By Liv Ainsworth, Sexperts
Sexuality is much more than sexual feelings or sexual intercourse. It is an important part of who a person is and what she or he will become.
It includes all the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of being female or male, being attracted and being in love, as well as being in relationships that include sexual intimacy and physical sexual activity.
Read about each circle in more detail by clicking the button below.
People tend to use the word sex very differently , subjectively and arbitrarily: what sex is, means or has meant for one person can be radically different for someone else.
When some people say “sex” they only mean vaginal, genital intercourse. There are a LOT of different kinds of sex, and intercourse can be just one of them. Some other people use “sex” to mean any kind of genital sex with someone else.
That definition can have its flaws, though, too.
When we say “sex” we’re talking about a very big picture. That’s because what sex is or isn’t for any given person or partnership not only differs a whole lot from person-to-person, it also can differ a whole lot from day-to-day for any one person: the way they had sex yesterday may not be the way they’ll have sex next week.
The term “sexuality” can be used a lot like the word “sex.” They’re both terms we say and hear a lot, but which often aren’t clearly defined, or even defined at all.
We can take for granted that everyone, including ourselves, knows what terms like this mean, a heck of an assumption to make with something that covers a lot of really important things and can feel as murky as Lake Erie.
So, what is sexuality all about? You might say it’s about our bodies or our hormones, about our feelings and our relationships, or about touching and being touched.