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MIDTERM
Understanding the Self | UTS101
Learning Module No. 02 #
Lesson1. Physical and Sexual Self

There is always a pressure in our society to look good and to seek a visually better
version of ourselves. We often get so caught up with the ways that we can make sure
that we look beautiful and pleasant. Also, our sexuality is part of who we are. In this
lesson, the better we can understand who we are, we will know better how to take care
and protect ourselves and even those we love.

Lesson Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
 Understand biological concept of our physical and sexual selves
 Explain the importance of good hygiene, healthy physical and sexual parts
of the body and taking care of it
 Create own ways in taking care of the body from harm and unhealthy
circumstances.

Getting Started:
People tend to view one’ physical appearance as basis of how to treat a person.
Consider a scenario where a “not-so-attractive,” big-boned woman rode a bus where
no seat was available for her. However, some men were seated comfortably on their
own. No one bothered vacating their seats and voluntarily giving it to the woman.
Minutes passed, another slim and “attractive” looking woman rode the bus. Shockingly
for the first woman, the seated men hastily stood up to let the second woman have their
seats.
This kind of situation shows the superficiality of human and somehow objectifies women
on their own “unacceptable” category. What is your opinion on this? Have you
experience or witness similar situation where one’s appearance matters so much?

Discussion:
It has been believed that the sex chromosomes of humans define the sex and the
secondary sexual characteristics. From childhood, we are controlled by genetic
make-up. It influences the way we treat ourselves and others. However, there are
individuals who do not accept their innate sexual characteristics and they tend to
change their sexual organs through medications and surgery. Aside from our genes, our
society or the external environment helps shape ourselves.

The Physical and Sexual Self

The physical self refers to our body that can be seen and observed by everyone.
Changes in our body affect our body image and self-esteem.

It was Gregor Mendel who first figured out how genes

are pass from parents to offspring in plants, including
humans. Heredity refers to the transmission or passing
on of traits from parent to off spring and Genetics is the
scientific study of heredity. It is the factor that made up
our skin tone, hair color, height our physical features
mirrors of our parents, DNAs (deoxyribonucleic Acid)
the way it is.

However, different cultures have different standards of

beauty. In African country of Tahiti, they have the
fattening rooms where women were set aside as for
them, being fat sign of prosperity, fertility and beauty.
In the Philippines, the construction of local standards of beauty can be traced from our
colonial influences as we were historically colonized by the Spaniards, Americans, and
Japanese. Lighter skinned individuals are considered higher in terms of status compared
to brown or dark skinned.

We were forced to believe that light skinned individuals are more superior, more civilized,
and how they look were deemed as a standard of beauty - a very Euro-centric
perspective.

Beauty standards from all over the world from ages ago and today.

The Filipino Obsession with Beauty

The Filipino’s obsession with beauty translates not only to women but also to men. Some
even undergo surgery to alter their appearance due to pressure of the society to look
good, if not better. Their decision to undergo the knife was because of a lookist culture
which dictates that happiness is only afforded to good-looking people. Due to this
“standard,” we victimize our own people for looking otherwise.

However, health concerns are foremost to be considered before going through these
kinds of surgeries. There are those who feel that they do not look beautiful, even if you
tell them that they really are.

a. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) – They are obsessed about their appearance
and thinks about their flaws, real or not, incessantly and uncontrollably.
 b. Anorexia – It is a serious mental illness where people are low weight due to limiting
their energy intake. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, or background.
As well as restricting the amount of food eaten, they may do lots of exercise to
get rid of food eaten.

c. Body Shaming – It is the act of criticizing yourself or others because of some

aspects of physical appearance.

Sexuality
This refers to the way people experience and express themselves as sexual being.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), this is the central aspect of being
human throughout life encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation,
eroticism, pleasure, intimacy, and reproduction.

Sexuality is experience and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desire, beliefs, values,

behavior, practices, roles, and relationships.
There are factors that affect our view of sexuality:

a. education
b. occupation
c. income
d. economics
e. law
f. politics
g. history
h. media
i. society
j. culture and
k. religion
 However, ignorance about sexuality has to be addressed with proper education.
Sex education is not to promote sexual intercourse but to promote good sexual health
and safety from sexual violence. It is teaching proper hygiene or through being
discerning of a child’s action, reactions, questions, or comments about sex.

SEX – person’s characterization as female or male at birth, typically based on the

appearance of external genitalia or other biological characteristics.

GENDER – social characteristics may be or not be aligned with a person’s sex and
adopted by individual as their gender identity.

Puberty period ranges from 13-18 years old. It is the 1 to 3 years process of
hormonal and physical change that causes the young person to reach sexual maturity.
Girls are usually entering it about a year earlier than boys. Every individual develops and
reacts in different ways due to factors like stress, weight, nutrition, hormonal activity, and
inherent characteristics.

Secondary Sex Characteristics are the traits that differ between the two sexes but
are not part of the reproductive system; they include breast in females and facial hair in
males.
Erogenous zones are the erogenous or sexually stimulating zones of both sexes.
When erogenous zones are touched, there is an expected automatic sensation.
Male circumcision is considered as “hygiene and the medical benefits such as
lowering the risk of prostate cancer and helping prevent sexually transmitted diseases.”
 Female genital/cutting/mutilation is the partial or total removal of the external
female genitalia (clitoris/labia). But it has NO health benefits and even lead to serious
health problems, even fatality during childbirth.

Sexual Orientation refers to our sexual preferences towards males, females, or both
while Gender Identity is one’s concept of being male, female, both, or neither and is
“entirely determined by socialization (nurture)”

Types of Sexual Orientation

Table 1 Types of Sexual Orientation and its Definition

Types of Gender Identities
 Table 2 Types of Gender Identities and its Definition

Understanding Human Sexual Response

Media show numerous concepts about sex, lust, and desire, which could be explicitly or
implicitly embedded in ads, magazines, movies, TV shows, radio programs, games, etc.

Sex is also at time called love-making giving premium to the act being based on and
done out of love. And ideally, “falling in love is stronger than the sex drive.”

According to Fisher, we are drawn to certain people not only for cultural reasons, such
as socioeconomics, intelligence, and values, but also for biological reasons.
Furthermore, she asserted that there three stages of romantic love.

Fig. 4 Stages of Love (Liberatore, 2016)

Couples need to keep trying something new together, they also have to spend more
time with each other and feel each other’s warmth through gentle touch, holding of
hands, hugging, etc. Researches emphasize the importance of commitment,
consistency, and effort in relationship to sustain, revive, or restore the chemistry of love.

According to Maslar (2016) in her TEDx talk, “The right time for a female to agree to have
sex with her male partner is when he commits to the relationship which is never on the
first date. This back up the claim of most of our elder’s advice for a better and long
lasting relationship.”

Models for Sexual Response

Table 3 Models for Sexual Response (King, 2014)

Though far from being a pleasant topic, we all need to be aware of the importance of
how to take care of ourselves, protect ourselves, our loved ones, and the young
children from the reality that we are still working on eradicating sexual violence.

WHO defined Sexual Violence as any sexual act, attempt to obtain sexual act,
unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed,
against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship
to the victim, in any settings, including but not limited to home and work.

Forms of Sexual Violence

Fig. 5 Forms of Sexual Violence (“Sexual Violence,” 2013)

In our own ways, we can prevent sexual violence, one little step at a time. Be aware. Be
vigilant, not paranoid. Educate others how they can protect themselves. Increase
media literacy. Filter what ideas you expose yourself to. Talk to people who can help
and report to concerned government agencies.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Fig. 6 STI Facts (“Sexually Transmitted,” 2016)

Engaging in sexual contact, either vaginal, oral, or anal, can give temporary intense
pleasure, and with it, a possibility of transmitting “more than 30 different bacteria, viruses
and parasites” that may result to lifetime of sexually transmitted infections.

In our country, the number of HIV and AIDS cases increase every year. In January 2019,
the Philippine was said to have the highest HIV growth rate in Asia-Pacific. Below is the
number of newly acquired cases per region.
1. NCR - 402 cases
2. CALABARZON - 228 cases
3. Central Luzon - 114 cases
4. Central Visayas - 97 cases
5. Western Visayas - 92 cases

Most cases of transmission are through male to male sex and in the age range of 14 to
24 (Morales, 2017). Prevention is always better than cure. With HIV and AIDS, prevention
is unquestionably better since until now there is still no cure.

Family Planning

Family planning programs intend to provide accessible information on sexual and

reproductive health for people to choose from depending on their needs and
preferences. Contraception is focused on the ways to prevent pregnancy in line with the family
planning program.

The Department of Health (DOH) has four principles in implementing the family program
which adolescents and older can relate with, either as a child or soon to be parent.
1. Responsible parenthood – determine the desired number of children they
might have and when they might have them. Responsible parenting is the proper
upbringing and education of children.
2. Respect for life - The 1987 Constitution states that the government protects
the sanctity of life. Abortion is NOT a family planning method.
3. Birth Spacing refers to interval between pregnancies which is ideally 3 years.
4. Informed Choice is upholding and ensuring the rights of couples to determine the
number and spacing of their children according to their life’s aspirations and reminding
couples that planning size of their families has a direct bearing on the quality of their
children’s and their own lives.

To aid in family planning program are a range of natural and artificial types of
contraception to choose from. However, ABSTINENCE, or not engaging in any form of
sex, a natural method, is the most effective means of contraception since time
immemorial.

Summary of the Lesson:

The physical self refers to our body that can be seen and observed by everyone
while sexuality refers to the way people experience and express themselves as sexual
being. Moreover, different cultures have different standards of beauty. Those who feel
that they do not look beautiful, even if you tell them that they really are may suffer from
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), Anorexia, or Body Shaming. Furthermore, every
individual develops physically and reacts in different ways due to factors like stress,
weight, nutrition, hormonal activity, and inherent characteristics. More so, the
Department of Health (DOH) has four principles in implementing the family program
and their different alternatives of contraception to prevent sexually transmitted
infection and diseases.