Sex Drive: Is It Biological Or Cultural

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Sex Drive: Is It Biological or Cultural

Miranda M Marion

Black Hawk College

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Abstract

This paper references two peer reviewed articles that compare and contrast the aspects of Sigmund Freud’s ideas about psychosexual development and if they are biological behaviors or just learned from our culture. Both articles have similarities, however, they disagree that sexual behavior is either biological or cultural. Gagnon and Simon (1998) state in there article that sexual drive may be biological in some aspects but is usually influenced by other stimuli. Hausman (2000) shows through a case study “John/Joan” that even though society makes one choose between boy and girl biological plays an important role in the

For example some girls start to develop breasts and menstruate while some boys are beginning to grow hair and have deeper voices. All of these changes are biological and turn on kind of a switch for hormones. Boys usually are the first to act upon these hormones because they are beginning to figure out that they are able to ejaculate. Girls on the other hand are slower to act upon their feelings. In American culture sexuality is discussed with young adults but it is more talked about by gender differences (Gagnon and Simon 1998). In health classes boys are taught what happens to boys during puberty and sex and girls are taught what happens to them separately. “The learning of sex roles, or sex identities, involves many things that are remote from actual sexual experience, or that become involved with sexuality only after puberty. Masculinity or femininity, their meaning and postures,

There are many theories, views, and opinions to consider when trying explaining whether ones libido is biological or cultural. Freud might have had some absurd theories about the human libido but he was not wrong when he gave the idea that libido is “essential, a biological constant to be coped with at all levels of individual, social, and cultural development” (Gagnon and Simons, 1998. P60). Sexual development is a constant mixture between biological impulses and cultural influence. This is important to anyone who is studying human growth and development because the way society looks at the expectations of gender roles and sexuality are in a time of change. With the amount of young adults who are getting pregnant rising, sex should not be taught as shame and guilt, but rather as educating the youth with acceptance and knowledge of becoming sexually active. Young parents who have not yet dealt with their young child experimenting with