Human Sexuality 03-04

UNIT 1. Sexuality and Society Part A. Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives 1. A Man of Words: A Man of Action, Dann Dulin, A & U (Art & Understanding), June 2002 The 1985 death of a fellow actor, then his brother's 1990 AIDS diagnosis, got Danny Glover involved. From there, Glover became a high-profile activist and the first goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, dividing his time between Africa and America to share his global vision for a sustainable world. 2. The Women of Islam, Lisa Beyer, Time, December 3, 2001 This eye-opening look at the lives of women in the Muslim world begins with some history about Islam and its prophet Muhammad. Although in the context of 7th-century Arabia Muhammad could be considered a feminist, today's women in Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Kashmir seem entrenched in inequality. 3. Slaves of the Brothel, Sebastian Junger, Vanity Fair, July 2002 In postwar Kosovo, 200,000 eastern European women a year, lured by promises of work, are forced into prostitution. Unfortunately, international efforts to prosecute those responsible for this $712 billion trafficking have been unsuccessful, so women like Niki, whom we meet in this article, live as terrified slaves. 4. South Africa's Shame, Caille Millner, Essence, August 2002 The startling statistics and stories contained in this article are upsetting and discouraging. Children, mostly girls, some as young as 5 months old, have been rapedone every 24 minutesbut the likelihood of prosecution or justice is low. A growing number of advocacy groups, however, are materializing to publicize and confront the problem. 5. Rock the Casbah, T. Z. Parsa, Details, June/July 2002 What is it like to be a kid in Iran? Well, you are the majority since 70 percent of Iran's 66 million people are under 30. Take this guided tour of the night-life options available to young Iranians despite the efforts of the police, mullahs, and basij (formal and volunteer religious enforcers) to stop them. 6. Can More Progress Be Made?, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2001 Teenage pregnancy and birth rates in the United States remain higher than those in other developed countries despite very similar timing and levels of sexual activity. This cross-national analysis identifies several factors ranging from socioeconomic disadvantage to broader sociocultural attitudes and differential access to contraceptives. Part B. Changing Society/Changing Sexuality 7. Sexual Stereotypes, Jonathan Knight, Nature, January 17, 2002 Bateman's principle, which states that males are promiscuous and females are choosy, has long been the basis for evolutionary theory and human sexual stereotypes. However, sociobiologists are finding increasing examples of role reversals involving female promiscuity in the animal world that contradict this traditional dichotomy. 8. Never Too Buff, John Cloud, Time, April 24, 2000 Men are obsessed with their bodies. No, that wasn't a typo, according to 15 years of research on 1,000 men, which was recently published in The Adonis Complex. The reasons for this troubling trend, which involves the use of steroids and a variety of bulk-up substances[read more]