Sex has two broad meanings. Sex refers to the basic biological difference of whether an individual possesses the reproductive organs associated with being female or male. Although sex is thought of as a dichotomous category, individuals can be defined...

see gender and sex; homosexualities; pornography; sexual...

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Sex refers to the male and female duality of biology and reproduction. Unlike organisms that only have the ability to reproduce asexually, many species have the ability to produce offspring through meiosis and fertilization. Often, individuals of the...

THE cover lines of the current issue of a national magazine scream salaciously: "Tackling his Tackle", "50 Lovers and Still Counting" and "Nannies on the Game". Phew. But this publication is not to be found on the newsagent's top shelf, but much lower down,...

SEX! WITH a stranger! I suppose Greg Cordell and Carla Germaine have had sex by now. I mean had sex together. There's surely no way that two people who were "saving themselves" would then have taken part in a "blind date marriage" arranged by...

People blame philosopher René Descartes for the modern idea that spirit and body are two separate and antagonistic entities. I don’t. I think making this division is an age-old trap. It takes work to see clearly that you need your physical senses to be a...

LUST, CAUTION Running Time 157 minutes Written by Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus Directed by Ang Lee Starring Tang Wei, Tony Leung Lust, Caution, Ang Lee’s first film since his phenomenal masterpiece, Brokeback Mountain, signals a return to his geographical roots, but in no...

In the following essay, Sonnichsen presents an overview of sex in novels of the American West.

In the following essay, McMahon investigates the origins and implications of female sexuality and a female aesthetic in the poetry of Louise Glück, Marianne Moore, and Elizabeth Bishop.

In the following essay, Leavis traces changes in the literary representation of sexuality through the works of George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, and D. H. Lawrence.

“Sexuality has become a pawn in power struggles between competing political interest groups.” —Pepper Schwartz and Virginia Rutter In her book Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, Leora Tanenbaum decries the societal...

“Teenage decisions about sexuality are influenced by complex, intertwined factors such as love, substance abuse, poverty, family, sexual abuse, racism and religion.” —Photojournalist Dan Habib in his 1995 traveling lecture,...

The teen birthrate declined steadily throughout much of the 1990s. In 1999, the last year for which records are available, the birthrate among teens aged fifteen to nineteen dropped to a record low of 49.6 births per 1,000. The 1999 teen birthrate is...