There really haven’t experienced any cognitive changes. I took this class because I felt it was going to be very interesting and because I am a very open minded person. I try not to judge and I try to be open to
other people’s differences even if they are very different from me. In terms of sexuality someone who has a different sexual orientation than mine I don’t mind. I embrace people’s differences.
One subject that we talked about that has really stuck in my mind was the chapter on sexually transmitted diseases. I guess I never really thought about the diseases that you can get by giving oral sex. There are so many young girls these days who don’t think of oral sex as sex. They don’t realize that you can get really serious diseases by doing this. It’s scary because some of these diseases are deadly and they are so young and so inexperienced to truly understand the importance of safe sex. I wish that there were more that we could do to educate them about safe sex earlier.
At the beginning of class we discussed the two legacies. The gender role legacy has also stuck in my mind. It’s really sad to know that views towards women haven’t necessarily changed. We are still fighting for our rights to be equal. We are still trying to prove that we are capable of being successful at together things besides cooking, cleaning and taking care of our kids. I know a lot has changed for women since the middle ages, but I hadn’t really realized that lot of men still view women the same way they did back in the 1940’s and 1950’s. I didn’t really think much about it until we talked about it in class.
Effective Changes
The things that I felt were effective in this class were of course the topic about safe sex and the effects of sexually transmitted diseases. I thing it is always effective when you educate people about safe sex and what can happen when you are not careful. I think it was very effective when we were showed the different contraceptives and how they work. The female condom is still a mystery to me, but I am glad I was able to see it. It makes it nice to know that we have ways of protecting ourselves as females. It’s interesting that there are women out there who still believe that it is the man’s responsibility to use contraceptives. We as women need to realize that we have to protect ourselves. We have to take responsibility for our own bodies and I felt that Page helped us to realize this.
Also, I believe our fetish presentations were very beneficial in a couple of ways. We talked about communication and sexuality and how it is difficult for people to talk about sex. A lot of people are embarrassed to talk about sex so it is hard for them to express what they are feeling and they don’t ask questions because of it.
I know for me my fetish was very hard to talk about, but it really helped me open up and feel okay to talk about sex. It also educated us on different fetishes and how they develop. I learned a little about how to react to certain paraphilias also. I think this will be helpful in the future because if you are exposed to an exhibitionist you know how to react. You also will know what these things mean and entail so if someone was to ask you to partake in the act you’ll know if you want to join in or not.
Even though there are some sexual behaviors that I wouldn’t necessarily engage in, this class helped to see why people feel the way they do. I also learned that it is important to know your body. Chapter 9 taught me that it’s normal to want to get to know your body. Talking about masturbation used to make me feel really uncomfortable. It doesn’t bother me for someone else to masturbate, but I would be very embarrassed to masturbate in front of my partner. I learned that this can help sex between you and your partner because you can relay to them what you like and where you like to be touched. It may also help to put a little more excitement in your sex life. I haven’t gotten brave enough to do this, but maybe I will work on it. (ha-ha)
Another topic that we discussed that taught me a lot, and I am actually kind of embarrassed to even admit it, was the topic on female anatomy. I never realized how little I knew about my own body. I really enjoyed this chapter because I really got to see what is going on inside of me. I have had a child and until this class I really wasn’t positive what my cervix was. This seems so crazy since all of these things are in my body, but I never really knew what all was going on.
In chapter six when we discussed sexual response I though it was really interesting learning about the changes our bodies go through on the inside when we get aroused and how our body responds. This class has made me feel like I really didn’t know much about sex before. When I though about sexual response the way male’s respond is what always came to mind, but both males and females are going through changes during sexual arousing and intercourse.
I really enjoyed this class. I can’t wait to take our field trip to Exotic Pleasures because this will be my first time. Through this class I was really exposed to a variety of topics. This class has taught me a lot about sexual communication, our anatomy, how our gender is formed, etc. I enjoyed hearing my classmate’s points of view on all of these topics. I think sex isn’t always an easy topic for everyone to talk about, but while taking this class I think it has helped many open up and feel more comfortable about talking about it. I think it’s great because maybe now they will feel more comfortable to talk about with someone else and help educate others has well.