David Reimer was born an identical twin next to his brother Brian Reimer in 1965. Both boys were scheduled to be circumcised but David was accidentally castrated. With plenty of thought, and advice from Dr. John Money, a psychologist at John Hopkins University, David's parents decided to have him "sex reassigned" thus turning him from the male to the female gender. Dr. Money had many follow-up sessions with David after this because he believed that if a male child was told he was a girl he would grow up thinking and feeling like he was a girl and wanted to prove this theory. Throughout these follow-ups Dr. Money claimed that David was real girl with a female gender identity. David was never happy as a girl, he hated dressing like a girl and he hated the toys he was playing with. He was always fascinated with his brother Brian's toys. He constantly complained about how he felt like a boy and felt that he was more masculine than feminine. Dr. John Money knew things weren't turning out how it was supposed to be and knew he was running out of time. He urged David to undergo surgery to construct a vagina. David was appalled by this and threatened to kill herself if she had to do the treatment. Eventually her parents couldn't deal with it anymore and decided to tell David the truth. David began indulging in more masculine activities and even focused his sexual orientation to those of the opposite sex. Eventhough David now knew the real truth there were still plenty of struggles to come. He underwent many surgeries to get rid of breasts due to estrogen treatments and even had male genitalia constructed. Later in life, after marrying his wife and starting his own family he suffered from severe depression and ultimately committed suicide.
Sexual dysfunctions are persistent or recurrent problems with sexual interest, arousal, or response. Despite people not wanting to admit it, sexual dysfunctions are very common and there are many different types of sexual dysfunctions. These problems can be put into three categories, sexual desire disorders, sexual arousal disorders and orgasmic disorders. There are two known sexual desire disorders. The first one is Hypoactive sexual desire disorder. This is one of the most common disorders and basically means they have no sexual desires whatsoever. Lastly, there's the sexual aversion disorder. A person who suffers from this disorder is disgusted by sexual activity. They may enjoy hugging, holding hands or even kissing, as long as it doesn't involve the genitals. There are also two known sexual arousal disorders, male erectile disorder and female sexual arousal disorder. A man suffering from male erectile disorder has trouble achieving an erection and if they do they have trouble maintaining it, making it hard to engage in sexual activities. Women with female sexual arousal disorder have trouble becoming sexually aroused and being adequately lubricated, which also makes it hard to engage in sexual activities. Orgasmic disorders have 3 sub-categories, female orgasmic disorder and male orgasmic disorder. Both of these sub-categories simply mean the person has trouble reaching orgasm or cannot reach orgasm at all. Lastly, there's premature ejaculation, which only occurs in men. This is characterized as rapid ejaculation with minimal stimulation following sex. There are some ways to treat sexual dysfunctions, including sex therapy. There are a wide variety of techniques that are used in sex therapy, but one of them is the sensate-focus exercise. This is an exercise that involves both partners. Both partners massage each other in the nude in order to try and lessen the anxiety that is associated with sexual interactions.
Right now, the world is changing rapidly. Regardless of what anybody says, the roles of both men and women are changing. In some places the gender roles might be changing faster than others, while some places roles might not have changed at all. In Muslim societies, women do not have the same rights as them men do. For example, the women are not expected to make independent decisions. They aren't allowed to decided their marriage partner, whether or not they get a divorce or who gets custody of her children if a divorce were to happen. in the Qur'an men are referred to as the guardians of women, meaning it is their duty to watch over the women. There are even societies, like the Ede villages of Vietnam, where the woman is dominant. In these villages the women own all the property and they pass it down to their daughters should anything happen to them. The women are expected to propose to the men and the men are to take the last name of the woman's family, this is exactly the opposite of today's society in America.
In the United States, sexual education has always been a touchy subject. Even today, there is no federal law requiring sexual education to be taught in schools. The Netherlands made sex education mandatory in 1993. Though abstinence-only education became the predominant means of sex education for the US in 1981, there are strict guidelines that the schools must adhere to. The schools must inform the students that abstinence is the only way to protect against pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and psychological harm. If our schools heavily emphasize abstinence, which is not having sex until marriage, why do our kids compare so poorly against the kids of other countries? According to www.studentpulse.com the Netherlands have the lowest rate of unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and teen pregnancy in the western world and the birth rate for teens ages 15-19 in the Netherlands is only 8.2 per 1000, compared to 54.4 per 1000 in the US. Teens are now hitting puberty at a younger age and getting married at an older age which creates a larger age gap than that of the past, this makes abstinence harder to maintain. Other western countries, like the Netherlands, consider sexual activity before marriage to be normal and they view it as a healthy part of human development. As I mentioned before, the US tries to only emphasize abstinence but the Netherlands reproduction, relationships, safety and interactional competence. Kohlberg's theory of moral development consisted of three levels, each consisting of two stages. Kohlberg stated that people could only pass through the levels in the order listed but not everybody achieved each stage.
Level 1: Pre-conventional morality Throughout this level, the child's morals are shaped by the people they are surrounded by. The child is influenced by the standards of adults and what is labeled as good and bad. Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation During this stage, the child begins to realize that if they are being punished, it is because they are being bad or doing something wrong. The child can also tell if something is right based on the action that follows. Stage 2: Individualism and exchange Around this stage, children begin to understand that there isn't always one right and one wrong. They begin to experience different punishments because of different things. Because of this, they start to realize that different people have different views on life. Level 2: Conventional morality This is the level where we as a person begin to internalize the morals we have learned through our elders and society. During this stage, their actions are based on what they think their elders or society would do, not by their own beliefs. Stage 3: Good interpersonal relationships This is where the child behaves in such a way that they would be perceived as a good person according to others. For example, the child begins to realize that people like him less when he is naughty. Because of this he starts to behave more in order to have more friends. Stage 4: Maintaining the social order This is the stage where the child begins to see the rules of society on a wider scale. The child wants to be recognized by the society as a whole, rather than individuals. They begin to uphold rules and laws in order to avoid the feeling of guilt. Level 3: Post-Conventional morality Around this time, we begin to form our own opinions, ideas and morals based on what we believe in rather than what other people believe. Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights The individual understands that rules are rules and they're there for a reason but every once in a while there comes an exception to the rules. Decisions in this situation are to be based on their own beliefs rather than the beliefs of the greater society. Stage 6: Universal principles This is the last stage of Kohlberg's stages of moral development and he believed that only a select few of individuals successfully reach this stage. If the individual is in this stage then they have acquired their own moral guidelines. The individual is also willing to stand by these guidelines no matter the opinion of others or the consequences that may follow. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development#Conventional Sigmund Freud was a psychologist who developed a theory of how sexuality is started and develops through a series of fixed stages as one grows older. He believed that if these stages weren't successfully completed, we could then be trapped by them and do anything to avoid the anxiety that this conflict produced.
Stage 1: The Oral Stage The Oral stage occurs from birth up to the age of two years old, sometimes longer. This is the age where an infant most commonly uses their mouth, i.e. sucking, swallowing and biting. Freud believed that there were two outcomes to this stage. The first outcome is the oral receptive personality. He stated that people who ultimately reach this outcome are passive, needy and sensitive to rejection. He also said they had no problem accepting other's ideas. The second outcome is the oral aggressive personality. A person with this outcome is usually verbally aggressive and hostile towards others, using mouth-based aggression. Stage 2: The Anal Stage As a child leaves the oral stage they begin to enter the anal stage. This stage starts at the age of two and tends to end at the age of four. Around this age, the child begins taking pleasure in defecating or retaining feces. The problem, however, is that this is the age that a child is beginning to become toilet trained. There are two outcomes to this stage as well. The first potential outcome is the anal retentive personality, people with this personality tend to be stingy with a sense of order and tidiness. They tend to be the perfectionists of society. The second outcome is the anal expulsive personality. They tend to have a lack of self control, generally being messy and careless. Stage 2: The Phallic Stage During this stage, the child becomes fascinated with urination. Stage 3: The Latency Stage The latency stage begins around the age of 6 and lasts until puberty. During this stage, the child begins repressing earlier desires, instead focusing more on friends and personal interests. The child begins to realize who they are gender-wise, and begins to reconcile with the parent that shares the same gender as them, even beginning to look up to them. The child also becomes to focus less on their self and more on others. Stage 4: The Genital Stage The last stage is the genital stage, which lasts all the way from puberty until death. During this stage, the repressed feelings of the anal stage begin to resurface as they begin to desire members of the opposite sex and want to ensure the survival of the human species by means of reproduction. Because I am a man, I can't experience the viewpoint of women. Naturally, I would have to say that being a man in today's society is harder than being a woman. As stated multiple times in both articles, men have held the responsibility of being the primary breadwinner. Thinking back to the earliest of times, men have always been the hunters, responsible for bringing home food for the family. I don't believe that there is as much emphasis on gender roles in today's society as there was earlier in time. However, I do believe that there is much more debating than there once was. For instance, it wasn't until the 1960's that it began to become more acceptable for a girl to become a worker. Up until then, a woman was a housewife and that was that. Now-a-day's, I almost want to say that it's expected for a girl to want to be respected and prove to the world she can do anything and everything their male counterparts can. It's almost like an 'anything you can do, I can do better' kind of thing. At the same time, I don't see men attempting to change their roles in today's society. As Barbara Risman stated, "If girls call themselves tomboys, it's with a sense of pride, but boys make fun of other boys if the step just a little outside the rigid masculine stereotype." This makes perfect sense, and because of this, I think that the female's gender role is changing but the male's gender role is not. Even though are more dominant in terms of occupational jobs that include physical strength, I am starting to see women take more powerful jobs like becoming a doctor, lawyer or even a politician. All in all, men are still expected to bring home money and provide for their families but it is becoming more acceptable for the women to do the same. C. Mielke is basically saying that the main purpose of school isn't, and never will be academic learning. He believes the main purpose of school is to prepare us for the harsh realities of the real world and to help us learn how to problem solve. He states that a lot of kids now are quitting. Students need to be more resilient and persevere through the obstacles of school, otherwise we won't be ready for the real world because we've became so used to running away from our problems. On behalf of students everywhere, I would like to say that it isn't entirely our fault. Growing up in a generation where we are exposed to smartphones and other things of the sort, we are used to taking shortcuts. We are used to making things as easy as possible for us. Because of this, we aren't used to overcoming big challenges. Instead we do whatever we can to find the easy way out. Some of us kids are fine-tuned to the likes of a video game; we try and quit whenever something unexpected happens.
As far as occupation goes, I'm not exactly sure what I want to do after high school. However, I do know that I will be living in an apartment in Grand Rapids. The reason I'm living in an apartment in Grand Rapids is because I'm in foster care and there's this program called Independent Living. I plan on going to Grand Rapids Community college to get my associates, then possibly transfer to Western Michigan. I have always liked working with my hands and working with computers and it's always been a dream of mine to work in the medical field. Because of this, I think I want to become an artificial limb technician, that way I can combine all three into one occupation. I'm very interested in traveling the world, so I know I need a well-paying job. If my college plans don't work out, then I plan on enlisting into the Air Force.
Task 1:
After reading the chart and thinking back to my early childhood, surprisingly, I can make a lot of connections. I believe that nearly every child, including me, had dreams and aspirations of becoming something big, as in an astronaut or professional athlete. Now that it is brought to my attention, I've also noticed that kids did tend to hang out in groups rather than individuals in middle school. Slowly, throughout middle school and high school, peer groups begin to dwindle and kids begin to focus more on one-on-one relationships. I also believe that middle adolescence and rebellion go hand in hand, as the chart says. In my opinion, everything about late adolescence on the chart is true. Task 2: |