The term sexuality had been a puzzle for many people for a long time. A lot of research has been done on the topic by many philosophers as well as historians. Among them was a French philosopher known as Michel Foucault who researched on the history of sexuality. Sexuality basically means the identification of difference in gender.
It is the main feature for the identities of people. Philosophers have before claimed that sexuality operates in an unstable manner and it is developed through social interactions. Therefore the history of sexuality can be said to have started long ago as people tried to find out more about the creation of God.
Research shows that not every person understands all about sexuality. Different people and cultures have their own different perception of the term. In countries like Japan, China and India the word sexuality is seen as something that is normal and no one is ashamed of talking about it. Though they keep it as a secret they find no harm in discussing the topic of sexuality.
On the other hand, the western society has a different perspective about the term. They find it to be a secretive term and not to be publicly discussed. It can therefore be said that one’s understanding depends on an individual’s egotism.
During the course of my study in high school I got to see how people may be confused by the term sexuality. There was one of our school mates who had male characteristics yet she had been born a female. The reason behind this was that she had been born a hermaphrodite; that is having both sexual organs.
The doctors who first examined her after birth decided that it was easy chopping off the male sexual organ other than surgical procedures on the female sexual organ. With this, they did not consider anything to do with the hormones, internal organs or the reproductive cells. Since all babies are identical despite the sexuality no one was able to notice any difference.
The problem arose during her high school life when her body was undergoing hormonal changes. The body started developing visible male features and characteristics such as beards, hoarse voice, no breasts and many others. Since we were in an only girl’s school, she could be easily distinguished. The issue about her sexuality greatly affected her social life and eventually academically.
It was after much consultation with her parents that she realized the mystic about her sexuality and underwent another surgery to convert her to the male sexual being she was supposed to be. The problem can be dated back to the doctors who first examined her. They did not understand that sexuality is more than just the sexual organs. Sexuality has a lot to do with personality and many other factors which may not be visible. This was a serious mistake costing the teenage life of a person.
It can therefore be concluded that sexuality is a very important issue to human beings. Ignoring and taking sexuality for granted is wrong just as described by Foucault. He says that people of the Western society suppressed the word sexuality.
Considering the effects that are bound to arise because of negligence of sexuality, it calls for immediate change of state of the situation. That is, people should critically look at sexuality and begin to put more recognition on it. Doing this will create a freely interactive and sociable community.