Development of Sexuality

I spend a lot of time thinking about the development of sexuality, and find it extremely interesting. We were born licentious creatures and we will die the same, and I will never let anyone tell me that it's not okay.


As far as sexuality, there are so many facets to explore.
-Why has our society taken on the idea of sexuality that we have?
-Where did it come from?
-How has it developed?
-Why has it become what it has?

I think the vilification of sexual nature stems from Victorian England.
In an era of scientific obscurity, and change in social order due to modernization and industrialization; the idea of class became even more important, and upper and middle class girls were bred to be the most desirable version of themselves possible; which at the time, was a silent, demure, insubstantial little doll. They were uneducated, ignorant, and had very little social interactions outside their families. During this time in England, because of war and immigration, there were more women than men, and consequently, more women were ending up unmarried. In an age of laissez-faire capitalism there could be no greater failure for a woman. Unfortunately the problem for these women was not moral but economic.  Unmarried women sought work because they had no alternative and few were able to survive at the same social level to which they had been born. Eventually, should moral protocol give way to economic necessity, the alternative to factory work was prostitution, which even the respectable might be forced into. The better off began to embrace premarital chastity even more ardently than their superiors, because they now knew the dangers beneath them.  One false step and the family’s reputation was lost, so moral purity had an economic edge because of the market value of virginity.

One thing about the idea of social chastity that I find to extremely fascinating, is the idea of sexuality becoming so important. Creating a dialogue about it, good or bad, brought it to the forefront of people's minds, and gave it weight and consequence. Without this platform, sexuality could have developed within ourselves, and today just be viewed as a non-crucial part of human nature. I don't know for sure that it would have, because it seems to be a driving guide of our actions whether we acknowledge it or not, but it's an interesting thought.
I think it was Russell Brand who first compared this idea to the Jonas Brothers and their "promise rings". By making this element public, they are drawing more attention to their sexuality, under the guise of pureness. By telling us that they are virgins, they are therefore making us think about them having sex, and by us, I mean 14 year old girls. It's reverse psychology, they tell you that they don't have sex, which makes you think about them as sexual beings, but Disney can't get in trouble for it. If they just shut up and didn't say anything about sex at all, nobody would care, and their record sales would be cut in half.