Gender And Sexuality Essay

1062 Words3 Pages

Some of the most controversial issues in society have historically revolved around matters relating to gender and sexuality. As gender plays an integral part in how we function in society, we quickly learn what is expected of us through our gender roles at a young age and our sexual scripts as we get older. We are expected to conform to our respective gender roles of femininity or masculinity depending on the sex we were assigned at birth. We learn that certain characteristics and expressions are attributed to each gender but are never taught that gender is fluid but instead it is binary. We also become subjected to assumptions of our sexual desires and attraction based on our sex and our gender and are expected not to deviate from it. We become
Hence, the media can be a positive tool to encourage healthy debate on discussions of gender and sexuality, but it can also be detrimental in further perpetuating and engendering harmful gender stereotypes. This essay will discuss some of the key concepts mentioned above through the analysis of a video entitled The Economics of Sex by The Austin Institute. Through doing so, this essay will look at some of the main arguments raised by the video and some potential resulting social implications. Lastly, this paper will attempt to arrive at a conclusion on whether the video is a positive or negative contribution to the discourse on gender and sexuality.

The Economics of Sex is a video which discusses sex and marriage in economic terms between men and women. It starts off by positing that sex is an unequal exchange between men and women due to innate biological and social factors. In the video, men are said to be more sexually permissive, have a higher sex drive and tend to link sex to romance less often compared to women. On the contrary, the video claims that women often have sex for reasons other than just pleasure which include love, self-affirmation and securing a relationship. This is an absurd proposition as it relies on

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