Sexuality And Gender Identity

Sexuality is a complex issue and topic for adult much less teenagers who are trying to figure everything out. Sexuality encompasses much more than just sex and our body parts. It includes our gender identity, gender roles, sexual orientation, how we feel about our bodies, sexual preference, and how we experience love, touch, compassion, joy, and sorrow. “Sexuality is expressed in the way we speak, smile, sit dress, dance, laugh and cry.” (A Definition of Sexuality). Our book expresses how “because of our sex hormones, adolescents tend to experience a powerful sex drive”, (Rathus, 2016). Hormones combined with today’s constant media display of sex and how young is sexy is driving kids younger and younger to explore their sexuality or more likely

Sexual identity is “the label that he or she adopts to inform others as to who they are as a sexual being” (Rathus, 2016), this is basically our sexual orientation and to what sex we are attracted to. There are many variations of gender identity which help label a person even narrower than heterosexual and homosexual, which includes bisexual, pansexual, and asexual. Your relationship with your sexual identity is a personal one and something one must figure out for themselves, and I believe will never be black and white but more of a sliding scale. Along the same lines gender identity falls into the category of sexual identity. Gender identity can fall into two categories, Biological gender and gender. Biological gender would refer to genitalia whereas gender would refer to how you felt whether it be male, female, or neither (Understanding Gender). If your gender doesn’t match with your physical gender you could be transgender. Transgender individuals feel that they are “trapped” in the body of the wrong gender (Rathus, 2016). Gender identity and sexual identity lay the foundation for our sexuality and who we chose to engage

Teens who begin dating and engaging in sexual activities at a younger age are more likely to have un wanted consequences such as STI’s and unwanted pregnancy. Several factors can affect the time in which a teenager engages in sexual activities such as hormones due to puberty, parental influence, and peer influence. Hormonal changes during puberty are most likely a big cause of sexual activity. Teenage boys are more likely to have high surges of testosterone which are associated with sexual behavior (Rathus, 2016). Parental and peer influence can also have an effect of teens having sex. Teens with an open and honest relationship with their parents about sex are more likely to use birth control and have fewer partners than those who do not. Peer pressure can be a big reason why teens engage in risky behavior. Teens are more likely to receive sex education from friends or media than their parents. Kids not getting correct information can lead to the, engaging in risky sexual activities and having unwanted