural and what is cultural as what explains the differentiation between one and the other sex in the development of their biographies, which offers keys for understanding and coexistence among them.
If we take into account, along with the contribution of sexual characters, the other notions already mentioned of the continuum of sexes and intersexuality, it will be understood that the sexuation or sexual differentiation of subjects does not follow straight lines or separate between them but rather interactive curves between the elements of the two sexes in which sexual characters are shared to varying degrees and levels.
The excessive weight of gene protagonism and the little appreciation of memes —expressed in the language of some scientists— has led to giving more importance to the debate about nature and culture than to the biographical dimensions of the same subjects at the time of explaining their differentiation by reason of sex.
The extended expression the feminine part of men and the masculine part of women is a way of formulating this increasingly confirmed fact that needs more study and dedication for its development.
The Biographical Vertebrae
Another important notion in the same direction as the previous one —also introduced by first-generation sexologists to maintain continuity with the biographical sexual aspect of subjects between their aspects—, is the concept of sexual history.
The biography of every human subject is tiered by a series of stages or phases. There are therefore many and very diverse stages throughout the vital cycle depending on the aspects considered since there are many elements in this singular set that is each individual or subject as well as its variations.
One of the most well-known criteria is the one of chronological ages within which sex and its construction have usually gone unnoticed, although it's not entirely true because it always involves a masculine or feminine subject.
The thread of sexualization
The lack of consideration for this perspective on gendered condition has caused excessive attention to be focused on aspects such as health, general growth, language evolution, psychological conflicts, etc. The history of sexuation processes has tended to dissolve into these other aspects, as well as the even more global one of socialization. And it is this thread that our notion of sexual history accounts for, without the various style anecdotes making us lose sight of the central argument, which is situating ourselves within the framework of the sexes.
A 16-story history with routes
In third place, regarding sexualization, our culture has followed a rather implicit and informal direction, not necessarily hidden, with this chain of elements and processes that configure the sexual history. The consideration of these trajectories as points on a line allows one to see one's own sexual history as a linked chain of sequences and no longer as a series of isolated phenomena. Modern times, especially since the 19th century, have seen a great surge in literature that has formed, on its own, a distinct genre: that of autobiographies and diaries, or, put another way, the spaces of privacy and intimacy of subjects in which these trajectories are inscribed. Against certain cases, only sporadic before, the modern subject has become increasingly concerned with making one's history and recording it: conceptualizing it and counting on it. In these diaries and autobiographies is where one can best find the thread of the sexuated history. The biographies of these subjects are sometimes used by the media to show rare cases. But it would be important to see that, more than rare cases, this is about peculiarities that result strange due to a lack of a general framework for understanding and the still valid criterion of what is normal and abnormal, which converts many of these cases, by definition, into abnormal ones. Studied in another way, we see it's not like that. The great weight of a tradition that has given excessive prominence to genital functions more than to the dimensions of sex has caused everything to be interpreted or seen from those more than from these. If the physical presence of genitals and their effects has been great, this has been even greater through so-called symbolic interpretations from them. Freud has been, in part, the greatest responsible for this genital interpretive strategy. The modern turn proposed by sexologists that has consisted in giving more interest to sex that relates to genitals has opened a horizon through which the discovery of the other sex with its modes, nuances, and peculiarities offers greater richness than what is provided by genitals. Ultimately, these are just some elements among others of sex.
From there, the invitation to explore sex results in an invitation to depth from the surface, to complexity from simplicity. This is the path taken by this infantile stage, characterized by curiosity and questions. In short, it's about the desire to know and discover. Someone said that children are open-ended questions.
The sexual history belonging to the biography of every subject can be seen as a narrative in which each person is the protagonist and is constructed - written - through stages, phases, or chapters.
On the other hand, in every biography, there may be risks of sudden cuts or alterations due to various problems. Here we have preferred to highlight the general sexual history rather than focusing on those problems.
The most important thing in a biographical story is for it to keep moving forward. And many times, the same description of problems loses sight of the thread that runs through every stage in the story itself of the subjects whose narrative makes copulation nothing more - as Havelock Ellis wrote - only an incident: just an incident that should not be mythologized but rather relativized and placed within its entirety.
It is necessary to insist: trees of problems prevent seeing the forest of sexual history, sometimes turning it into a clinical story. It's important not to medicalize life by converting general biography into a clinical case.
Even the aspects under which these problems are considered do not reveal the narrative thread and conduct of the subjects themselves: their history that, in occasions, it breaks or gets messed up or changes to then keep going, always keep going.
On one hand, the discovery of sex —of the other sexed— contains large doses of curiosity and intrigue. The general law of sexual attraction leads subjects to empirical and experiential experimentation.
This is the distinctive seal that usually expresses itself by saying each person is himself and only himself, distinct and irreproducible. And from there, the relationships between sexes have all that character of uniqueness and distinction that seem destined to discover the universe for the first time.
On the other hand, the reasonable dimension of those same subjects brings forth the minimum doses of measure and prudence capable of relating things with things, phenomena with phenomena, feelings with thoughts, etc. And this allows each person to contrast their own discoveries within the general framework of others. In the end, do not believe that you are discovering the Mediterranean when it is already discovered, but discover something new about it.
In scientific order, one usually calls an experiment without a frame and without taking into account those already made and what they have given as a result, test/error experiment. And one usually calls organized and reasonable experiments to those that take these into account.
Both can give their own results. Also their own risks. Between both, it is about choosing. The sexual experience as discovery and encounter of the sexes invites experimentation, which can be either test/error or with reasonable variables.
Idea of Sexuality
The main dictionaries of different languages define sexuality as a quality. Thus the Oxford English Dictionary: “The quality of being sexed or having sex”. In the same direction is the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged dictionary; and, following this, the Robert and Larousse. Although the Royal Spanish Academy's Dictionary is more concise, they all agree in highlighting the capacity or quality of living as one or the other sex or belonging to it.
Why is it a quality
When we say someone is cordial, we're saying that person has the trait of cordiality, that they have that gift. When we say someone is sexual, we're attributing sexuality to them. This idea of quality, trait, value or dimension is the one that best fits the definition of sexuality. Hence, we can state that sexuality is the dimension each individual gives to being sexed (the inherent quality of each person due to their sex). Every human subject is sexed, but each one develops their own sexuality.
A way of living
If we translate these observations into the everyday life of the subjects, we observe that, following the biographical rhythm of their growth, they sexualize their sensations, perceptions, emotions, and feelings. In short, they sexualize all their experiences: their acts and attitudes, their morals or customs, their behaviors and values.
The sexuality of a subject is central and personal to its history. Or, as I would say, making reference to the general map, one of the modes: masculine or feminine through which it situates itself in existence.
Some philosophers and thinkers, such as Sartre or Simone de Beauvoir, have especially described this human dimension very importantly.
Trying to summarize this series of phenomena, Merleau-Ponty wrote: Sexuality permeates our existence, sexuality is all our being. Or also: There are two ways of situating oneself in existence —in relation to the world and others—: one is masculine and the other, feminine.
By his part, the philosopher J. Marías has described it as the most fundamental dimension of empirical life: that of being a man or woman. One can read this from his work La educación sentimental, (Edit. Alianza, 1998).
Sexuality and sensuality
Due to the weight of genitalia on the sex, this quality that is sexuality has been confused with a series of behaviors that have been improperly called sexual. This is the case of confusing sexuality with reproductive instinct or lust. The terms sexuality, like those of sex or sexual, have suffered deformations and ambiguities that can be understandable but not justifiable when analyzed from the logic of the fact of sexes. Thus, two similar but distinct concepts have been confused and blurred: sexuality and sensuality.
Sexuality and Copulation
Other misunderstandings are even more substantial and dense. This is the case of equating sexuality with the generative or genetic function, or rather, genital. This misunderstanding, which is also explicable in historical and semantic terms, has been caused by the association of a part with the whole and its subsequent reduction of the whole quality to one of the functions of some organs. In this way, we still speak today of sex as a synonym for sexuality and of this, in turn, as a synonym for activities exclusively related to the generation organs. Thus, it is usually said that sexual relationship refers to genital, or rather, copulation.
22. Sexuality and Libido
One of the factors that have most influenced the confusion of sexuality with sensuality and the pleasure of copulatory behavior has been the expansion of Freud's notion of libido as a general interpretive postulate of 'the sexual'. The other factor, similar to the previous one, has been the progressive implantation of the term sexual by the libidinal until it was not only confused but equated. Sexuality, therefore, occupied by that content, has been populated with its complexes, especially the ones of guilt and morbidity. Like the long shadow of the cypress, the shadow of libido has covered a concept that, although related to it, needs to be clarified and explained in itself. It is important to clarify these ambiguities if one wants to have an elementary idea of what this quality is. The lack of attention paid to contents and concepts, as well as the abundance of careless language, have fed into this series of ambiguities and corresponding confusions. These clarifications may seem of little interest when dealing with some general aspects, but they are indispensable when dealing with problems that require, on occasion, the untangling of many 'small confusions'. Many great problems are not just the result of these small ambiguities that, added up, ultimately yield a non-trivial idea of sexuality.
[
4 comentários - La sexualidad (megapost)
vos me queres volver loco.....O.o 🤤
sos vos?? 🤤
🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 🤤 😃