The Language Of Sex, And The Invention Of Sexuality

With today’s society growing more accepting sex has never been harder to define. Historically society has found ways to conceptualize everything from sex to sex work. However, with conceptualization come consequences. The language we use, the historical concepts we hold on to and the approaches we take on topics effects our views. Our language can change depending on who is being talked about and our historical concepts can become weak the deeper we discuss a concept. Sex is a complicated topic and can cause tension around negotiations in recognizing different ways of understanding it. All of these approaches to sex have always been, and still is, the locus of so much debate precisely because what is being investigated has never been, and likely never will, be completely agreed upon. Throughout both Week’s articles â€Å"The Language of Sex† and â€Å"The Invention of Sexuality† takes up the issue of an â€Å"essentialist approach to sex†. There are consequences to thinking about sex and gender as mainly caused by biological factors. If we change the word â€Å"breast† to â€Å"ankle† for the sake of argument. How does society learn that ankles are sexual, how did we come to learn that breasts are sexual? Perhaps by the media, dress codes or our parents. If we look at sex and gender from an essentialist approach we began to realize how unstable the concept is. Breasts are a body part and it is culture that has sexualized them, not biological factors. When people start to come outShow MoreRelatedEnglish Language And Composition Of The Victorian Era1320 Words   |  6 PagesMichael Linares Ms. Sipars AP English Language and Composition 15 September 2015 Response #1 England’s Victorian Era was a very influential and interesting Era that took place during the time that Queen Victoria was the Queen of England. The Victorian Era started around 1830 and lasted up until the start of the 20th Century. During this Era England became very powerful. Many amazing masterpieces were created by great artists like Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. The three class system which weRead MoreSexuality is Socially Constructed Essay1885 Words   |  8 PagesMerriam-Webster dictionary defines sexuality as a) the quality and state of being sexual, b) the condition of having sex, c) sexual activity, and d) the expression of sexual receptivity or interest especially when excessive, and it cites the first use of the word at around the year 1800. Human beings experienced their own sexuality prior to 1800; however, it was not until the late nineteenth century when the ideas heterosexuality and homosexuality were initially formulated. As sexuality is the result of so cialRead MorePornography In The Media1532 Words   |  7 Pagesmagazines, postcards, photographs, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, writing, film, video, and video games. 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In other words, the terms male and female are referred to as sex categories, while masculine and feminine are considered gender categories. â€Å"Over time, sex tended to be understood as the base and gender as the superstructure† (OyÄ›wà ¹mà ­Read MoreSex, Gender, And Gender936 Words   |  4 Pagesconventional views, of sex and gender in today’s society. As a result, we often think of sex as biological and gender as social, which are terms that are often used interchangeably and are socially or culturally constructed. In other words, the terms male and female are referred to as sex categories, while masculine and feminine are considered gender categories. 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The invention of technology and laws it makes

The Eucharist Is The Source And Summit Of The Christian Life

â€Å"The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.† All Catholics respect and signify the importance and the epic role of the Holy Eucharist in creating and building a strong relationship between God and humankind. The process of growth and development occurs for every human being, but this process is not just about the growth of the mundane body, but the spiritual body as well. A person cannot live more than one week without any food, and so for the spirit, it necessitates the Heavenly meals to continue the process of its growth and development. There are a number of meaning to the word Eucharist, the actual word is taken from a greek word, which means ‘thanksgiving’ and also in Hebrew language the word Eucharist means ‘blessings’. The Holy Eucharist is not only a sacrament, it is a sacrifice, it is Jesus himself present in the form of bread and wine. 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The Jesuits in Latin American in the late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth centuries started to use the term to describe the spreading of the Christian faith among the heathen of that continent and, subsequently, of the spreading of the

Lord of the Flies, Coral Island and the Role of Adults Free Essays

It is known that to fully appreciate the novel â€Å"Lord of the Flies† (1954) by William Golding (1911-1993) it is necessary to have read Robert Michael Ballantyne’s (1825-1894) â€Å"Coral Island† (1858), or at least to understand its theme and treatment. And so, since it was Golding’s intention to set himself to write an island story that deliberately challenged Ballantyne’s model in â€Å"Coral Island† -by inverting its assumptions and values- we can explore multiple angles from which the two novels can be compared and studied. An item which seems quite interesting when analysing both texts is that one related to civilization and its adult exponents. We will write a custom essay sample on Lord of the Flies, Coral Island and the Role of Adults or any similar topic only for you Order Now After a thorough reading and focusing on very clear and specific elements we happen to notice the differences -as well as some similarities- among the roles and the significance of these adult characters in each novel. We will first refer to Golding’s â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, in which there are various examples of the complexity of the adult figure. But we must first refer to Golding’s own experience at war in order to get a clearer picture of his position towards our central concern. From the first years of his life, he faced the atrocities of war when he took part in the Second World War by joining the British Navy at 1940. The war, as a physical result, changed a lot Golding’s view of life. He could not believe in man’s innocence any longer. He found that even the children are not innocent. No one is innocent. The ideas of W. Golding’s view of human nature can be found in almost any of Golding’s books and particularly, in his first and most famous book, â€Å"Lord of the flies† 1. So, let us now focus on the novel itself. At a moment of uncertainty-anguish the boys beg desperately for a signal from the world of grown-ups: (â€Å"Grown-ups know things† said Piggy. â€Å"They ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ‘ud be all right—† â€Å"They wouldn’t set fire to the island. Or lose—-† â€Å"They’d build a ship—-â€Å" The three boys stood in the darkness, striving unsuccessfully to convey the majesty of adult life. â€Å"They wouldn’t quarrel—-† [†¦] â€Å"If only they could get a message to us,† cried Ralph desperately. â€Å"If only they could send us something grown-up†¦ a sign or something. 2) In the next chapter what they get is a dead body of a man hanging from a parachute, a corpse which gets rotten as the story advances. Is this the adult figure they were waiting for? Or, should the question be: Does this ‘gift’ from air help the m in any way to strengthen their boundaries with civilization? The answer seems to be ‘no’. On the contrary, it makes them panic, slowly driving them mad and irrational. It unleashes violence, leads them to sacrifices and murder, and takes them back to a primitive stage. So up to now the adult figure does not seem to be associated with a positive role. However, there is another character in the novel who also becomes very important as regards our analysis of the adult figure. Finally, when on the last pages, Ralph is lying on the sand, ready to accept the blow which will kill him, and he hears the silence around him, and he looks up †¦ up†¦ , he can first see some emblems of power, some symbols of the grown ups’ world and also of his father authority, and only then he can see a man – a naval officer. This man happens to stop Ralph’s brutal chase just by chance. Grown-ups have been dropping bombs and planes, and it was an atomic war which had made the children’s evacuation necessary in the first place. Who have gone crazy and been having an atomic war but the grown-ups themselves? 3 Again, a new question should be made: Is this a real symbol of salvation? Or, How can an ambassador of an atomic war stand for the pa rental protection or even a mature model to be followed? The naval officer’s ignorance, his lack of understanding of what has been going on, is ironical. Furthermore, what Golding is trying to make clear at this instance is the decadent figure of the human adult, and by extension, of the whole human civilized world. Let us now turn to R. M. Ballantyne’s â€Å"Coral Island†. Here, the concern about civilization, seems to be very well defined as well as good and evil are so clearly separated that there cannot be any conflict between them. 5 In spite of this, when we come to a closer look we find a special complexity within a number of characters. Everything about Ballantyne’s boys, who are older by some years than Golding’s boys, is confident and positive. The novel as a whole, pictures the assumptions and values of the Victorian period in affirming progress, imperialism, self-reliance, the Creator, the goodness of nature and of human nature- when Christianised at least 6 Actually, this is quite an interesting item to focus on. On the one hand there are the dark-skinned people referred to as â€Å"the savages†, who are in fact the native inhabitants from the neighbouring islands. They are a kind of primitive adults, constantly characterised as cruel, uncivilised inferior beings. Their rituals, their form of life, the whole of their culture is described as barbarian and demoniac and Ralph, our young narrator, is deeply horrified at seeing them. They represented a menace to the boys, and they tried to escape from them or to stay in good – but distant- terms with them, so as to keep them away from their coral island. On the other hand there are the pirates, who, paradoxically, are –like the rest of the fair-skinned characters- superior ; their ways are civilised, their clothes being the main symbol of their superiority. What is interesting about these last ones is that they are at first described as representing a dangerous element –as had already been the shark or the very ocean. Nevertheless, as the novel goes on, we are made to think that this wandering adults who travel overseas, robbing ships, conquering all that they found at their pace and kidnapping people, are actually ‘not that bad’. Even the pirates are â€Å"better † than the natives, more intelligent, cleaner, etc. But also, as we reach the end of the novel, we suddenly meet some educated peaceful missionaries who work a miracle when they get to the island the boys are captured in and manage to convert the wild savages into Christians and they embrace our Lord’s Gospel. It must be understood that the priest’s reason for being there is to abolish the beliefs of an entire human group and the pirates are traditionally thought of as being thieves, kidnappers and violent conquerors. But, somehow, this is not the image Ballantyne depicts towards the end of the novel. Given, thus, the complex nature of these beings, a new different question arises. What is the true nature of adults-civilization for Ballantyne? How come that adults like the priest and the pirates can be representatives of good or salvation? Are the adults capable of completely changing their previous evil nature all of a sudden? Obviously, the answer seems to rely on the moral outlook, the Victorian ethos, which bathes the whole novel. The didactic intentions are clear. His intentions are to teach his readers, not only to inform them about the wonders and terrors of the Pacific Islands, but also to make them reflect on the power, goodness, glory of God and make them better people. As a result, by comparing and contrasting both novels from the opposed perspectives of the two authors , we identify the key elements inherent to each one as regards our main topic. Basically, while in Ballantyne’s â€Å"Coral Island† the prevalent view of man was that based on the confidence of the white man 9 in Golding’s â€Å"Lord of the Flies† the thesi s is based on the man’s fallen nature myth, expressing through it his belief in man’s other nature, the dark and guilty nature. 0 Mainly, both Ballantyne and Golding’s perceptions about adulthood and civilization vary not only because of a completely divergent perception on the world -which derives from their personal experiences- but also because of the time when each novel was written and the totally different socio-political scenery in which they were developed. 1 Material obtained from http://www. geocities. com/Athens/Forum/6249/bio. htm 2 â€Å"The Lord of the Flies†, by William Golding (p. 117) Faber and Faber Limited (1954) 3 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"The Lord of the Flies† by William Golding. Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"The Lord of the Flies† by William Golding. 5 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"The Lord of the Flies† by William Golding. 6 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"Coral Islandâ₠¬  by R. M. Ballantyne. 7 Macmillan Master Guide, The Lord of the Flies, 1986 8 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"Coral Island† by R. M. Ballantyne. 9 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"Coral Island† by R. M. Ballantyne. 10 Notes provided by the teacher on â€Å"Coral Island† by R. M. Ballantyne. 11Macmillan Master Guide, The Lord of the Flies, 1986 How to cite Lord of the Flies, Coral Island and the Role of Adults, Papers