THE PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL SELF

Week 2: Physical and Sexual Self/Orientation

Section 1: The Physical Self
This section identifies and explains the biological and environmental factors
that shape the physical self. It also delves into socio-cultural issues associated
with physical well-being.

The Biological Blueprint

"Man is a transitional being? This body is a bridge." (Sri Arubindo).
Physical Self refers to the body, this marvelous container and complex, finely tuned,
machine with which we interface with our environment and fellow beings. The Physical
Self is the concrete dimension, the tangible aspect of the person that can be directly
observed and examined.
Physical self-concept is the individual’s perception of themselves in areas of physical
ability and appearance. Physical ability includes concepts such as physical strength and
endurance, while appearance refers to attractiveness.
What is physical self-example?
Physical self or characteristics describe the features or features of the body. The first thing
you see when you look at someone may be their face, dress, nose, or body. They are all
examples of physical properties.

Section 2: Sexual Self

Sexual self-concept refers to the totality of
oneself as a sexual being, including positive and
negative concepts and feelings.

Understanding Human Sexual Behavior

Defined as any activity– solitary, between two persons, or in a group – that induces sexual
arousal.
Understanding Basic of Sexual Behavior
 Men sexual behavior can occur any time, by being aroused to certain stimuli.
 At puberty, the testes begin to secrete androgens (male sex hormones) which
produces secondary sex characteristics like growth of bodily hair and change in tone
of voice.
 Female sexual behavior starts at puberty where the two ovaries begin to produce
estrogens and progesterone (female sex hormones.)
Human Sexual Activity
Human sexual activity, any activity—solitary, between two persons, or in a group—that
induces sexual arousal.
There are two major determinants of human sexual activity: the inherited sexual response
patterns that have evolved as a means of ensuring reproduction and that are a part of each
individual’s genetic inheritance, and the degree of restraint or other types of influence
exerted on individuals by society in the expression of their sexuality. The objective here is
to describe and explain both sets of factors and their interaction.
Types of activity
Human sexual activity may conveniently be classified according to the number and gender
of the participants. There is solitary activity involving only one individual, and there is
sociosexual activity involving more than one person. Sociosexual activity is generally
divided into heterosexual activity (male with female) and homosexual activity (male with
male or female with female). If three or more individuals are involved it is, of course,
possible to have heterosexual and homosexual activity simultaneously.
In both solitary and sociosexual activity there may be activities
that are sufficiently unusual to warrant the label deviant
activity. The term deviant should not be used as a moral
judgment but simply as indicating that such activity is not
common in a particular society. Since human societies differ in
their sexual practices, what is deviant in one society may be
normal in another.
Solitary Activity
Self-masturbation is self-stimulation with the intention of causing sexual arousal and,
generally, orgasm (sexual climax). Most masturbation is done in private as an end in itself
but is sometimes practiced to facilitate a sociosexual relationship.
Masturbation, generally beginning at or before puberty, is very common among males,
particularly young males, but becomes less frequent or is abandoned when sociosexual
activity is available. Consequently, masturbation is most frequent among the unmarried.
Females also tend to reduce or discontinue masturbation when they develop sociosexual
relationships. There is great individual variation in frequency, so that it is impractical to
try to define what range could be considered “normal.”
The myth persists, despite scientific proof to the contrary, that masturbation is physically
harmful. Neither is there evidence that masturbation is immature activity; it is common
among adults deprived of sociosexual opportunities. While solitary masturbation does
provide pleasure and relief from the tension of sexual excitement, it does not have the same
psychological gratification that interaction with another person provides; thus, extremely
few people prefer masturbation to sociosexual activity. The psychological significance of
masturbation lies in how the individual regards it. For some, it is laden with guilt; for
others, it is a release from tension with no emotional content; and for others it is simply
another source of pleasure to be enjoyed for its own sake.
The majority of males and females have fantasies of some sociosexual activity while they
masturbate. The fantasy not infrequently involves idealized sexual partners and activities
that the individual has not experienced and even might avoid in real life.
Since the masturbating person is in sole control of the areas that are stimulated, the degree
of pressure, and the rapidity of movement, masturbation is often more effective in
producing sexual arousal and orgasm than is sociosexual activity, during which the
stimulation is determined to some degree by one’s partner.
Orgasm in sleep evidently occurs only in humans. Its causes are not wholly known. The
idea that it results from the pressure of accumulated semen is invalid because not only do
nocturnal emissions sometimes occur in males on successive nights, but females
experience orgasm in sleep as well. In some cases orgasm in sleep seems a compensatory
phenomenon, occurring during times when the individual has been deprived of or abstains
from other sexual activity. In other cases it may result from external stimuli, such as
sleeping prone or having night clothing caught between one’s legs. Most orgasms during
sleep are accompanied by erotic dreams.
A great majority of males experience orgasm in sleep. This almost always begins and is
most frequent in adolescence, tending to disappear later in life. Fewer females have orgasm
in sleep, and, unlike males, they usually begin having such experience when fully adult.
Orgasm in sleep is generally infrequent, seldom exceeding a dozen times per year for males
and three or four times a year for the average female.
Most sexual arousal does not lead to sexual activity with another individual. Humans are
constantly exposed to sexual stimuli when seeing attractive persons and are subjected to
sexual themes in advertising and the mass media. Response to such visual and other stimuli
is strongest in adolescence and early adult life and usually gradually declines with
advancing age. One of the necessary tasks of growing up is learning to cope with one’s
sexual arousal and to achieve some balance between suppression, which can be injurious,
and free expression, which can lead to social difficulties. There is great variation among
individuals in the strength of sex drive and responsiveness, so this necessary exercise of
restraint is correspondingly difficult or easy.
Sociosexual Activity
By far the greatest amount of sociosexual activity is heterosexual activity between only
one male and one female. Heterosexual activity frequently begins in childhood, and, while
much of it may be motivated by curiosity, such as showing or examining genitalia, many
children engage in sex play because it is pleasurable. The sexual impulse and
responsiveness are present in varying degrees in most children and latent in the remainder.
With adolescence, sex play is superseded by dating, which is socially encouraged, and
dating almost inevitably involves some physical contact resulting in sexual arousal. This
contact, labelled necking or petting, is a part of the learning process and ultimately of
courtship and the selection of a marriage partner.
Petting varies from hugging, kissing, and generalized caresses of the clothed body to
techniques involving genital stimulation. Petting may be done for its own sake as an
expression of affection and a source of pleasure, and it may occur as a preliminary to coitus.
This last form of petting is known as foreplay. In a minority of cases, but a substantial
minority, petting leads to orgasm and may be a substitute for coitus. Excluding foreplay,
petting is usually very stereotyped, beginning with hugging and kissing and gradually
escalating to stimulation of the breasts and genitalia. In most societies petting and its
escalation are initiated by the male more often than by the female, who generally rejects or
accepts the male’s overtures but refrains from playing a more aggressive role. Petting in
some form is a near-universal human experience and is valuable not only in mate selection
but as a means of learning how to interact with another person sexually.
Coitus, the insertion of the penis into the vagina, is viewed by society quite differently
depending upon the marital status of the individuals. The majority of human societies
permit premarital coitus, at least under certain circumstances. In more repressive societies,
such as modern Western society, it is more likely to be tolerated (but not encouraged) if
the individuals intend marriage. Marital coitus is usually regarded as an obligation in most
societies.
Extramarital coitus, particularly by wives, is generally condemned and, if permitted, is
allowed only under exceptional conditions or with specified persons. Societies tend to be
more lenient toward males than females regarding extramarital coitus. This double standard
of morality is also seen in premarital life. Postmarital coitus (i.e., coitus by separated,
divorced, or widowed persons) is almost always ignored. Even societies that try to confine
coitus to marriage recognize the difficulty of trying to force abstinence upon sexually
experienced and usually older persons.
Extramarital coitus continues to be openly condemned but is becoming more tolerated
secretly, particularly if mitigating circumstances are involved. In some areas, such as
southern Europe and Latin America, extramarital coitus is expected of most husbands and
is accepted by society if the activity is not too flagrant. The wives do not generally approve
but are resigned to what they believe to be a masculine propensity. In the United States,
where at least half the husbands and one-quarter of the wives have extramarital coitus at
some point in their lives, there have recently developed small organizations or clubs that
exist to provide extramarital coitus for married couples. Despite the publicity they have
engendered, however, extremely few individuals have belonged to such organizations.
Most extramarital coitus is done secretly without the knowledge of the spouse. Most
husbands and wives feel very possessive of their spouses and interpret extramarital activity
as an aspersion on their own sexual adequacy, as indicating a loss of affection and as being
a source of social disgrace.
Human beings are not inherently monogamous but have a natural desire for diversity in
their sexuality as in other aspects of life. Some societies have provided a release for these
desires by suspending the restraints on extramarital coitus on special occasions or with
certain individuals, and in modern Western society a certain amount of extramarital
flirtation or mild petting at parties is not considered unusual behavior.
Discussion of sociosexual activity would be incomplete without some note of the role it
has played in ceremony and religion. While the major religions of today are to varying
degrees antisexual, many religions have incorporated sexual activity into their rites and
ceremonies. Human beings’ ancient and continuing interest in their own fertility and in that
of food plants and animals makes such a connection between sex and religion inevitable,
particularly among peoples with uncertain food supplies. In most religions the deities were
considered to have active sexual lives and sometimes took a sexual interest in humans. In
this regard it is noteworthy that in Christianity sexual activity is absent in heaven and sexual
proclivities are ascribed only to evil supernatural beings: Satan, devils, incubi, and succubi
(spirits or demons who seek out sleeping humans for sexual intercourse).
Whether or not a behavior is interpreted by society or the individual as erotic (i.e., capable
of engendering sexual response) depends chiefly on the context in which the activity
occurs. A kiss, for example, may express asexual affection (as a kiss between relatives),
respect (a French officer kissing a soldier after bestowing a medal on him), or reverence
(kissing the hand or foot of a pope), or it may be a casual salutation and social amenity.
Even something as specific as touching genitalia is not construed as sexual if done for
medical reasons. In other words, the apparent motivation of the activity determines its
interpretation.
Individuals are extremely sensitive in judging motivations: a greeting kiss, if protracted
more than a second or two, takes on a sexual connotation, and recent studies show that if
an adult male at a party stands closer than the length of his hand and forearm to a female,
she generally imputes a sexual motive to his proximity. Nudity is construed as erotic or
even as a sexual invitation—unless it occurs in a medical context, in a group consisting of
but one gender, or in a nudist camp.
Physiological aspects
Sexual response
Sexual response follows a pattern of sequential stages or phases when sexual activity is
continued. First, there is the excitement phase marked by increase in pulse and blood
pressure, an increase in blood supply to the surface of the body resulting in increased skin
temperature, flushing, and swelling of all distensible body parts (particularly noticeable in
the penis and female breasts), more rapid breathing, the secretion of genital fluids, vaginal
expansion, and a general increase in muscle tension. These symptoms of arousal eventually
increase to a near maximal physiological level, the plateau phase, which is generally of
brief duration. If stimulation is continued, orgasm usually occurs. Orgasm is marked by a
feeling of sudden intense pleasure, an abrupt increase in pulse rate and blood pressure, and
spasms of the pelvic muscles causing vaginal contractions in the female and ejaculation by
the male.
Orgasm lasts for a few seconds (normally not over ten), after which the individual enters
the resolution phase, the return to a normal or subnormal physiological state. Up to the
resolution phase, males and females are the same in their response sequence, but, whereas
males return to normal even if stimulation continues, continued stimulation can produce
additional orgasms in females.

ASSESSMENT
Activity 1.
1. Explain the said quote "Man is a transitional being? This body is a bridge." (Sri
Arubindo). 30 points.
2. Where and how does heterosexual begin? 10 points.
3. Explain what solitary activity is and how it affect our body. 10 points.