Sociology Now, Census Update

sexual morality developed in the nineteenth century and the ways it has been

challenged and eroding in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What was con-

sidered erotic in colonial America might feel very different today.

3.Sexuality varies among different groups in society. Race, ethnicity, age, and

religion—as well as gender—all construct our sexualities. Sexual behaviors and

attitudes vary by race or by whether you come from a big city or a small town.

4.Sexual behavior changes over the course of your life. What you might find erotic

as a teenager may not be a preview of your eventual sexual tendencies; sexual

tastes develop, mature, and change over time.

Sociologists chart these four types of variations as they study the different ele-
ments of sex—our behaviors and our identities—and the patterns of inequality that
are established through them.

Desires and Behaviors

At first glance, desire, or finding someone attractive, seems to be purely instinctive:
When you see an attractive person, you experience an immediate “gut reaction” of inter-
est, without even thinking about it, even if you have no intention of doing anything
about it. Some people think attraction is a purely olfactory affair: We sense another’s
pheromones, which trigger a chemical reaction that we experience as attraction.
But if desire were instinctive, the standards of physical attractiveness would be
the same across human cultures, and with a few exceptions (big eyes, a symmetri-
cal face), they are not. They change dramatically from culture to culture. Among
the Ainu of northern Japan, women used to tattoo their chins blue to make them
more attractive, and Native American men used to pull their “ugly” facial hair out
by the roots.
Even within the same culture, the standards of physical attractiveness can change
within just a few years. In the Renaissance, blackened teeth were considered the height
of attractiveness. Fifty years ago, people thought that muscular men were ugly and
ridiculous; it was the slim, sophisticated man who set hearts fluttering. Today, any
man who wants to be considered attractive had better join a gym. Women who can’t
fit into a size 4 dress might consider themselves unattractive today; 50 years ago,
chubby was considered sexy.
In many cases, desire is a function of social class. Fifty years
ago, fat meant that you were wealthy enough to afford expen-
sive steaks and chops, while muscle meant that you were a
lower-class laborer. Today, fat means that you are poor and live
on fast food, and muscle means that you can afford a gym. What
about the blackened teeth? Bad teeth meant that you could
afford sugar, which was then an extremely expensive luxury
item. If you couldn’t afford sexy cavities, you might just blacken
your teeth artificially.
Social institutions such as education and the mass media
present images of “attractive” middle-class or wealthy people
and ridicule or minimize “ugly” working-class or poor people,
creating models of desire that we almost always adhere to. Of
course, there are exceptions, but they are often labeled deviant.
Sexual behavior,or any behavior that brings sexual pleas-
ure or release (typically, but not always, involving sex organs),
also seems, at first glance, to be limited by physiology: After all,

STUDYING SEXUALITY: BODIES, BEHAVIORS, AND IDENTITIES 317

Everyone knows “sex sells”—

and it is used to sell every-

thing. Sex has never been as

private as we imagine it was,

but it is more public now

than ever. n