How My Own Sexual Identity Was Formed
How My Own Sexual Identity Was Formed A person’s sexual identity is developed over an extended period of time and with many factors adding to that development. Factors that are common determinates of sexual identity include social factors, biological, factors, and psychological factors. Value systems are part of the equation coupled with critical thinking about sexual identity and sexuality and are influenced by our environment, peers, family, friends, and society as a whole.
Value Systems and Critical Thinking
My personal primary value system is the legalism approach which is based on my religious upbringing in the Methodist church. Abstinence until marriage is the preferred ideology for me and the majority of my family. I value the moral code in regard to sexual relations for myself although I do not demoralize others who practice any of the other values systems such as my sister who is entirely the opposite from me and believes that casual relationships are acceptable. Completing this course allowed me to verify my primary value system while examining the potential of other value systems. Completing the course has not altered my primary value system although I would say I am more tolerant of other’s views after completing the course.
How I Used Critical Thinking before the Course An example of this in my life would be as a high school teenager and having a girlfriend who wanted to have sex with me because her value system was that it was okay to be sexually active as long as we practiced safe sex and that even if she did get pregnant she could have an abortion. I had to evaluate her values and her moral compass in relation to my upbringing in the church with the abstinence factor in that it is morally wrong to have sexual relations with someone you are not married to and the ideology that a human exists at the point of conception. There were thoughts from both sides on this from significant authority figures and although I am not sure whether an embryo is considered a human at the exact point of conception, I held fast to my moral ground and decided against having sex with my girlfriend. I was willing to accept the idea that she might leave me however in the end she respected my decision after some critical thinking of her own. We both tried to not oversimplify or over generalize our thoughts on these issues. We did consider alternate research the various types of evidence on value systems and on when is a human a human. For me and my girlfriend I believe we made the right decision in regard to having sex at the time.
Critical Thinking after the Course I have not changed my critical thinking about sexual decision making sense taking the course. I still believe that all sides should be evaluated before making sexual decisions. I do believe I have been enlightened into seeing and understanding more about sexuality and how sexual identities, sexual orientation, and gender are developed.
Physical and Social Aspects
My physical and social aspects played a significant role in how my sexual identity developed in that I physically am very masculine looking with quite a lot of hair, I am of average or above on height for males in the United States and my mannerisms match well with the male role. My social setting was the traditional family of mother, father, and siblings both male and female with both parents presenting traditional role models for male and female genders.
My Development of Gender Identity
Gender identity is the ideology of how people view themselves as being either of the female or male gender (Carr & Ruffino, 2003). The majority of people believe that gender identities evolve from and are reasonably collative with their societal gender-role expectations (Carr & Ruffino, 2003). Gender is made up of a complex combination of part traditional and cultural aspects along with part psychological and part anatomy of an individual.
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