How do factors such as body size, skin color, and physical ability influence how you perceive sexual attractiveness?

SEX AND GENDER/THE BODY: HEALTH AND SEXUALITY
September 23, 2019 Off All,

How many ways can you think of in which you “perform” your gender? We’ve read about how our gender identities are socially constructed through toys and by rituals such as team sports and beauty pageants. This socialization influences our day-to-day experiences, including which bathrooms we are permitted to use. https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/assets/_video.true/sociology_2017_blue_chalk_videos-The_Debate_in_Washington_State (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. How comfortable would you be using a bathroom that was not specified as either for males or females? We tell girls to play with Barbies and boys to dig in the dirt with trucks. We tell girls to love books and boys to enjoy science. If a girls “acts like a boy” she is a tomboy and if a boy “acts like a girl” he is a sissy. We say we want separation in public restrooms – but would a woman in the men’s room be perceived in the same way as a man in the women’s room? When sociologists study sexuality, they distinguish among desire (physical attraction), behavior (sex), and identity. How do factors such as body size, skin color, and physical ability influence how you perceive sexual attractiveness? How do you suppose your choices and decisions have been socialized? How might you behave differently if your body were a different size? We can also consider how this varies from culture to culture – as what is attractive to one group may not hold true to the next (consider such behaviors as foot binding, lip plates, etc).