Reflection Assignment #5

The program I attended this semester was from the Humanities Lecture Series, and the topic was Sexuality: Kaleidoscopic Perspectives. This lecture was held at the Downtown Phoenix campus in the new Nursing and Health Innovation building. The speakers that spoke to us were Grace Galliano and Jacqueline Martinez, both who are faculty of the Downtown Phoenix campus. These two teachers presented to us their own perspectives on sexuality. The purpose of the lecture was to address how we conceptualize sexuality and the ways sexual knowledge comes about. They also went into questions that were concerning appropriate boundaries about values, ethics and morality. Their presentation wanted us audience to get engage on this topic and give our personal perspectives.

When I came to this lecture I thought it would just be a discussion on sexuality and how we define it now, and how we deal with it right now being a college student with how it can effect us. Once the lecture began the presenter did start off with defining what sexuality is and then went into saying it is a social behavior, that then becomes a personal behavior. This statement caught my attention because I do agree that our social behavior can be persuaded by sexuality, but in the end we make our own decisions and choices about our behavior. The lecture made me remind myself how I was taught about sex and the way to make choices about it. We tend to learn about sexuality from our parents but also the media can have a big impact on that as well. Your parents are the ones that can make the choice of what to teach you about sex and share their knowledge about the topic. This topic alone can really shape a person on their ethics and morals in life, because everyone has a different definition of sex and the meaning of it. For me I actually learned from my peers mainly what sex was all about. My parents did not really share with me what sex is all about because they left the public high school I went to do all the explaining of what it is.

In the lecture it was also talked about that our sexual behavior can be a preconscious orientation toward our mind, body and feeling. This part for me started to relate more to our course. We began to talk about sexual orientation and they did not single out homosexuals or heterosexuals, and any other types of orientations, they put it in a connotation where sexual orientation is all the same no matter what way you choose. They shared with us how our sexual behavior will form our thoughts on sex, especially once you actually do it. Some of us can tell what our body likes and does not like, and our bodily expressions will show that. Most importantly sexuality and being intimate with someone is not just a physical act it actually has meaning to that person no matter what.

Going back to sexual orientation or personal choice, they asked us how might a person discover his or her sexual values and boundaries and how we can reflect on the boundaries that we have. While they shared with us their opinions I actually asked myself as a young adult how I discovered my sexual values and boundaries. For me I never really set a standard in my head but I did make the boundary of not to sleep with just anyone because of sexual desire. A lot of people at my age and in our society today have been not really taking precaution about the sexual decisions they make. Today we are starting to hear about more diseases and symptoms that have to do with sex, and that scares me. Sex has a big effect on people right now because if you are in college and like to drink and party, there is a chance that you can make that mistake of being pulled into something because of sexual desires. We need to start having conscious awareness of it at all times.

Another question that was brought is, why does morality seem so tightly bound with sexuality among college students? There are many college students who's lives are built off of morals that they learned. Part of our morals are the decisions we make in life and we do make decisions about sexuality. Overall sexuality molds and changes us, as the speakers said sexuality is a cultural taboo. We can all be surprised of how much sexuality has an influence on our decisions and values in life, especially with todays society. This lecture had taught me to be more aware of the decisions I make especially when it comes to involving sex that has evolved into a culture of some sort. This information will also help me professionally because I want to get involved with sports and event planning, and with sports a lot of men work in that field. Sexual orientation can play a role in this field and it will make me very aware of how I am perceived in this work force. I feel that this lecture has prepared me to be more aware and cautious. Having the time for someone to talk to a group of us about the meaning of sexuality and our concepts about it really opened my eyes to how differently it can be taught and moralized.