GEC ELEC 3 GENDER AND SOCIETY

MODULE 2
INSTRUCTOR-EVANGELINE T. COMIA

Lecture Guide

Lesson 1: Sexual Health and Hygiene

Health- a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

Hygiene- refers to behavior that can improve cleanliness and good health such as frequent
handwashing, face washing and bathing with soap and water.

Sexual Health

• refers to the state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to
sexuality.

• requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual

relationships.

Reproductive health

refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social

well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its
function and processes at all stages of life.
 Some Important Hygiene

Oily Hair

• Do not scrub or rub your hair too hard

• After you have rinsed you can follow up with a conditioner
• When you are styling your hair pay close attention to the products you use.

Sweat and Body Odor

• The best way to keep clean is to bathe or to shower everyday.

• Wear clean clothes, socks and underwear each day.
• Find t-shirts, socks and underwear made from cotton or other natural materials
that will help absorb sweat more efficiently.

Dental Health
• Brushing and flossing properly along with regular dental checkup can help to prevent tooth
decay.
• If you have teeth that are sensitive to heat, cold and pressure use appropriate tooth paste.

Keeping the genitalia clean (FEMALE)

• Use soap and water to wash the external genitalia and your underarms everyday.
• Use either a disposable pad made of cotton or a clean piece of cloth to absorb blood
during menstruation.
• Wash only the external genitalia. Do not try to clean the inside parts of the vagina.
• Be aware of abnormal fluids and do not confuse with normal vaginal fluids. • Wash
starting from the vagina towards the anus.

Keeping the genitalia clean (male)

• Wash the external genitalia with soap and water

• Be aware of any abnormal fluids coming from your penis.

Safe Sex

• Safe – use contraceptives

• Consensual- respect and permission must be within partners
• Pleasurable or satisfying

Lesson 2: Gender and Sexuality as a Psychosocial Issue

What does psychosocial mean?
It is comprised by two primary terms. Psychological and Social. Psychological pertains
to anything that is associated with mental process and behavior. Social
pertains to anything associated with human relationships, connection and
interaction.

3 Primary Psychological Domains

• Affect – pertains to peoples’ action

• Behavior- peoples action
• Cognition- peoples thought processes such as memory perception and
information processes

Sociology is a field of science which concerns itself with the human’s person’s reality and
experience as part of groups or institutions including the structures and functions of these
institutions and the dynamics of human relationship within them.

Understanding the Psychosocial Dimension

• Awareness- is our conscious understanding of something.

• Intimacy- process of knowing others and allowing others to know us •
Socialization- process by which we learn cultural norms and traditions.

Dimension of Well being

• Physical- Physical/biological health

• Emotional- Positive feelings and mood stability
• Mental- clarity of mind; healthy thought process
• Social- healthy and positive interaction and relationship with others. Lesson 3:

Love Intimacy and Relationship

In February 15,2015, an article featuring a study by McCann World Group, among

30,000 respondents from 29 countries, came out of a national newspaper, bannering the title
“Filipinos most expressive about love among Asia Pacific countries”. The article presented an
interesting result: The Filipinos say “I love you” approximately 17 times in a week, making us
sixth among the countries in the survey, which are most articulate and expensive.

In this lesson, we will tackle one of the most complex and celebrated human emotion and
experience: LOVE.

Love As Culture Universal

Love is construed as culture universal. A culture universal is a phenomenon experienced

similarly by people across time and culture.
love is an experience that transcends time and culture. People before us like our
grandparents and parents are believed to know and encounter love as we do.

Love As A Social Phenomenon

Social phenomena are events and experiences which ensue within our interaction and
 relationship with other people. Loving entails communication- the process of giving and
receiving information between and among people.
Love As Emotion

Love is construed as an emotion. Emotions are physiological responses that we evaluate

psychologically as we experience particular life events. There are basic emotions such as joy,
sadness, gear, disgust and anger.
STAGES OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP

In his analysis of close human relationships, George Levinger, he postulated that there are
stages that intimate relationship goes through: acquaintance, build up, continuation or consolidation,
deterioration or decline, and ending or termination. Simply, the ABCDE of intimate relationship.

➢ Acquaintance
This is the start of intimate relationship. We meet up through circumstances and first
learn about basic information about one another. Crucial at this stage is attraction. What does it
take for a person to actually decide to be acquainted with another?

➢ Build Up
Some acquaintanceships build up into deeper relationships. Frequency of interaction
increases. Kinds of activities shared become diverse. The involved parties begin to introduce
one another to each other’s friends and families, making social network larger.

➢ Consolidation/Continuation
This stage is when people commit to a long-term relationship with one another, either
through personal agreement or social-legal agreement.

➢ Decline Or Deterioration
Unfortunately, some intimate partnerships are unable to sustain and maintain their
commitments or attraction. Maybe because there is a change in priorities between individual
couple, there may be infidelity or irreconcilable differences.

➢ Ending
Finally, for those intimate partnerships who are unable to address the causes and circumstances
leading to the deterioration of their relationship, the stages culminate into ending or termination of
the agreements.

THE 6 MOST COMMON CHALLENGES THAT HINDER PEOPLE FROM SUSTAINING

INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS (Source: https://www.forbes.com)

1. Fading enthusiasm. The top challenge has to do with the difficulty of maintaining energy and
enthusiasm in a long-term relationship. Many people find long-term relationships to be tiring
and they get bored quickly. They also feel that the passion and romantic love fades sooner than
they might expect. Fading enthusiasm is especially problematic among people who dislike
routines.
2. Long work hours. Some have speculated that divorce rates can be predicted by the length of a
spouse’s commute. This research adds credibility to this claim. Partners who spend many hours
 working or put their career before their relationship are, not surprisingly, less successful in
maintaining romantic relationships.
3. Lack of personal time and space. Feeling ‘suffocated’ or lacking sufficient ‘me time’ is the
third most common reason why people have difficulty maintaining romantic relationships.
People who feel oppressed or constrained by their relationship, or feel that their partner is
constantly nagging them, will have issues sustaining their intimate relationship.
4. Character issues. The data show that people who view themselves as quirky or selfish have
difficulty sustaining long-term romantic relationships. Moreover, people who complain often to
their romantic partners — perhaps reflecting a deeper character issue or insecurity — also find
it difficult to sustain a long-term relationship.
5. Clinginess. Clingy partners — that is, people who become easily dependent on others and too
often put their partner’s needs before their own — also have difficulty sustaining romantic
relationships. But there’s another side to it. People who try to exercise constant control over
their partner, or easily become jealous of their partner, also have difficulty sustaining
relationships (especially when combined with a tendency to expect too much of their partner).
6. Bad sex. Sexual chemistry is important to the long-term success of a relationship. Couples who
regularly disagree about the quality and frequency of sexual intimacy will find it difficult to
maintain a long-term relationship.
Lesson 4: LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

Labels are so powerful that it can be used to discriminate and oppress people. However, labels
can also empower people to claim their space in our society especially in the political sphere.

Views On LGBT In History

• Sexual and emotional attraction towards the same sex has been recorded throughout
history of mankind. In China, they used the terms “pleasures of the bitten peach” and
“brokeback”. In Japan, they have “shudo”. In the Philippines, we have the “babaylan”
and the “catalonan” who were mostly women priests but some are males who lived in
their lives as women.
• In ancient Greek, all males are expected to take on a younger male lover in a practice called
PEDERASTY. Some societies like the indigenous Americans accepted and celebrated it.

• However, later cultures see it as a “sin” following the Abrahamic religion which branded
it as sodomy
• Homosexuality was classified as an illness in the 19 th century as a basis for them to
legally persecute homosexuals, imprison and commit them to a mental institution.
• But as science advanced, through years of extensive research, the American Psychiatric
Association (APA) removed homosexuality as psychiatric disorder. Now, society is
more accepting towards the LGBT, new terms and labels has been used to cater to
everyone.

The ABCs of the LGBTQIA+

In an effort towards visibility and inclusion, a few letters were added to the LGBT. The term
“homosexual” sounded too clinical and it no longer adequately represent the diversity within the LGBT
community. These labels are changing, some may be familiar with you so let us try to explain it as
simple as we can.
• Lesbian – women who are emotionally and sexually attracted to women. • Gay – Men
who are emotionally and sexually attracted to men.
• Bisexual – Man or woman who are emotionally and sexually attracted to men or women.
• Transgender – when your gender identity is different from your physical sex.
• Queer – used by people who celebrate all gender identities, can also mean someone who
do not want to be restricted as Lesbian, gay or Bi.
• Intersex – people who were born with sex genitals that do not fit the typical male or
female.
• Asexual – people who do not feel sexual attraction to anyone but it does not mean that
they do not engage in romantic or sexual relationship.
• Plus – it refers to all sexualities that do not fit in the LGBTQI spectrum.