7.8: End of the Chapter Material

Key Takeaways

• With regard to sexuality, socialization in the U.S. and Western countries most notably adheres to heteronormativity, or the marking of heterosexual unions as normal and homosexual unions as socially abnormal and deviant.
• Religion, the law, and the media are three primary agents of socialization that teach people how to behave sexually.
• There is extreme variation in sexual expression across historical periods and cultures. This indicates that there are no universal sexual norms.
• In the current Western moment, heteronormative norms are privileged, meaning that heterosexual expressions of sexuality are more accepted than homosexual expressions. However, sexuality is not thought of in the same way across space and time; rather, different cultures and different historical moments think of sexuality in entirely different ways.
• Kinsey developed the Kinsey Scale, which was a numerical ranking of sexual behavior on a scale of complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality.
• Kinsey's open discussion of sexuality in the 1950 s contributed to the sexual revolution of the following decade, in which social standards that limited sex to heterosexual marriage were loosened.
• The Kinsey Report is frequently invoked to support the common estimate of one in ten Americans being a homosexual.
• The Kinsey Report was the largest study of norms in American sexuality to its time, conducted by Dr. Alfred Kinsey.
• The development of oral contraception also contributed to the loosening of social regulations on sexuality.
• The sexual revolution was a social movement in which social rules of sexuality became more lax.
• The Kinsey scale is a numeric scaling of individuals along a continuum of complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality.
• The varying forms of these attractions are generally divided into the following categories: heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality.
• In place of these categories, some prefer to think of "queer" sexual orientations; a broader term that refers to any non-heterosexual form of sexuality. The heterosexual/homosexual binary is a continuum of complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality, with bisexuality in the middle.
• Heteronormativity is the assumption that heterosexual orientations are normal to the exclusion of other sexual orientations.
• Sexual identity is an individual's conception of their own sexuality.
• The primary debate in conversations about sexual orientation is whether sexual orientation is static or fluid, whether one is born with an immutable sexual orientation, or whether one develops sexual orientation.
• Sexual reorientation therapies seek to "convert" homosexuals into heterosexuals.
• Sexual reorientation therapies seek to convert "homosexuals" into "heterosexuals."
• Homophobia is expressed through prejudice and discrimination, which can either be institutional or informal.
• The phrase LGBTQ refers to the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals.
• Institutional discrimination involves the state and the law, while informal discrimination refers to social controls and prejudices.
• In the United States, social disapproval of homosexuality is not evenly distributed throughout society. That being said, it is more or less pronounced according to age, ethnicity, geographic location, race, sex, social class, education, political identification, and religious status.
• Civil unions are ceremonies that grant same-sex couples in some states legal equality, even if not by the name of "marriage."
• Though some states have equal rights laws, many gay and lesbian couples are still denied the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples and cannot file joint taxes, share custody of children, have hospital visitation rights, or inherit equally.
• The first organizations in the U.S. that worked to improve LGBT issues were known as homophile organizations, such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.
• Sodomy laws are laws against any sexual contact other than heterosexual intercourse.
• The Stonewall Riots were riots in New York City in 1969 that is frequently thought of as the start of the movement by LGBT people to decriminalize homosexuality.
• In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court found that states could criminalize homosexuality in Bowers v. Hardwick.
• In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that anti-sodomy laws violated an individual's right to privacy.
• In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must license and recognize same-sex marriages.
• Sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality.
• Individuals are taught to use social cues to interpret sexual intent. This is most obviously demonstrated in behaviors associated with flirtation.
• Human sexual activity has sociological elements. Social context is therefore essential when one considers potentially sexual behavior.

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