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Textbook Sexuality Chapter


Ess-Kat

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So feeling a little bothered by my textbook chapter on sexuality. 

My textbook for Sociology: Marriage and Family ( from 2018) said in a survey people identified as being heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else. There no list or mention of other sexual orientations.  They also provide a singular theory on why people might be homosexual (I don't know if this is the author stance). It said studies of brain structures and twins that being homosexual may be genetic based; "some people by virtue of their genetic makeup are only attracted to same-sex relationships".  It then goes to say that little or no sexual experience "except for those who abstain for religious reason or are celibate" may find themselves deprived to intimacy needs. It does mention that you can be celibate and happy. I just wish they would have made a short passage or mention of other orientations; it would have been provided more of a open view.  

I don't know if I am over-reacting. Maybe I am? Through I disagree for how this chapter was made. Has anyone ever encountered a textbook like this before? 

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Purple Wanderer

Not come across a textbook, but I was reading an article and asexuality came up and all it said was something along the lines of not all psychologists agree that asexuality should be considered an orientation, but just people suffering  poor libido or just a low sexual desire. Then it moved on. 

 

 

If psychologists can't agree, I kind of get why we were omitted from the textbook.   

 

 

  - I don't agree of course but I understand

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Alejandrogynous

Almost all textbooks are going to be like that. Asexuality is still new as an orientation and its existence isn't at the point of being commonly accepted as fact, especially academically. At least they mention a "something else" option, that's more than some books put in.

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I didn’t read any textbooks about sexuality yet, but I did came across a book talking about girls and their relationships with each other. The author automatically assumes that all girls are interested sexually and romantically on guys or girls (there was no acknowledgement for non-binary people) I was repulsed when reading that section. However, the book was updated and she mentioned asexuality and explained that they are not interested in anyone sexually (but I still feel that the author made asexuality = aromantism, which is not true) 

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This is a textbook case of textbooks being terribly outdated. :P It can take a lot to update textbooks. Even if it was last edited in 2018, they can be very strict on what gets changed. They need substantial research to apply that change, and not much has been done in a very formal way. The more formal varieties of academic materials are ridden with historical biases and ignorance of present day changes. This is why discussion in classes is so important when it comes to higher education. Changes can happen through more academic research being done on neglected topics, but it takes a long time to get through to textbooks.

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MaladaptiveDaydreamer

I also took a course on sexuality a couple years ago (I'm pursuing a career in psychology), and I remember the textbook dedicated about half a page to asexuality. Not a ton of space, obviously, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it included at all. And from what I can remember the author was very respectful about it; he mentioned something about it being an orientation separate from the typical ones people think of (homo/hetero/bi) and that some people would say they're not attracted to anybody. He might have mentioned aven, but I don't remember. And he included a picture of aces at pride. The way he presented it was (it seemed to me, anyway), with an attitude of "this is something to keep in mind when discussing human sexuality."

 

My professor, on the other hand, didn't talk about it at all. At the end of the sexual orientation unit when we finished talking about all the others, she simply stated "We're not going to talk about asexuality" and moved on to the next unit. I was quite disappointed.

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AceMissBehaving

It’s nice that the book mentioned it, even if just a small snippet. I feel the professor should have at least given it some attention, especially if people are taking the class moving towards psychology. It’s something they’ll possibly run into and something at least worth keeping in mind.

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MaladaptiveDaydreamer
5 hours ago, AceMissBehaving said:

It’s nice that the book mentioned it, even if just a small snippet. I feel the professor should have at least given it some attention, especially if people are taking the class moving towards psychology. It’s something they’ll possibly run into and something at least worth keeping in mind.

Yeah, it was an upper level class for psych majors/minors, so I feel it was a disservice to not discuss it at all. I somewhat understand because she was obviously very well informed on all the topics we covered and provided the research that had been done in relation to what she was teaching, and I get that asexuality doesn't have as much scientific literature in existence as of now. Still, I feel like she could have at least mentioned that it was currently something being researched.

 

However, my school formally recognizes asexuality as part of the LGBT+ community, and I've seen it recognized as such on posters and stuff around campus, so it's not like I live in a conservative area where nobody's heard of it. I've even seen flyers advertising asexual meetups organized by our LGBT+ resource center, so I would consider it to be more visible here than in other places.

 

Also my professor did, of course, cover sexual disorders, including female sexual dysfunction and how to treat it. Fun times...

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