Ancient Greece
The earliest documents concerning same-sex pederastic relationships come from Ancient Greece. However, Kenneth J. Dover has claimed that such relationships did not replace marriage between man and woman, but occurred before and beside it. A mature man would never have a mature male mate, one notable exception being Alexander the Great , but he would be the erastes (lover) to a young eromenos (loved one). In this relationship it was considered improper for the eromenos to feel desire, as that would not be masculine. Driven by desire and admiration, the erastes would devote himself unselfishly to providing all the education his eromenos required to thrive in society. In recent times, the research by Dover has been questioned in light of massive evidence of love poetry which suggests a more emotional connection than earlier researchers liked to acknowledge. Some research has shown that ancient Greeks believed semen, more specifically sperm, to be the source of knowledge, and that these relationships served to pass wisdom on from the erastes to the eromenos within society.
Ancient Rome
- The deification of Antinous, his medals, statues, temples, city, oracles, and constellation, are well known, and still dishonor the memory of Hadrian. Yet we remark, that, of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct.
- Edward Gibbon
Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau is a political theorist often described as post-Marxist. He is a professor at the University of Essex where he holds a chair in Political Theory and is also director of the doctoral program in Ideology and Discourse Analysis. He has lectured extensively in many universities in North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Australia and South Africa.
Laclau's most important book is Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, which he co-authored with Chantal Mouffe. Their thought is usually described as post-Marxist as they were both politically active in the social and student movements of the 1960s and thus tried to join working class and new social movements. They rejected Marxist economic determinism and the notion of class struggle being the crucial antagonism in society. Instead they urged for radical democracy of agonistic pluralism where all antagonisms could be expressed. In their opinion "...there is no possibility of society without antagonism", that is why they claimed that "society does not exist."
Books
- Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory (London 1977)
- Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Chantal Mouffe) (London 1985)
- New Reflections on the Revolution of our Time (London, 1990)
- The Making of Political Identities (editor) (London l994)
- Emancipation(s) (London, 1996)
Agonistic pluralism
Agonistic pluralism is a term used by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to describe their model of democracy.
They argue that a society without differing opinions will never be possible, which is why instead of trying to struggle for an ideal which can never be reached society should accept this fact and try to "overcome" differences by accepting the different opinions (thus agonism as opposed to antagonism).
Ideology
An ideology is a collection of ideas. The word ideology was coined by Count Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century to define a "science of ideas." An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things (compare Weltanschauung), as in common sense (see Ideology in everyday society) and several philosphical tendencies (see Political ideologies), or (the Marxist definition of ideology - see Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction), a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society .
Contents [hide] Ideology in everyday society
Every society has an ideology that forms the basis of the "public opinion" or common sense, a basis that usually remains invisible to most people within the society. This dominant ideology appears as "neutral", while all others that differ from the norm are often seen as radical, no matter what the actual vision may be. The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote about this concept of apparent ideological neutrality.
Organisations that strive for power influence the ideology of a society to become what they want it to be. Political organisations (governments included) and other groups (e.g. lobbyists) try to influence people by broadcasting their opinions, which is the reason why so often many people in a society seem to "think alike".
When most people in a society think alike about certain matters, or even forget that there are alternatives to the current state of affairs, we arrive at the concept of Hegemony, about which the philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote. The much smaller-scale concept of groupthink also owes something to his work.
Modern linguists study the mechanism of conceptual metaphor, by which this 'thinking alike' is thought to be transmitted.
Political ideologies
There are many different kinds of ideology: political, social, epistemological, ethical, and so on.
In social studies, a political ideology is a set of ideas and principles that explain how the society should work, and offer the blueprint for a certain social order. A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. For example, one of the most influential and well-defined political ideologies of the 20th century was communism, based on the original formulations of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Other examples of ideologies include: anarchism, capitalism, communitarianism, corporate liberalism, christian-democracy, fascism, monarchism, nationalism, nazism, conservativism, liberalism, socialism, and social-democracy. Ideology studied as ideology (rather than examples of specific ideologies) has been carried out under the name systematic ideology. See also "capitalism as an ideology", a section of the article on capitalism.
The popularity of an ideology is in part due to the influence of moral entrepreneurs, who sometimes act in their own interests. A political ideology is the body of ideals, principles, doctrine, myth or symbols of a social movement, institution, class, or large group that references some political and cultural plan. It can be a construct of political thought, often defining political parties and their policy.
A certain ethic usually forms the basis of an ideology.
Epistemological ideologies
Even when the challenging of existing beliefs is encouraged, as in science, the dominant paradigm or mindset can prevent certain challenges, theories or experiments from being advanced. The philosophy of science mostly concerns itself with reducing the impact of these prior ideologies so that science can proceed with its primary task, which is (according to science) to create knowledge.
There are critics who view science as an ideology in itself, called scientism. Some scientists respond that, while the scientific method is itself an ideology, as it is a collection of ideas, there is nothing particularly wrong or bad about it.
Other critics point out that while science itself is not a misleading ideology, there are some fields of study within science that are misleading. Two examples discussed here are in the fields of ecology and economics.
A special case of science adopted as ideology is that of ecology, which studies the relationships between living things on Earth. Perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson believed that human perception of ecological relationships was the basis of self-awareness and cognition itself. Linguist George Lakoff has proposed a cognitive science of mathematics wherein even the most fundamental ideas of arithmetic would be seen as consequences or products of human perception - which is itself necessarily evolved within an ecology.
Deep ecology and the modern ecology movement (and, to a lesser degree, Green parties) appear to have adopted ecological sciences as a positive ideology.
Some accuse ecological economics of likewise turning scientific theory into political economy, although theses in that science can often be tested. The modern practice of green economics fuses both approaches and seems to be part science, part ideology.
This is far from the only theory of economics to be raised to ideology status - some notable economically-based ideologies include mercantilism, social darwinism, communism, laissez-faire economics, and "free trade". There are also current theories of safe trade and fair trade which can be seen as ideologies.
Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction
Karl Marx proposed a base/superstructure model of society. The base refers to the means of production of society. The superstructure is formed on top of the base, and comprises that society's ideology, as well as its legal system, political system, and religions. Marx proposed that the base determines the superstructure. It is the ruling class that controls the society's means of production - and thus the superstructure of society, including its ideology, will be determined according to what is in the ruling class' best interests. On the other hand, critics of the Marxist approach feel that it attributes too much importance to economic factors in influencing society.
The ideologies of the dominant class of a society are proposed to all members of that society in order to make the ruling class' interests appear to be the interests of all, and thereby achieve hegemony. To reach this goal, ideology makes use of a special type of discourse: the lacunar discourse, as discussed by Althusser. A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested).
For example, the statement 'All are equal before the law', which is a theory behind current legal systems, suggests that all people may be of equal worth or have equal 'opportunities'. This is not true, because the concept of private property over the means of production results in some people being able to own more (much more) than others, and their property brings power and influence (the rich can afford better lawyers, among other things, and this puts in question the principle of equality before the law).
The dominant forms of ideology in capitalism are (in chronological order):
and they correspond to the stages of development of capitalism:
- extensive stage
- intensive stage
- contemporary capitalism (or late capitalism, or current crisis)
References
- Louis Althusser, Reading Capital ('Pour lire le Capital')
- Antonio Gramsci, Prison notebooks
See also
Critical discourse analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis, or CDA is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of text and talk, which views "language as a form of social practice" (Fairclough 1989: 20) and attempts "to unpack the ideological underpinnings of discourse that have become so naturalized over time that we begin to treat them as common, acceptable and natural features of discourse" (Teo 2000).
Norman Fairclough's books, Language and Power (1989) and Critical Discourse Analysis (1995), articulate a three-dimensional framework for studying discourse, "where the aim is to map three separate forms of analysis onto one another: analysis of (spoken or written) language texts, analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution and consumption) and analysis of discursive events as instances of sociocultural practice" (1995: 2).
Critical discourse analysis is founded on the unequal access to linguistic and social resources, resources that are controlled institutionally. The patterns of access to discourse and communicative events is one essential element for CDA. In terms of method, CDA can generally be described as hyper-linguistic or supra-linguistic, in that practitioners who use CDA consider the larger discourse context or the meaning that lies beyond the grammatical structure. This includes consideration of the political, and even the economic, context of language usage and production.
In addition to linguistic theory, the approach draws from social theory--and contributions from Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu--in order to examine ideologies and power relations involved in discourse. Fairclough notes "that language connects with the social through being the primary domain of ideology, and through being both a site of, and a stake in, struggles for power" (1989: 15).
Notable researchers include Norman Fairclough, Paul Chilton, Teun van Dijk, Christina Shaffner, Ruth Wodak, Peter Teo, Roger Fowler, Gunther Kress, and Robert Hodge.
References
- Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. Harlow: Longman Group UK Limited.
- Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis. Harlow: Longman Group UK Limited.
- Talbot, Mary, Karen Atkinson and David Atkinson. 2003. Language and Power in the Modern World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
- Teo, Peter. 2000. Racism in the news: a Critical Discourse Analysis of news reporting in two Australian newspapers. Discourse and Society, 11: 1, 7-49. [Cited in Talbot, Atkinson and Atkinson 2003: 36.]
Fictional character
A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. More accurately, a fictional character is the person or conscious entity we imagine to exist within the world of such a work. In addition to people, characters can be aliens, animals, gods or, occasionally, inanimate objects. Characters are almost always at the center of fictional texts, especially novels and plays. It is, in fact, hard to imagine a novel or play without characters, though such texts have been attempted (James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is one of the most famous examples). In poetry, there is almost always some sort of person present, but often only in the form of a narrator or an imagined listener.
Critics distinguish between "round characters" and "flat characters". The former are made up of many personality traits and tend to be complex and both more life-like and believable, while the latter consist of only a few personality traits and tend to be simple and less believable. The protagonist (main character, sometimes known as the "hero" or the "heroine") of a novel is certain to be a round character; a minor, supporting character in the same novel may be a flat character. Scarlett O'Hara, of "Gone With the Wind", is a good example of a round character, whereas her servant Prissy exemplifies the flat character. Likewise, many antagonists (characters in conflict with protagonists, sometimes known as "villains") are round characters. An example of an antagonist who is a round character is Rhett Butler.
A number of stereotypical characters have developed throughout the history of drama. Some of these characters include the country bumpkin, the con artist, and the city slicker.
In various forms of theatre, performance arts and cinema (except for animation and CGI movies), fictional characters are performed by actors, dancers and singers. In animations and puppetry, they are voiced by voice actors, though there have been several examples, particularly, in machinima, where characters are voiced by computer generated voices.
Names of characters
The names of fictional characters are often quite important. The conventions of naming have changed over time. In many Restoration comedies, for example, characters are given emblematic names that sound nothing like real life names: "Sir Fidget", "Mr. Pinchwife" and "Mrs. Squeamish" are some typical examples (all from The Country Wife by William Wycherley).
Some 18th and 19th century texts, on the other hand, represent characters' names by the use of a single letter and a long dash (this convention is also used for other proper nouns, such as place names). This has the effect of suggesting that the author had a real person in mind but omitted the full name for propriety's sake. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo uses this technique.
One reason for this dash is that, in Britain and in other countries with a feudal heritage, the names of counties and places might be the names of the feudal lords over those places. One cannot arbitrarily give someone the name "Earl of Manchester" because someone may either have or be elevated to such a title, so it may be grounds for a lawsuit. Hence fictitious names are based on disparaged historical characters, or tend to be re-used. For example, "Lady de Winter" is a character in Dumas père's Three Musketeers, and the family name was used in Du Maurier's Rebecca. (The same holds true for the names of houses: in the latter book, "Windermere" is named after a lake, not a feudal holding).
The 19th century movements of sentimentalism, realism and naturalism all encouraged readers to imagine characters as real people by giving them realistic names, names that were often the titles of books, such as Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre or Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. These conventions were followed by the majority of subsequent literature, including most contemporary literature.
However, there are few characters with names that are completely arbitrary. At the very least, names tend to indicate nationality and status. Often, the literal meaning or origin of a name is of some symbolic importance.
Some ways of reading characters
Readers vary enormously in how they understand fictional characters. The most extreme ways of reading fictional characters would be to think of them exactly as real people or to think of them as purely artistic creations that have everything to do with craft and nothing to do with real life. Most styles of reading fall somewhere in between.
Here are some typical ways of reading fictional characters in literary criticism:
Character as Patient: Psychoanalytic Readings
Psychoanalytic criticism usually treats characters as real people possessing complex psyches. Psychoanalytic critics approach literary characters as an analyst would treat a patient, searching their dreams, past, and behavior for explanations of their fictional situations.
Alternatively, some psychoanalytic critics read characters as mirrors for the audience's psychological fears and desires. Rather than representing realistic psyches then, fictional characters offer us a way to act out psychological dramas of our own in symbolic and often hyperbolic form. The classic example of this would be Freud's reading of Oedipus (and Hamlet, for that matter) as emblematizing every child's fantasy of murdering his father to possess his mother.
This form of reading persists today in much Film criticism. The feminist critic Laura Mulvey is considered a pioneer in the field. Her groundbreaking 1975 article, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"[1] (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hafvm/staff_research/visual1.html), analyzed the role of the male viewer of conventional narrative cinema as fetishist, using psychoanalysis "as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form."
Character as Symbol
In some readings, certain characters are understood to represent a given quality or abstraction. Rather than simply being people, these characters stand for something larger. Many characters in Western Literature have been read as Christ Symbols, for example. Some other famous characters have been read as symbolizing capitalist greed (See F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby), democratic ideals (Luke Skywalker), or quixotic romanticism (El Quijote).
Character as Representative
Another way of reading characters symbolically is to understand each character as a representative of a certain group of people. For example, Bigger Thomas of Native Son by Richard Wright is often seen as representative of young black men in the 1930s, doomed to a life of poverty and exploitation. Dagny Targett and other characters from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand are seen as representative of American's hard-nosed, hard-working class.
Many practitioners of cultural criticism and feminist criticism focus their analysis of characters on cultural stereotypes. In particular, they consider the ways in which authors rely on and/or work against stereotypes when they create their characters. Such critics, for example, would read Native Son in relation to racist stereotypes of African-American men as sexually violent (especially against white women). In reading Bigger Thomas' character, one could ask in what ways Richard Wright relied on these stereotypes to create a violent African-American male character and in what ways he fought against it by making that character the protagonist of the novel rather than an anonymous villain.
Often, readings that focus on stereotypes demand that we focus our attention on seemingly unimportant characters, such as the ubiquitous sambo characters in early cinema. Minor characters, or stock characters, are often the focus of this kind of analysis since they tend to rely more heavily on stereotypes than more central characters.
Characters as Historical or Biographical References
Sometimes characters obviously represent important Historical figures. For example, Nazi-hunter Yakov Liebermann in The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin is often compared to reallife Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal and corrupted populist politician Willie Stark from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren is often compared to Louisiana governor Huey P. Long.
Other times, authors base characters on people from their own personal lifes. Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb chronicles her love affair with Lord Byron, who is thinly disguised as the title character. Nicole, a destructive, mentally ill woman in Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald is often seen as a fictionalized version of Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.
Perhaps because so many people enjoy imagining characters as real people, many critics devote their time to seeking out real people on whom literary figures were likely based. Frequently authors base stories on themselves or their loved ones.
Character as words
Some language- or text-oriented critics emphasize that characters are nothing more than certain conventional uses of words on a page: names or even just pronouns repeated throughout a text. They refer to characters as functions of the text. Some critics go so far as to suggest that even authors do not exist outside the texts that construct them.
Some unusual uses of characters
Post-modern fiction frequently incorporates real characters into fictional and even realistic surroundings. In film, the appearance of a real person as himself inside of a fictional story is called a cameo. For instance, Woody Allen's Annie Hall has Allen's character call in Marshall McLuhan to resolve a disagreement.
In some experimental fiction, the author acts as a character within his own text. One of the earliest novels to use this trick was Niebla (Fog) by Miguel de Unamuno (1907). Paul Auster does a similar thing in his novel City of Glass (1985), which opens with the main character getting a phone call for Paul Auster. At first the main character explains that it is a wrong number, but eventually he decides to pretend to be Auster and see where it leads him.
In Immortality by Milan Kundera, the author references himself in a storyline seemingly separate from that of his fictional characters but at the end of the novel, Kundera meets his own characters.
With the rise of the star system in Hollywood, many famous actors are so familiar that it can be hard to limit our reading of their character to a single film. In some sense, Bruce Lee is always Bruce Lee, Woody Allen is always Woody Allen, and Harrison Ford is always Harrison Ford as all often portray characters that are very alike so audiences fuse the star persona with the characters they tend to play. Being John Malkovich is one movie that explores the strange situation of characters in film.
A number of television shows make constant reference to a character who is never seen. This often becomes a sort of joke with the audience. (See unseen character). This device is the centrepoint of one of the most unusual and original plays of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in which Godot of the title never arrives.
Famous fictional characters
Some fictional characters are so famous that they are often mentioned outside the context of the fictional work they come from. These characters include:
- Achilles (Greek mythological hero, immune to all forms of injury except in the back of his heel, source of the term "Achilles heel", referring to a sole flaw, often seemingly insignificant)
- Alice (Lewis Carroll's invention, a young naive girl transported into a strange and alien land, interprets everything literally)
- Big Brother (iconic leader of the totalitarian state of Oceania in 1984 by George Orwell and possibly a fictitious character within a fictitious work; often used a term to describe any propaganda symbol people are made to love without sense or reason)
- Archie Bunker (from All in the Family, often used as an example of a bigot.)
- Brother Jonathan - symbol of United States (see also: Uncle Sam, John Bull, Nicholas Frog).
- Charlie Brown (from the comic strip, Peanuts, the archtypal lovable loser)
- Captain Ahab (from Herman Melville's Moby Dick, refers to someone with an incessant and obsessive need to accomplish some task)
- Dilbert (from the comic strip bearing his name, a typical parody to a software engineer, specifically one who is in the corporate world of micromanagement & bad bosees)
- Don Quixote (character from Miguel Cervantes' novel of the same name; he believed he was a chivalric knight; often used as a symbol of dedication to achieving one's goals in spite of all obstacles, especially including reality; source of adjective "quixotic")
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (from novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, refers to anyone particularly two-faced, especially with one evil and one good side)
- Dracula (archetypal vampire, sometimes metaphorically any person, event, thing or idea perceived as life- or energy-draining; modern character created by Bram Stoker)
- E.T. (film alien, simple and good yet misunderstood by others)
- Hamlet (The title character of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, who is tortured by a moral dillehma and prone to brooding passion)
- Hercules (Greek mythological character known primarily for his immense physical strength; compare Paul Bunyan)
- Hermione Granger (Harry Potter character, known for possessing a fierce intellect and disdain for rule-breaking, though insecure underneath it all, due to fear of failure)
- Holden Caulfield (protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger who symbolizes troubled, cynical young men)
- Homer Simpson (Character from The Simpsons, often used to refer to an average adult male)
- Huckleberry Finn (aka Huck Finn, Mark Twain character, a youth who rescues a slave, has an exceedingly simple moral code and character but is still virtuous)
- Ivan-durak (Иван-дурак in Russian, means "Ivan the stupid", a famous fairy tale character. He is usually the third son of a peasant and, unlike his brothers, is regarded as simple and stupid, but triumphs in the end through sincerity and kindness)
- Jára Cimrman (Czech national genius and famous inventor)
- James Bond (suave, charming secret agent from a series of books and films)
- King Arthur ( legendary British king and epitome of righteousness, justice and virtue; maybe not entirely fictional)
- King Lear (Shakespearean character who does not recognize the only one of three daughters who love him; he is undone by his blindness to her, Cordelia's, love)
- Lolita (nickname of the 12-year-old nymphet from Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name, comes to signify any young girl involved with an older man)
- Macbeth (Shakespearean tragic character, undone by his drive for power and the corrupting influence of Lady Macbeth, his wife)
- Miss Piggy (a Muppet who is vain, narcisstic, demanding, greedy and self-centered; compare the lovable and always virtuous Kermit the Frog)
- Mrs. Robinson (an older woman who seduces a recent college graduate in the 1967 film The Graduate, often a term used to describe any older woman who does the same)
- Nozdrev (from Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, a energetic and sprightly man, a mischief, a braggart, and a liar)
- Odysseus (from Homer's Odyssey, spent some thirty years from his family and is often used as a symbol of dedication and wisdom)
- Ophelia (another character from Hamlet, a young girl who goes insane and drowns, possible by suicide and a term used to describe any troubled young woman)
- Penelope (from Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus's wife, often used as a symbol of marital fidelity due to her commitment to her husband, who was absent for twenty years)
- Prince Charming (prince from the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty written in the 17th century by Charles Perrault. The term means any handsome, charming man who is ideal for a said woman)
- Robin Hood (outlaw with a heart of gold who "steals from the rich to give to the poor")
- Romeo and Juliet (from Shakespeare's play of the same name, lovers whose marriage is forbidden due to a family rivalry. Their names are now used to describe any extremely passionate pair of lovers, espeacially those whose love is doomed or forbidden)
- Ebenezer Scrooge (from Dickens's A Christmas Carol, who is miserly and uncharitable)
- Sharikov Polygraph Polygraphovich (from Mikhail Bulgakov's The Heart of a Dog, Шариков Полиграф Полиграфович in Russian, a savage, aggressive, uneducated lumpen-proletariat created from a dog in a medical experiment by educated and refined Professor Preobrazhensky)
- Sherlock Holmes, the archetypical figure representing the power of observation and reason in the cause of justice.
- Siren (Homer's Odyssey includes Sirens whose beautiful voice lures sailors to their doom, often symbolically any femme fatale)
- Mr. Spock (Star Trek character, Vulcan/human hybrid who is ruled by logic and reason and ignores passion and emotion, contrasted with the passionate Captain James T. Kirk)
- Superman, the archetypical superhero and modern messiah figure.
- Tom Joad (from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, a destitute Ookie who travels with his family to find work during the Great Depression. Joad's name is used to describe anyone who is exploited and left with little options under an economic system)
- Uncle Tom (created by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin, often used to refer to a person who is a disgrace to his or her race, especially African-Americans who act in a stereotypical manner)
- Wile E. Coyote (cartoon character who constantly tried and failed to kill the Road Runner, used as a symbol of dedication in the face of futility)
- Yoda (Star Wars character who trained Luke Skywalker to become a Jedi. A commonly used example of a mysterious and wise mentor)
Lists of fictional characters
General lists of fictional characters
- List of advertising characters
- List of comic and cartoon characters
- List of comic and cartoon character pairs
- Comic and cartoon characters named after people
- List of fictional rabbis
- List of fictional robots and androids
- List of Greek mythological characters
- List of heroic fictional scientists and engineers
- List of real-life characters
- List of unseen characters
Lists of stock characters
- List of damsels in distress
- List of femme fatales
- List of heroes
- List of mad scientists
- List of villains
Lists of fictional animals
- List of fictional apes (and other non-human primates, excluding Monkeys)
- List of fictional bears
- List of fictional birds
- List of fictional cats
- List of fictional dinosaurs
- List of fictional dogs
- List of fictional dragons
- List of fictional elephants
- List of fictional horses
- List of fictional mice and rats
- List of fictional pigs
- List of fictional rabbits
- List of fictional animals of other species
Lists of fictional characters in specific works or series
- Love Hina main characters
- List of Digimon
- List of Pokémon
- Characters from Dune
- Characters in The Sandman
- Characters in Atlas Shrugged
- List of DC Comics characters
- List of Dickens characters
- List of Disney characters
- List of Middle-earth characters
- List of Characters in Grand Theft Auto Vice City
- List of Hercules and Xena characters
- List of Mortal Kombat characters
- List of Archie Comics characters
- List of Characters in The Chronicles of Narnia
- List of characters from Family Guy
- List of characters from The Simpsons
- List of characters from the Sopranos
- List of Hanna-Barbera characters
- List of Marvel Comics characters
- List of Nintendo characters
- List of Mega Man characters (original series)
- List of Mega Man characters (X series)
- List of Mega Man characters (Zero series)
- List of Mega Man characters (Legends series)
- List of Mega Man characters (Battle Network series)
- List of Tekken characters
- List of the Adventures of Tintin characters
- List of Carmen Sandiego characters
- List of characters in the Harry Potter books
- Characters in the Wheel of Time series
- List of Soul Calibur characters
- List of Star Trek characters
- List of Star Wars characters
- List of Sesame Street characters
- List of Super Mario characters
- Minor characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Lists of hero and villain characters
- List of anti-heroes
- List of black superheroes
- List of female superheroes
- List of male superheroes
- List of supervillains
See also:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
abortion -- abstinence movement -- acault -- acquaintance rape -- acrotomophilia -- act of union -- adolescence -- adultery -- afterbirth -- agalmatophilia -- age disparity in sexual relationships -- age of consent -- agony aunt -- AIDS -- Albert Mol -- Alfred Kinsey -- algolagnia -- ambiguous genitalia -- amenorrhea -- amoebiasis -- anal beads -- anal contraction -- anilingus -- anal intercourse -- anal masturbation -- anal sex -- anal wink -- Ananga Ranga -- anasyrma -- androgen -- androgen antagonist -- androgen insensitivity syndrome -- andrology -- animal transformation fantasy -- anocutaneous reflex -- anorgasmia -- antiandrogen -- anus -- aphrodisiac -- apotemnophilia -- Areoi -- areola -- arranged marriage -- Ars Amatoria -- artificial insemination -- artificial insemination by donor -- asexuality -- Astroglide -- atypical gender role -- autocunnilingus -- autoerotic asphyxia -- autoerotic fatalities -- auto-erotic performance -- autofellatio -- autogynephilia -- axillary intercourse --
B
backdoor entrance -- bacterial vaginosis -- balanitis -- ball gag -- balloon fetishism -- Bartholin's abscess -- Bartholin's cyst -- Bartholin's gland -- BDSM -- bear community -- Beaugé method -- behavioral imprinting -- berdache -- Theresa Berkley -- Berkley Horse -- bestiality -- betrothal -- bi-curious -- bidet -- bigamy -- Billings ovulation method -- birth control -- bit gag -- bisexual -- bisexuality -- blended orgasm -- blindfold -- blood test -- blow-job -- blue balls -- body fluid -- body hair -- body modification -- body piercing -- bondage -- bondage harness -- bondage hood -- bondage and discipline -- bonobo -- bordello -- bottom (sex) -- bottom (BDSM) -- brachioproctic eroticism -- brachiovaginal eroticism -- breakthrough bleeding -- breasts -- breech birth -- bride price -- brothel -- Buddhist views of homosexuality -- Buddhist view of marriage -- bugarrón -- buggery -- bukkake -- bulbocavernosus muscle -- bulbospongiosus muscle -- bulbourethral gland -- bundling -- buru sera -- butch -- butt plug -- butterfly sex position --
C
Caesarian section -- cavum Douglasi -- call girl -- Calymmatobacterium granulomatis -- Candida albicans -- candidiasis -- caress -- Casanova -- castration -- castration fear -- castration anxiety -- castration cult -- celibacy -- cervicitis -- cervix -- cervical cancer -- cervical cap -- chancre -- Chancroid -- chastity -- chastity belt -- child pornography -- child sexuality -- child sexual abuse -- childbirth -- Chlamydia -- Chlamydia trachomatis -- chordee -- Christian view of marriage -- Christian views of homosexuality -- chronophilia -- circle jerk -- circumcision -- civil marriage -- climacteric -- clitoral crura -- clitoral hood -- clitoral orgasm -- clitoris -- clitoridotomy -- clitoridectomy -- clitoral-vaginal index -- clitorimegaly -- clitorism -- cloacal exstrophy -- the closet -- cock harness -- cock ring -- coming out -- coitus -- coitus interruptus -- coitus more ferarum -- coitus reservatus -- collar (BDSM) -- collaring -- common-law husband -- common-law marriage-- common-law wife -- common penile artery -- concubine -- condom -- condoms -- consecrated virgin -- consensual crime -- contact magazine -- contraception -- contraceptive pill -- contraceptive sponge -- Coolidge effect -- coprophilia -- copulate -- copulation -- corona glandis -- corpora cavernosa -- corpus cavernosum -- corpus spongiosum -- cottaging -- counseling -- courting -- courtly love -- courtship -- cowgirl sex position -- Cowper's fluid -- Cowper's glands-- cremaster muscle -- cross-dressing -- cross-dresser -- cruising (for sex) -- crura clitoridis -- crus glandis clitoridis -- cryptorchidism -- cuckold -- cum -- cum swallowing -- cum swapping -- cunnilingus -- cybersex -- Cytomegalovirus --
D
dartos muscle -- dating -- de Clerambault's syndrome -- deep throat (sexual act) -- delayed ejaculation -- demi-monde -- dental dam -- depilation -- deviation -- diaphragm (contraceptive) -- dildo -- dildo harness -- divorce -- dogging -- doggy position -- dominant (BDSM) -- domination and submission -- dominatrix -- Donovanosis -- double penetration -- double-ended dildo -- douche -- down-low -- dowry -- dry orgasm -- DSM-IV -- ductus deferens -- DVDA -- dysmenorrhea -- dyspareunia
E
ectopia testis -- ectopic pregnancy -- effeminacy -- egg donor -- ejaculation -- ejaculatory duct -- Electra complex -- ELISA test -- embryo -- emetophilia -- endometriosis -- endometrium -- enema -- Entamoeba histolytica -- ephebophilia -- epididymis -- epididymitis -- episiotomy -- epispadias -- erection -- erectile dysfunction -- Ernest Borneman -- erotic massage -- erotica -- erotic actor -- erotic art -- erotic dance -- erotic electrostimulation -- erotic furniture -- erotic literature -- erotic humiliation -- erotic massage -- erotic objectification -- erotic sexual denial -- erotic spanking -- erotomania -- erotophobia -- escort -- escort agency -- estradiol -- estrogen -- The Ethical Slut -- eunuch -- evening people -- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) -- excitement phase -- exhibitionism -- eyeglasses fetishism --
F
facial (sexuality) -- faecal-oral route -- faithfulness -- fake orgasm -- Fallopian tube -- family planning -- fellatio -- female -- female circumcision -- female condom -- female dominant sex position -- female ejaculate -- female ejaculation -- female genital mutilation -- female sexuality -- femdom -- femininity -- feminism -- femme -- Natural family planning -- fertilization -- fetal genitalia -- fetish -- fetish club -- fiancé --fiancée -- fidelity -- figging -- finger condom -- finger fucking -- fisting -- fisting sling -- flagellation -- flamer -- flirting -- fluid monogamy -- folie à deux -- follicle-stimulating hormone -- forced feminization -- foreplay -- foot fetishism -- foreskin -- foreskin restoration -- fornication -- fourchette -- free love -- French kissing -- frenulum -- frenulum breve -- frenulum preputii penis -- frenulum labiorum pudendi -- frenulum clitoridis -- frenum -- Kurt Freund -- frigidity -- frogtie -- frottage -- frotteur -- fuck -- fundiform ligament -- fur fetishism --
G
G-spot -- gamete -- Gardnerella -- Gardnerella vaginalis -- Gartner's duct -- gay -- gay bathhouse -- geek code -- geisha -- genital tattooing -- genital tubercle -- genitofemoral nerve -- gender and sexuality studies -- gender-bending -- gender dysphoria -- gender identity -- gender identity disorder -- gender reassignment surgery -- gender role -- genetic sexual attraction -- genital anatomy -- genital herpes -- genital bisection -- genital mutilation -- genital modification -- genital piercing -- genital retraction syndrome -- genital wart -- geriatric sexology -- gerontophilia -- Giardia lamblia -- Giardiasis -- gigolo -- gerbilling -- gimp mask -- gimp suit -- glans -- glans clitoris -- glans penis -- gliding action -- glory hole -- godemiche -- golden shower -- gonad -- Gonorrhea -- gonorrhoea -- Ernst Gräfenberg -- Gräfenberg spot -- Granuloma inguinale -- group marriage -- group sex -- gynaecology -- gynandry -- gynecology --
H
Haemophilus ducreyi -- handballing -- handfasting -- handkerchief code -- hand relief -- hard-on -- hardsports (sexual practice) -- harem -- Havelock Ellis -- heavy petting -- hebephilia -- Hepatitis -- Hepatitis A -- Hepatitis B -- Hepatitis C -- Hepatitis D -- Hepatitis E -- Hepatitis G -- Herpes simplex virus -- hetaera -- heteronormativity -- heterosexuality -- Heterosexualism -- hijra -- Hindu view of marriage -- Hindu views of homosexuality -- HIV -- HIV test -- hogtie -- holding hands -- homophobia -- Homo sapiens -- homosexuality -- homophobia -- honeymoon -- hooker -- hormone -- hormone therapy -- hot flashes -- hotwife -- Human Immunodeficiency Virus -- human papillomavirus -- human pony -- human sexual behavior -- Human Sexual Inadequacy -- Human Sexual Response -- human sexual response cycle -- human sexuality -- hustler -- hybristophilia -- hymen -- hymenotomy -- hypersexuality -- hypospadias -- hysterectomy -- hysteria --
I
incontinence -- Imaginative Sex -- impotence -- in vitro fertilisation -- incest -- incubus -- indecent exposure -- infantilism -- infantophilia -- infertility -- infibulation -- informed consent -- interfemoral intercourse -- intersex -- intercrural intercourse -- intimate relationship -- intrauterine device -- internal pudendal artery -- intromission -- involuntary celibacy -- irrumatio -- irrumation -- Islamic view of marriage -- Islamic views of homosexuality -- ischiocavernosus muscle-- IUD --
J
Japanese bondage -- jelqing -- Jewish view of marriage -- Jewish views of homosexuality -- jineterismo -- john (prostitution) -- John Money --
K
K-selection -- Kamashastra -- Kama Sutra -- karezza -- Arnold Kegel -- Kegel exercise -- Kegel excerciser -- kinky -- kinky sex -- Kinsey Institute -- Kinsey Reports -- kissing -- Klinefelter's syndrome -- klismaphilia -- koro (sexual disorder)
L
labia -- labia majora -- labia minora -- ladyboy -- leather culture -- leather fetishism -- lesbianism -- LGBT -- LGV -- libido -- limerence -- list of phobias -- list of sex positions -- List of transgender-related topics -- lochia -- loli-con -- lordosis behavior -- love -- love-bite -- lovemap -- love-shyness -- lust -- lust murder -- Lymphogranuloma venereum -- Lysistrata --
M
macrophilia -- Magnus Hirschfeld -- maiden -- maidenhead -- makeup -- maledom -- male dominant sex position -- male ejaculation -- male rape -- male sexuality -- mammae -- mammal -- mammary gland -- mammary intercourse -- marital aid -- marriage -- marriageable age -- marriage guidance -- Married Love -- masculinity -- massage parlor -- Masters and Johnson -- masturbation -- matchmaker -- meatus -- meatotomy -- medical fetishism -- ménage à trois -- menarche -- men on the DL -- menstrual cup -- menstrual cycle -- menopause -- menstrual cup -- menstruation -- mental disorder -- men who have sex with men -- merkin -- micropenis -- microphilia -- milk fetishism -- missionary position -- mistress -- Molluscum contagiosum -- monogamy -- mons veneris -- morganatic marriage -- morning-after pill -- Mother Clap -- MSM -- mucopurulent cervicitis -- Mullerian duct -- multiple birth -- multiple orgasm -- mutual masturbation -- Mycoplasma hominis -- mysophilia --
N
narratophilia -- nasolingus -- natural family planning -- necrobestiality -- necrophilia -- necrozoophilia -- Neisseria gonorrhoeae -- neopagan view of marriage -- neopagan views of homosexuality -- NGU -- niddah -- nipple -- nipple piercing -- nocturnal emission -- non-gonococcal urethritis -- non-specific urethritis -- norm -- normal sexuality -- NSU
O
obscene phone call -- Obstetrics and Gynecology -- odalisque -- Oedipal conflict -- Oedipus complex -- oestrogen -- Onanism -- open marriage -- oral contraceptive -- oral contraceptive pill -- oral sex -- orchalgia -- orchidectomy -- orgasm -- orgasm denial -- orgasmic phase -- orgasmic platform -- orientalism -- Oswalt Kolle -- the Other -- outercourse -- ovarian reserve -- ovary -- ovulation -- ovum -- oxytocin
P
pandering -- panty fetishism -- paraphilia -- paraphimosis -- partialism (paraphilia) -- pearling -- pederasty -- pedophilia -- peep show -- Peeping Tom -- pegging -- pelvic floor -- pelvic floor muscles -- pelvic inflammatory disease -- penectomy -- penetration -- penis -- penile fracture -- penile plethysmography -- penile suspensory ligament -- penis captivus -- penis enlargement -- penis extension -- penis length -- penis panic -- penis pump -- penis size -- penis sleeve -- The Perfumed Garden -- perimenopause -- perineal urethra -- perineum -- perineal massage -- persistent sexual arousal syndrome -- perversion -- pervertible -- Peyronie disease -- phalloplasty -- pheromone -- philosophy of sex -- phimosis -- Phthirius pubis -- phone sex -- physical intimacy -- pictophilia -- the Pill -- pimp -- plateau phase -- Platonic relationship -- Platonic love -- play piercing -- plural marriage -- plushophilia -- point of no return -- polyamory -- polyandry -- polyfidelity -- polygamy -- polygynandry -- polygyny -- ponyboy -- ponygirl -- pornographic movie -- pornography -- pornography in Japan -- post-coital tristesse -- post-natal depression -- pre-ejaculatory fluid -- pregnancy -- pre-marital sex -- premature ejaculation -- prepuce -- priapism -- Prince Albert piercing -- prince's wand -- prison sexuality -- professional dominant -- progesterone -- promiscuity -- prostate -- prostate massage -- prostatic massage -- prostate milking -- prostate orgasm -- prostatitis -- prostitution -- prostitution in Nevada -- prostitution in New Zealand -- pseudohermaphrodite -- pseudovaginal perineoscrotal hypospadias -- Psychopathia Sexualis -- puberty -- pubic hair -- pubic lice -- pubic symphysis -- pubococcygeus muscle -- pudendal nerve -- puerperal psychosis -- purdah -- PVC fetishism -- pyromania
Q
R
r-selection -- radical feminism -- rape -- rape fantasy -- rectal prolapse -- rectum -- rectal foreign object -- recto-vaginal fistula -- red light district -- refractory period -- relationship -- relationship counseling -- religious aspects of marriage -- religious views on sex -- religion and homosexuality -- religion and sexuality -- religious prostitution -- rent boy -- reproduction -- reproductive strategy -- reproductive system -- reproductive technology -- resolution phase -- retrograde ejaculation -- reverse cowgirl -- rhythm method -- Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing -- Richard Francis Burton -- ridged band -- ring gag -- rimming -- ritual cleanliness -- Robert C. Kolodny -- robot fetishism -- romance novel -- romantic fiction -- romantic love -- roricon -- rough trade -- rough sex -- rubber fetishism -- rubberism -- Ruth Westheimer --
S
sadomasochism -- safer sex -- safe, sane and consensual -- same-sex marriage -- sanitary towel -- sanky-panky -- sapphism -- Sarcoptes scabiei -- satyriasis -- scabies -- scatology -- scene (BDSM) -- Screw magazine -- scrotum -- secondary sex characteristic -- second skin -- seduction -- self-bondage -- semen -- seminal vesicles -- semeniferous tubules -- sensation play (BDSM) -- seraglio -- serial monogamy -- sex -- sex addict -- sex addiction -- sex assignment -- sex club -- sex crime -- sex-determining system -- sex doll -- sex drive -- sex education -- sex flush -- sex hormone -- sexism -- sex industry -- sex machine -- sex manual -- sex offender -- sex position -- sex-positive -- sex-positive feminism -- sex therapist -- sex therapy -- sex tourism -- sex toy -- sex worker -- sex-positive -- sexologist -- sexology -- sexual abstinence -- sexual abuse -- sexual activities -- sexual anatomy -- sexual arousal -- sexual attraction -- Sexual Behavior in the Human Female -- Sexual Behavior in the Human Male -- sexual bondage -- sexual desire -- sexual development -- sexual differentiation -- sexual dimorphism -- sexual dysfunction -- sexual fidelity -- sexual fantasy -- sexual fetishism -- sexual frustration -- sexual game -- sexual identity -- sexual intercourse -- sexual liberation -- sexual lubricant -- sexual malfunction -- sexual maturity -- sexual medicine -- sexual misconduct -- sexual morality -- sexual norm -- sex of rearing -- sexual orientation -- sexual partner -- sexual perversion -- sexual problem -- sexual reassignment surgery -- sexual revolution -- sexual roleplaying -- sexual slang -- sexual surrogate -- sexually transmitted disease -- sexual violence -- shemale -- shoe fetishism -- shyness -- significant other -- Sigmund Freud -- sildenafil citrate -- situational sexual behaviour -- Skene's gland -- Skene's glands -- Skoptzy -- smegma -- smoking fetishism -- snowballing -- sodomy -- sodomy law -- sounding -- spandex fetishism -- speculum -- speed dating -- sperm -- sperm donor -- spermatic cord -- spermatogenesis -- spermatozoa -- spermicide -- sphincter urethrae membranaceae -- spitroast -- splanchnic nerves -- spoons position -- spousal abuse -- spreadeagle -- standing sex position -- statutory rape -- STD -- sterilization -- strap-on -- strap-on dildo -- street prostitution -- streetwalker -- striptease -- strip pub -- subincision -- subfertility -- submission (BDSM) -- submissive (BDSM) -- surrendered wife -- surrogate mother -- swing club -- swinging -- switch (BDSM) -- switch (sexuality) -- sworn virgin -- Sybian -- syphilis --
T
taboo -- tampon -- Tantra -- tantric sex -- tattooing -- teledildonics -- teleiophilia -- telephone scatologia -- telephone sex -- temple prostitute -- termination of pregnancy -- testes -- testicle -- testicular torsion -- testosterone -- the Pill -- The Joy of Sex -- thrush (infection) -- tie and tease -- tit wank -- top (sex) -- top (BDSM) -- toxic shock syndrome -- trampling fetishism -- transitioning (transgender) -- transsexual -- transgender -- transvestism -- transvestic fetishism -- Traumatic masturbatory syndrome -- Treponema pallidum -- tribadism -- Trichomonas vaginalis -- Trichomoniasis -- trimester -- troilism -- tubal ligation -- tunica albuginea -- Turner's syndrome --
U
undinism -- unrequited love -- Ureaplasma urealyticum -- urethra -- urethral sounding -- urethral sponge -- urethral stricture -- urine -- urinary incontinence -- urinary tract infection -- urogenital diaphragm -- urogenital folds -- urolagnia -- urology -- uterus --
V
vas deferens -- vasectomy -- vasopressin -- Vatasyana -- V. E. Johnson -- vagina -- vaginal contraction -- vagina dentata -- vaginal deodorant -- vaginal barbell -- vaginal dryness -- vaginal grip -- vaginal lubrication -- vaginal mucus -- vaginal orgasm -- vaginal photoplethysmography -- vaginal prolapse -- vaginal secretion -- vaginal sex -- The Vagina Monologues -- vaginismus -- vaginitis -- venereal disease -- vesiculae seminales -- Viagra -- vibrator -- virgin -- Virginia Eshelman Johnson -- virginity -- vomeronasal organ -- voyeurism -- vulva -- vulvodynia -- vulvovaginal disorders -- vulvovaginal health --
W
wanking -- Wassermann test -- watersports (sexual practice) -- Edward Westermarck -- Westermarck effect -- wet and messy fetishism -- wet dream -- W. H. Masters -- Western blot -- wet dream -- whore -- Wilhelm Reich -- William Howell Masters -- William Masters and Virginia Johnson -- withdrawal method -- wobbly H -- Wolffian duct -- womb --
X
xanith -- Xaviera Hollander -- X chromosome
Y
Y chromosome -- yeast infection -- yiff
Z
zoophilia --
Paraphilia
Paraphilia is a mental health term recently used to indicate sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations that are not part of societally normative arousal/activity patterns, and that may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity.
Paraphilia is a label for sexual desires or activities that lie well outside the societal norm. Many of these activities are often considered perversions or psychosexual disorders in various societies, and how to regard these behaviors is a controversial matter in all situations. The term "paraphilia" is seldom used, but it is seen by some as aiding objectivity in regard to kinds of behavior that are generally regarded as taboo, and are shunned, criminalized, or even punished by death.
Because it is intended to indicate sexual acts that meet with societal disapproval, the specific acts included under the rubric of paraphilia vary from time to time and from place to place, and indeed from edition to edition of such works as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Contents [hide] Overview
What is considered to be "perversion" or "deviation" varies from society to society. Paraphilias are often called sexual perversions or sexual deviancy with negative connotations or kinky sex with more positive connotations. Some specific paraphilias have been or are currently crimes in some jurisdictions. In some religions they are considered sins. Since the development of psychology attempts have been made to characterize them in terms of their etiology and in terms of the ways they change the functioning of individuals in social situations. Some behaviors that might be classified as paraphilias by some subsets of society may be viewed as harmless eccentricities by other subsets of society, or entirely normal behavior within other societies.
Some paraphilias are defined as potential mental disorders in the DSM-IV. These are:
- exhibitionism: deriving sexual pleasure from being watched
- fetishism: sexual attraction to particular objects
- frotteurism: deriving sexual pleasure from rubbing against other people
- masochism: deriving sexual pleasure from receiving pain and suffering
- pedophilia: sexual attraction to children
- sadism: deriving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain and suffering
- voyeurism: deriving sexual pleasure from watching others
Homosexuality was previously listed as a paraphilia in the DSM-I and DSM-II, but this has been rejected from the DSM-III and DSM-IV, consistent with the change of attitude among psychiatrists that homosexuality is no longer considered a disorder.
As of 2004, Transvestic Fetishism was still listed as a paraphilia in the DSM-IV-TR.
Behavioral imprinting
Observation of paraphiliac behavior has provided valuable scientific information on the mechanisms of sexual attraction and desire, such as behavioral imprinting. Careful investigation has also led to the tentative conclusions that normal biological processes may sometimes be manifested in idiosyncratic ways in at least some of the paraphilias, and that these unusual manifestations are frequently associated with unusual (and especially traumatic) events associated with early sexual experience.
History of the term
The term was coined by Viennese psychotherapist Wilhelm Stekel (in his book Sexual Aberrations) in 1925, from the Greek para- (beside) + philos (loving), and first used in English in Stekel's translated works. It was not in widespread use until the 1950s, and was first used in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) in 1980. It was used by Sigmund Freud, as well as by the sexologist John Money.
Non-consensual and criminal paraphilias
The paraphilias listed below are either non-consensual or, if acted out, criminal in most jurisdictions.
- biastophilia: sexual pleasure from committing rape
- lust murder: sexual arousal through committing murder
- necrophilia: sexual attraction to corpses
- necrozoophilia: sexual attraction to the corpses or killings of animals, or necrobestiality
- pedophilia: sexual attraction to pre-pubescents
It is interesting to note that the preceding five paraphilias are common among serial killers.
- frotteurism: sexual arousal through rubbing one's self against a non-consenting stranger in public
- telephone scatologia: being sexually aroused by making obscene telephone calls
- zoophilia: sexual attraction to animals, or bestiality
Common paraphilias
The following paraphilias are sufficiently common in the general population to be frequently observed in clinical literature, as well as being able to support entire sub-genres of mainstream commercial pornography.
- algolagnia: sexual pleasure from pain
- exhibitionism: sexual arousal through displaying genitals in public
- fetishism: sexual attraction to a physical object, with common examples being
- sadomasochism: taking sexual pleasure in inflicting pain, or having pain inflicted upon one's self. (See also "bondage and discipline" and algolagnia)
- urolagnia: sexual attraction to urine
- voyeurism: sexual arousal through watching others having sex
Note that non-consensual sadomasochistic acts may consititute assault, and therefore belong in the list above. Some jurisdictions criminalize some or all sadomasochistic acts, regardless of consent.
Non-consensual exhibitionism in public places, where people who have not previously consented to watch are exposed to sexual display, is also an offense in most jurisdictions. (See indecent exposure).
Note: Wikipedia does not give legal advice.
Other paraphilias
The paraphilias listed below are less common.
- acrotomophilia: sexual attraction to amputees
- agalmatophilia: sexual attraction to statues or mannequins
- amaurophilia: sexual arousal by a partner who is unable to see one due to artificial means, such as being blindfolded or having sex in total darkness.
- anasteemaphilia: sexual attraction to partners of different height to oneself
- asphyxiophilia: sexual attraction to asphyxia; also called breath control play; including autoerotic asphyxiation; see [1] (http://members.aol.com/Oldrope/breath.htm) about the danger
- coprophilia: sexual attraction to feces
- dendrophilia: sexual arousal from trees
- emetophilia: sexual attraction to vomit
- ephebophilia: sexual attraction to adolescents
- galactophilia: sexual attraction to human milk or lactating women
- gerontophilia: sexual attraction to the aged
- hematolagnia: sexual attraction to blood
- hybristophilia: sexual arousal by people who have committed crimes, in particular cruel or outrageous crimes
- klismaphilia: sexual pleasure from enemas
- maiesiophilia: sexual attraction to childbirth or pregnant women
- mysophilia: sexual attraction to foul or decaying material
- pictophilia: inability to become sexually aroused except through the use of pictorial pornography
- plushophilia: sexual attraction to stuffed toys
- infantilism: sexual pleasure from dressing, acting, or being treated as a baby
- scotophilia: sexual attraction to darkness
- sitophilia: sexual arousal from food
- vorarephilia: sexual attraction to being eaten by or eating another person.
- xylophilia: sexual attraction to wood
There are also many other rare paraphilias.
The supposed paraphilia of autogynephilia, or sexual pleasure from perceiving oneself as a woman, has been proposed as a motivation for transgender behavior, but is generally regarded as theoretical in nature. It is not well accepted.
Controversy
The definition of various sexual practices as paraphilias has been met with opposition. Advocates for changing these definitions stress that, aside from "paraphilias" with a criminal element, there is nothing inherently pathological about these practices; they are undeserving of the stigmatism associated with being "singled out" as such. Those who profess such a view hope that, much as with the removal of homosexuality from the DSM (see homosexuality and psychology), future psychiatric definitions will not include most of these practices.
Religious views of paraphilia
Some religious conservatives view paraphilias as deviations from God's original plan for human sexuality, or from religious laws. Depending in part on the nature of the paraphilia in question, judgements can differ as to whether it should be considered a case of sexual sin, or of mental illness.
See also
- List of philias
- Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing for history of classifying sexual object choice as a disease
- Ugol's law
External link
- DSM-IV and DSM-IV-TR list of paraphilias (http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/paraphilias.htm)
Sexual attraction
In species which reproduce sexually, sexual attraction is attraction to other members of the same species for reproduction. This type of attraction is a very important survival factor.
Contents [hide] Sexual attraction in animals
Sexual attractiveness in non-human animals depends on a wide variety of factors. Often, there is some element of the animal's body which is adapted to be sexually attractive to the opposite sex: the bright plumage and crests of some species of birds, for example. In many species, there are behaviors which appear to be adapted for sexual display. Some of these attributes seem to be adapted to demonstrate fitness and health, for example by demonstrating the ability to sustain an "expensive" feature with no other apparent survival function. The adaptation takes place in the displaying gender in parallel to the development of the prefenece in the other gender. It is possible for the adaptation to be so expensive in terms of fitness that it causes major survival problems (see game theory), especially where, as in moose, a direct competetive element is involved.
Frequently (especially in insects) chemical signals are used to generate sexual interest and to locate potential mates. These signals, known as pheromones, can produce a profound effect upon an animal's behaviour even when present in very minute quantities.
Common elements of sexual attraction in humans
Typically, sexual attraction refers to a person being drawn to another in order to have a sexual relationship.
Sexual attractiveness of a person to another person depends on both persons; to some extent there's a universal agreement as to what is sexually attractive among a species, but individuals have subjective opinions as well.
Much of human sexual attractiveness is governed by physical attractiveness. This involves the senses, in the beginning especially:
- visual perception (how the other looks)
- audition (how the other sounds, mainly the voice; what may also vary widely is how noisily somebody walks (also depending on the footwear), but this is not necessarily a big factor for sexual attraction, either way)
- olfaction (how the other smells, naturally or artificially; the wrong smell may be repulsive).
(disputed — see talk page) Some studies suggest that the source of the physical attraction of a human male to a human female is dependent upon a proportion between the width of the hips and the width of the waist (see Golden ratio).
As with animals, pheromones also enter into the picture, as the "wrong" pheromone smell may cause someone to be disliked, even when they would otherwise appear attractive. Frequently a pleasant smelling perfume is used to encourage the member of the opposite sex to more deeply inhale the air surrounding its wearer, increasing the probability that the pheromones from the individual will also be inhaled.
A sexually attractive visual appearance in humans generally involves:
- a general body shape and appearance sanctioned by the local culture.
- a lack of visible disease or deformity.
- a high degree of mirror symmetry between the left and right sides of the body, particularly of the face.
- pleasing bodily posture.
However, these factors are complicated by many other factors. There may sometimes be a focus on particular features of the body, such as breasts, legs, hair, or musculature.
Factors determining sexual attraction to women
A strong aspect to sexual attraction is proportion. It is typical for a plastic surgeon to correct an error of proportion, such as making a nose that is too big smaller (via rhinoplasty), or making breasts that are too small larger via breast implants.
One idea of physical beauty regarding the breasts of women is that the best shape approaches the shape of a three dimensional parabola (which is called a Paraboloid of revolution) as opposed to a hyperbola, or a sphere. Conversely, the shape of the buttocks of an attractive person (male or female) tends to resemble the shape of a cardioid, which is the inverse transform of a parabola.
The appearance of health also plays a part in physical attraction. Often, women with long hair appear more beautiful as the ability to grow long healthy looking hair is an indication of continuous health of the individual growing it. Another indication of health of an individual is the ability to grow long, strong, fingernails. Therefore, artificial nails and manicures have become widely popular in late 20th century with women.
Factors determining sexual attraction to men
Sexual attraction for man by a woman is determined largely by the height of the man. For the woman, the man should be at least a few inches taller than her in order for her to be sexually attracted to him. It would be preferable if the man is at least a little above the average in height in the given population of males. This implies that women look for signs of social dominance and power as factors that determine male beauty. Women get attracted to men who display possession of resources and wealth, shows influence in social group, and display a promise or prospect of upward social mobility.
Males demonstrate attractiveness by, sometimes, demonstrating their levels of the hormone testosterone by growing larger and well-defined muscles through exercise.
At various times in history and throughout various cultures and sub-cultures the growth, maintenance and display of facial or body hair produced as a by-product of testosterone activity within male bodies has been considered a primary characteristic of sexual attractiveness, and of a display of masculinity in general. Cultural development seems to oscillate through multi-generational cycles from one pole to another: extreme hair growth, especially of facial hair accompanied by elaborate grooming rituals is often followed within a couple of generations by a widespread antipathy to body hair and the widespread adoption of depilatory practices.
The casual mechanism for this oscillation has not been established but differences in the simultaneous characterisation of body hair attractiveness within a culture between different social classes may indicate that the dynamic force driving the diffusion of differing male body hair social practices is in fact mate selection by females. Sociological and genetic studies in developed nations have indicated that in general females tend to mate with males of a slightly higher socioeconomic status. Therefore there are several loci of female attraction to male body hair "chasing" each other through society in a roughly vertical direction. Thus particular male attitudes to their body and facial hair within a social stratum are generated largely by the attitudes extant within women of a slightly lower socioeconomic status.
Personality and sexual attractiveness
Provided that all of the above listed aspects are reasonably normal, there is no requirement for great physical beauty for a person to be sexually attractive, and personality and good manners can come to the fore. In many cases, people with good personality can be strikingly sexually attractive, even if they are superficially sexually unattractive in appearance. However, as they do not have the advantage of instant attraction through appearance, this requires more social interaction to attract potential partners.
Imprinting and sexual attraction
The Westermarck effect was discovered by anthropologist Edward Westermarck. When two people live in domestic proximity during the first 30 months in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction and bonding.
Other aspects
Many people exhibit high levels of sexual fetishism, and are sexually aroused by other stimuli not normally associated with sexual arousal. The degree to which such fetishism exists or has existed in different cultures is controversial.
Often the result of a sexual attraction is sexual arousal.
See also
Chronophilia
(Redirected from Teleiophilia)Chronophilia is a rarely used term coined by John Money. It refers to a group of paraphilias of the stigmatic or eligibilic type in which the paraphile's sexuoerotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner, as in infantophilia, pedophilia, ephebophilia, gerontophilia, and teleiophilia.
Teleiophilia is a rarely used term, coined by Kurt Freund, meaning a minor or adult's sexual attraction to adults.
Gerontophilia refers to sexual attraction to the elderly among the non-elderly.
Infantophilia or nepiophilia is the sexual attraction of adults to small children (0-5 years old). This should not to be confused with infantilism.
See also
Sybian
A Sybian is a device used by women for autoerotic purposes and sexual arousal. It consists of a saddle-like seat where rods may be inserted to protrude from a hole in the center which various dildos, butt plugs, and nubs can be attached. The Sybian is designed so that the attachment can vibrate to stimulate the Clitoris and rotate in a circular motion to stimulate the G-Spot. Each of these motions can be increased or decreased with a control box attached to Sybian’s base via a cord. The combination of the different movements can presumably producing more intense orgasms than the user might otherwise be able to experience.
The manufacturer built a prototype in 1985 out of sheet metal on a wood frame. Initially called the "Master Better" (a pun on masturbator), the device was renamed after Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy known as a center of luxurious living. There is also a product intended for males, made by the same company, called the Venus 2000.
The couples version of the Sybian can be used as a way to bring a woman to orgasm with an impotent male partner. The partners sit facing each other, then caress, kiss, and engage in foreplay. The Sybian's rhythms are slowly increased during foreplay bringing the woman to orgasm.
External link
Orgasm
An orgasm, also known as a sexual climax, is a pleasurable psychological or emotional response to prolonged sexual stimulation. It is often accompanied by a notable physiological reaction, such as ejaculation, blushing or spasming.
Contents [hide] General
Both males and females can experience orgasm, but the exact response varies across sex. Generally speaking, orgasm is the third stage of four in the human sexual response cycle, which is the currently accepted model of the physiological process of sexual stimulation. It is usually thought of as being the most rewarding part of having sex, eventhough a sizable minority reports liking sex for its other qualities.
Shared physiology
Orgasm is the conclusion of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, shared by males and females alike. During orgasm, both males and females experience quick cycles of muscle contraction in the lower pelvic muscles, which surround both the anus and the primary sexual organs.
Orgasms in both men and women are often associated with other involuntary actions, including vocalizations and muscular spasms in other areas of the body. Also, a generally euphoric sensation is associated with orgasm.
Afterwards, orgasm generally causes perceived tiredness, and both males and females often feel a need to rest. This is often attributed to the release of endorphins during orgasm causing relaxation and drowsiness, but can also be due to the body's need for a short rest after a bout of vigorous physical activity.
Human male orgasm
In a human male orgasm, there are rapid, rhythmic contractions of the prostate, urethra and the muscles at the base of the penis, which force stored semen to be expelled through the penis's urethral opening. This is referred to as ejaculation. The process usually takes from 3 to 10 seconds. The process is usually, but not always, extremely pleasurable.
Note that it is possible to have an orgasm without ejaculation, dry orgasm, or to ejaculate without reaching orgasm. Some men report that the ability to consciously separate orgasm and ejaculation has allowed them to achieve multiple orgasms.
Many sexual techniques are employed to produce or heighten orgasm. Fellatio or oral sex is one widely practiced method. The prostate gland is the male contracting organ that ejects semen during orgasm. As the prostate is touch sensitive, some men experience greatly heightened orgasm by direct stimulation of the prostate using a well-lubricated dildo inserted through the anus into the rectum. Or, enhancing fellatio by the partner inserting a well lubricated finger into the anus to directly stimulate the prostate during orgasm.
Following ejaculation, a refractory period occurs during which a man cannot have another orgasm. This period can be anywhere from less than a minute to over half a day, depending on age and other individual factors. A very few cases have been reported of men who appear to have no refractory period at all.
Post-operative female-to-male transsexual men (after having undergone metoidioplasty or phalloplasty by a qualified surgeon) generally experience orgasm in the same way, except that those who have had phalloplasty have a pump installed to create an erection, as the neopenis (with either surgical technique) has limited natural erection capability.
Human female orgasm
In a human female orgasm, orgasm is preceded by moistening of the vaginal walls, and an enlargement of the clitoris due to increased blood flow trapped in the clitoris's spongy tissue. Some women exhibit a sex flush; a reddening of the skin over much of the body due to increased blood flow to the skin. As a woman comes closer to having orgasm, the clitoris moves inward under the clitoral hood, and the labia minora (minor lips) become darker. As orgasm becomes imminent, the vagina decreases in size by about 30% and also becomes congested with blood. The uterus then experiences muscular contractions. A woman experiences full orgasm when her uterus, vagina and pelvic muscles undergo a series of rhythmic contractions.
After the orgasm is over, the clitoris re-emerges from under the clitoral hood, and returns to its normal size in less than 10 minutes. Unlike men, women do not have a refractory period, and thus can experience a second orgasm soon after the first; some women can even follow this with a third, or even fourth orgasm; this is known as multiple orgasms. Research shows that about 13% of women experience multiple orgasms; a larger number may be able to experience this with the proper stimulation (such as a vibrator) and frame of mind. However, some women's clitorises are too sensitive after orgasm, making additional stimulation painful; they are probably not able to experience multiple orgasms.
Post-operative male-to-female transsexual women (having undergone vaginoplasty by a qualified surgeon) generally experience full orgasm, involving any combination of the clitoris, vagina and labia.
Debate rages over the "purpose" of female orgasms. Many different theories have been advanced by different scientists, feminists, doctors, and religious groups.
Some evolutionists believe that female orgasms have a distinct purpose, such as increasing intimacy with a male partner in order to ensure the survival of the pair bond. Others have theorized that they increase fertility by enhancing sperm retention.
The clitoris is homologous to the penis, that is, it develops similarly to the penis in the embryo, until female hormones alter its development. It has been claimed by some researchers, such as Stephen Jay Gould that the clitoris is vestigial in the female, and that female orgasm serves no particular function. Proponents of this theory, such as Dr. Elisabeth Lloyd. point to the relative difficulty of achieving female orgasm through vaginal sex, and limited evidence for increased fertility after orgasm. Feminists such as Natalie Angier have criticized this theory, because it understates the value of female orgasm.
Female ejaculation
Some women experience an expulsion of fluid during orgasm. In many cases the origin of this fluid is the Skene's glands. In transsexual women, this can be from remnants of the prostate gland, which is not removed during vaginoplasty. For further details, see female ejaculation.
Vaginal vs. clitoral orgasms
A distinction is sometimes made between clitoral and vaginal orgasms in women. Many doctors and feminist advocates have claimed that vaginal orgasms do not exist, and that female orgasms are obtained only from clitoral arousal. Recent discoveries about the size of the clitoris—it extends inside the body, around the vagina—would seem to support this theory. On the other hand, other sources argue that vaginal orgasms are dominant or more "mature."
This latter viewpoint was first promulgated by Sigmund Freud. In 1905, Freud argued that clitoral orgasm was an adolescent phenomenon, and upon reaching puberty the proper response of mature women changes to vaginal orgasms. [1] (http://www.uno.edu/~asoble/pages/koedt.htm) While Freud did not provide evidence supporting this basic assumption, the consequences of the theory were greatly elaborated thereafter.
In 1966, Masters and Johnson published pivotal research into the phases of sexual stimulation. Their work included women as well as men, and unlike Kinsey previously (in 1948 and 1953), set out to determine the physiological stages leading up to and following orgasm. [2] (http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/sexpedia/mandj.html) One of the results was the promotion of the idea that vaginal and clitoral orgasms follow the same stages of physical response. Additionally, Masters and Johnson argued that clitoral stimulation is the primary source of orgasms.
This standpoint has been adopted by feminist advocates, to the extent that some hold that the vaginal orgasm was a mirage, created by men for their convenience. Certainly many women can only experience orgasm with clitoral stimulation, either alone or in addition to vaginal stimulation, while (less commonly) other women can only experience orgasm with vaginal stimulation. The clitoral-only orgasm school of thought became an article of faith in some feminist circles. Alternatively, some feminists instead feel the clitoral orgasm robs females of the source of the womanhood.
A new understanding of vaginal orgasm has been emerging since the 1980s. Many women report that some form of vaginal stimulation is essential to subjectively experience a complete orgasm, in addition to or in lieu of external (clitoral) stimulation. Recent anatomical research has pointed towards a connection between intravaginal tissues and nerve endings on one hand, and the clitoris on the other. This, combined with the anatomical evidence that the internal part of the clitoris is a much larger organ than previously thought could also explain credible reports of orgasms in women who have undergone clitoridectomy as part of so-called female circumcision.
Orgasmic dysfunction
The inability to have orgasm is called anorgasmia, or inorgasmia. In situations where orgasm is desired, anorgasmia is mainly thought of as being caused by an inability to relax, or 'let go'. It seems to be tightly associated with performance pressure in intercourse, and an unwillingness to pursue pleasure as such, as separate from the other person's satisfaction.
For a variety of reasons, some people choose to fake an orgasm.
Orgasm in non-humans
The mechanics of the male orgasm are similar in most mammals. However, it is questionable whether other animals experience orgasm in ways similar to humans.
There is some evidence that some non-human animals, particularly primates, can experience orgasm in ways similar to humans.
See also
- Human sexual behavior
- Human sexuality
- Sex
- Female ejaculation
- G-spot
- Sex reassignment surgery
- Fake orgasm
External links
- Wallen, Kim, "An Annotated Bibliography on Sexual Arousal, Orgasm, and Female Ejaculation in Humans and Animals (http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~kim/orgasm.html)". Department of Psychology, Emory University. Atlanta, GA.
- The Economics of Faking Orgasm (http://slate.msn.com/id/2097396/)
Sexual arousal
Sexual arousal is the process and state of an animal being ready for sexual intercourse.
Contents [hide] Human sexual arousal
Unlike most other animals, human beings of both sexes are potentially capable of sexual arousal throughout the year, and there is therefore no human mating season. Things that precipitate human sexual arousal are commonly known as turn-ons.
Causes of human sexual arousal
- The sight (including eye contact), smell, warmth, and touch of a (potential) sexual partner
- Sexual foreplay
- Erotic thoughts, fantasies or dreams
- Presence of fetishised objects
- Pornography
- Erotica
- Masturbation
- Sexual roleplaying
- Voyeurism
Signs of possible human sexual arousal
- Among both genders
- Increase in breathing rate
- Increase in blood pressure
- Increase in muscle tone (myotonia)
- Increase in heart rate (tachycardia)
- Vasocongestion of the skin ("sex flush")
- Slight or extreme dilation of the pupils (though especially so with females)
- Erection of the nipples (especially upon direct stimulation)
- Male sexual arousal
- Penile tumescence and erection
- Emission of pre-ejaculatory fluid
- Ascension of the testes
- Tensing and thickening of the scrotum
- Female sexual arousal:
- Increase in breast size
- Lubrication of the vagina
- Vasocongestion of the vaginal walls
- Clitoral tumescence and erection
- More visible venous patterns across the breasts
- Elevation of the uterus and stretching of the vagina
- Change in shape and size of the labia majora and labia minora
Human sexual response cycle
During the 1950s and 1960s, William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson conducted many important studies within the field of human sexuality. In 1966, the two released a book, Human Sexual Response, detailing four stages of physiological changes in humans during sexual stimulation. These phases, in order of their occurrence, are excitement, plateau, orgasmic, and resolution.
See human sexual response cycle.
Homophobia and sexual arousal
Psychoanalytic theory has long held that homophobia is the result of repressed homosexual desires. A study showed that more homophobic heterosexual men (80%) showed signs of arousal from being shown images of homosexual sex than non-homophobic heterosexual men (34%) [1] (http://www.apa.org/releases/homophob.html). The two groups were, however, aroused to the same degree by heterosexual imagery and lesbian imagery. The authors noted as a competing explanation that anxiety also produces arousal and might be responsible for the difference, so further research should test the two competing explanations.
Sexual arousal in other animals
It is not completely understood how other animals relate sexually, but current research studies suggest that animals, like humans, enjoy sexual relations. This is especially noted in dogs, dolphins, and bonobos.
Related topics
- Sexual desire
- Sexual arousal disorder
- Impotence
- Frigidity
- Human sexuality
- Kinsey report
- Sexual orientation
- Homophobia
- Hypersexuality
Clitoris
This page has been protected from editing to deal with vandalism. Please discuss any proposed changes on the talk page.
A woman's clitoris extends from the visible portion to a point below the pubic bone.
The clitoris is a sexual organ in the body of female mammals. The visible knob-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the vagina. Its particular function is inducing sexual pleasure and orgasms.
The word clitoris can be pronounced KLIHT uh rihs ([klɪɾəɹəs] in IPA notation (listen)) or klih TOHR ihs ([klɪtɔɹəs] (listen)). The OED suggests that KLY tor ihs ([klaɪtɒɹəs]) is also used in the UK.
Contents [hide] Development and formation
The female clitoris is homologous to the male penis, i.e. embryologically it comes from the same tissue that forms the penis. The trigger for forming a penis instead of a clitoris is the action of testosterone in utero.
The organ is formed out of corpus cavernosum, a rich collection of capillary tissue with a substantial presence of nerve tissue. It is particularly well-suited for sexual stimulation.
The outside portion of the clitoris, the clitoral glans, is entirely or partially covered by the clitoral hood or prepuce, tissue that is homologous to the foreskin in males. In humans, the clitoral body then extends several centimeters upwards and to the back, before splitting into two arms, the crura. Shaped like an inverted "V", these crura extend around and to the interior of the labia majora.
Most of the clitoris is hidden, and external stimulation of the entire clitoris can result in a more profound sexual response. One explanation advanced for the vaginal orgasm is that it results from stimulation of the internal parts of the clitoris during vaginal penetration.
During sexual arousal, the clitoris enlarges as its erectile tissue fills with blood. Shortly before orgasm, this erection often increases further, drawing the clitoris upwards, so that viewed from the outside it actually appears to shrink.
Recognition of existence
The external part of the clitoris amounts to a small, sensitive knob at the anterior end of the visible female reproductive anatomy.Medical literature first recognised the existence of the clitoris in the 16th century. This is the subject of some dispute: Renaldo Columbus (also known as Matteo Renaldo Colombo) was a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy, and in 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight". Columbus concluded, "Since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."
Columbus' claim was disputed by his successor at Padua, Gabriele Falloppio (who discovered the fallopian tube), who claimed that he was the first to discover the clitoris. Caspar Bartholin, a 17th century Danish anatomist, dismissed both claims, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the 2nd century.
Noted researchers Masters and Johnson, Boston based researcher John Garabedian, and Dr. Matt Jaeger at the University of Kentucky all conducted extensive studies of the clitoris.
In the 1970s, the word clitoris was considered offensive in the spoken English language and is still seen as a taboo word by many people. The first use of clitoris on television in the United States is believed to have been by Dr. Rich O'Brien, a Harvard colleague of Garabedian's, on the Dr. Ruth Westheimer show.
Circumcision
Main article: Female circumcision
Female circumcision is the removal of the clitoris and/or labia (for cultural rather than medical reasons), is widely practiced today in some societies, mainly in Africa. It is regarded as highly immoral by most Western societies.
See also
External links
- Diagram showing the location of the external part of the clitoris (http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_anatomy/unit12_3_repdt_female3_genitalia.html)
- Study claims clitoris is larger than thought (http://www.luckymojo.com/tkclitorislarger.html) by Althaea Yronwode
- A very thorough website about everything related to the clitoris (http://www.the-clitoris.com/)
Reproductive system Female: Cervix - Clitoris - Fallopian tubes - Bartholin's glands - Hymen - Mammary glands - Ovaries - Skene's glands - Urethra - Uterus - Vagina
Male: Bulbourethral glands - Ejaculatory duct - Epididymis - Penis - Prostate - Seminal vesicles - testes - Urethra - Vas deferens
Orientalism
Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, generally by Westerners. Although this term had become archaic and rare by the late twentieth century, Edward Said redefined this term in his groundbreaking work Orientalism (1978) to emphasize the relationship of power and knowledge in scholarly and popular thinking, in particular, regarding Europeans and how they saw the Arab world. "Oriental", a politically loaded (and often derogatory) term, referred to Western notions of a subjugated colonial "other".
Taking a comparative and historical literary review of European scholars and writers looking at, thinking about, talking about, and writing about the peoples of the Middle East, he sought to lay bare the relations of power between the colonizer and the colonized in those texts. While his work owes much (as Said himself made clear) to that of Michel Foucault, Said's work has had far-reaching implications beyond the Middle East, to India, China, and post-colonial studies generally.
Many scholars now use Said's work to undermine long-held, often taken-for-granted European ideological biases regarding non-Europeans in scholarly thought. Some post-colonial scholars would even say that the West's idea of itself was constructed largely by saying what others were not. If "Europe" evolved out of "Christendom" as the "not-Byzantium," early modern Europe in the late 16th century (see Battle of Lepanto) certainly defined itself as the "not-Turkey."
Throughout history, western culture built up an exotic stereotype of "the Orient"—seductive women (i.e. the femme fatale) and dangerous men living in a static society with a glorious but long-gone past. Many critical theorists regard Orientalism as part of a larger, ideological colonialism justified by the concept of the "white man's burden".
Although the concept of orientalism originated as a critique of Western views of the Orient, it has also been used to critique 20th century Chinese views of both its own history and of minority cultures within China. For example, Lionel Jensen argues that modern Chinese narratives of Confucianism and of Chinese history in general have incorporated many orientalist assumptions.
Contents [hide] "Orientalism" in reference to art and culture
The word Orientalism can also refer to Western appropriations of oriental themes and imagery in art, architecture, literature, and other manifestations of popular or high culture. This has taken many forms.
"Chinoiserie" is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, ca 1740 - 1770. Earliest hints of Chinoiserie appear, in the early 17th century, in the nations with active East India Companies, Holland and England, then by mid-17th century, Portugal. Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine blue-and-white Ming decoration from the early 17th century, and early ceramic wares at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain naturally imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and tea wares. But in the true Chinoiserie décor fairyland, mandarins lived in fanciful mountainous landscapes with cobweb bridges, carried flower parasols, lolled in flimsy bamboo pavilions haunted by dragons and phoenixes, while monkeys swung from scrolling borders. Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Lisbon. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca 1753 - 70, but sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid- Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream "chinoiserie." Chinoiserie media included "japanned" ware imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has a magnificent garden pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers. Though the rise of a more serious approach in Neoclassicism from the 1770s onward tended to squelch such Oriental folly, at the height of Regency "Grecian" furnishings, the Prince Regent came down with a case of Brighton Pavilion, and Chamberlain's Worcester china manufactory imitated gaudy "Imari" wares. Later exoticisms added imaginary Turkish themes, where a diwan became a sofa. (See Sezincote, Gloucestershire.)
After 1860, Japoneries, sparked by the arrival of Japanese woodblock prints, created a parallel universe, which peaked in brilliant paintings by James MacNeill Whistler and his "Peacock Room" that transcended the genre. As late as 1920 ladies of the mandarin classes of London and Boston quite unselfconsciously wore kimono at breakfast, as a kind of imperial negligée. After World War I, Chinoiserie collapsed in a welter of Kewpie dolls and exotic ashtrays, and, after 1945, Hawaiian shirts.
Orientalism covered a vague and exotic domain that was mostly "East of Suez," where gritty realities did not intrude. But ancient Carthage (Tunisia) formed the background for Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô and North Africa, from moment of the French occupation of Algiers in 1830, provided orientalizing odalisque themes, from high-minded Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Jean-Léon Gerome, to the arty soft-core cryptopornography in harem settings of 1860 - 1890.
Compare elements of (in historical order):
- Montesquieu Persian Letters' (Les Lettres Persanes)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes Galantes
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Kublai Khan"
- William Thomas Beckford's Vathek;
- Percy Bysshe Shelley's' "Ozymandias"
- Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane, Al Aaraaf, and Israfel
- Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1821 poem "Indian Superstition"
- Jane Austen's Mansfield Park
- Richard Francis Burton's The Arabian Nights;
- the Malay passages in Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater;
- Georges Bizets Les Pêcheurs de Perles
- Balakirev's Tamara, Borodin's Polovtsian Dances in opera Prince Igor, César Cui's opera The Mandarin's Son, Mussorgsky's Dance of the Persian Slaves (Khovanshchina), Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheheradze -- the Mighty Handful aka the Five Russian composers
- Oscar Wilde's Salomé;
- Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado;
- Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly & Turandot;
- Anatole France Thaïs
- Victor Segalen's Rene Leys
- Andre Malraux's La Condition humaine
- Marguerite Yourcenar's Nouvelles Orientales
- Italo Calvino's Le citta invisibli
- Marguerite Duras' L'Amant
Chinoiserie crashed with the realities of serious East-West confrontations of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (which was about sub-Saharan Africa but nevertheless gives insight into the relationship between European and non-European cultures) leading to E. M. Forster's A Passage to India.
- Many early 21st century Western cartoons have been stylisticly influenced by Japanese anime, which is itself becoming very popular in the West. Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Japanese themes are here usually put in the service of exotic fantasy.
- The strong popular association of the martial arts, such as karate, jujitsu and kendo, with Asian cultures.
Interestingly, an Asian parallel to this cultural Orientalism began developing during the late 20th century, when many Western cultural themes and images began appearing in Asian art and culture, especially in Japan. Engrish words and phrases are prominent in Japanese advertising and popular culture, and many Japanese animes are written around characters, settings, themes, and mythological figures derived from various Western cultural traditions.
The decline of scholarly Oriental Studies and transition to Asian studies (in North America)
In most universities in North America, Oriental Studies has now been replaced by Asian Studies localized to specific regions, such as, Near Eastern Studies, South Asian studies, and Far East or East Asian Studies. This reflects the fact that the Orient is not a single, monolithic region but rather a broad area encompassing multiple civilizations. A growing number of professional scholars and students of East Asian Studies are Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Korean Americans.
Perhaps the debate between philology and regional studies may not seem compatible but with time, categories such as Asian American will be more elastic and dynamic, also accounting for the remapped Asian identities that have rooted in Latin America. And so, the previous paragraph remains moot as misrepresentations abound and the inability to articulate the importance for Orientalism as a polemic and legitimate academic exercise remains. Area studies that incorporate not only philological pursuits but identity politics may account for the hestitation to use the term "Oriental".
See also
- Arabist
- Area studies
- Byzantine Empire
- Colonialism
- Dhimmi
- Egyptology
- Ethnic nationalism
- Exoticism
- Folklore
- Hydraulic empire
- Imperialism
- Indology
- Islamism
- Iranistics
- Modernism
- Ottoman Empire
- Oriental Institute
- Oriental Zionism
- Philology
- Regional Studies
- Silk Road
- Sinology (study of China)
- Sotadic zone
- Occidentalism
- Pan Arabism
- Romanticism
External links
- ILCAA: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/) Tokyo
- SOAS: The School of Oriental and African Studies (http://www.soas.ac.uk) at the University of London
- Faculty of Oriental Studies (http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/) at the University of Oxford
- Ancient Indian & Iran Trust, London UK (http://www.indiran.co.uk/)
- IITS, Koln (http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/index.html)
- NIAS (http://nias.ku.dk/) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- IIAS (http://iias.leidenuniv.nl/) Leiden, the Netherlands
- Dept. of East European and Oriental Studies (http://www.hf.uio.no/east) at the University of Oslo
- Eurasian Orientalist Server (http://www.orient.ru/)
- Dept. of Oriental Languages (http://orient4.orient.su.se/index-e.html) at Stockholm University
- Section de langues et civilisations orientales (http://www.unil.ch/orient) at the Universite de Lausanne
- Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris (http://www.inalco.fr/pub/)
- Langues et Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale (http://www.sigu7.jussieu.fr/LCAO/index.html) at Universite Paris 7-Denis Diderot
- Institute of Oriental Studies (http://www.orient.uw.edu.pl/) at the University of Warsaw
- Oriental Institute (http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/default.html) of the University of Chicago
- American Center for Oriental Research (http://www.bu.edu/acor/)
- American Oriental Society (http://www.umich.edu/~aos/)
- Asiatica Association (http://www.asiatica.org/) Milano, Italy
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-48) China in Western Thought and Culture
Foreplay
In human sexual behavior, foreplay is physical intimacy at the beginning of a sexual encounter that serves to build up sexual arousal, sometimes in preparation for sexual intercourse or another act meant to bring about orgasm.
Foreplay varies between cultures. Some acts which may be considered foreplay may include kissing (especially French kissing), petting and stroking, touching of the genitals and mutual masturbation, oral sex, and sexual roleplaying, fetish activities, or BDSM.
See also
Human sexual response cycle
(Redirected from Orgasmic phase)During the 1950s and 1960s, William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson conducted many important studies within the field of human sexuality. In 1966, in their book Human Sexual Response, they detailed four stages of physiological changes of humans during sexual stimulation. These phases, in order of their occurrence, are the excitement phase, plateau phase, orgasmic phase, and resolution phase. Together, they make up the human sexual response cycle.
Contents [hide] Excitement phase
The excitement phase (also known as the arousal phase) is the first stage of the human sexual response cycle. It occurs as the result of any erotic physical or mental stimulation, such as kissing, petting, or viewing erotic images, that lead to sexual arousal. During the excitement stage, the body begins becoming prepared for coitus, or sexual intercourse, in the plateau phase.
Among both sexes, the excitement phase results in an increase in heart rate (tachycardia), an increase in breathing rate, and a rise in blood pressure. An erection of the nipples, especially upon direct stimulation, will occur in nearly all females and approximately 60% of males. Vasocongestion of the skin, commonly referred to as the sex flush, will occur in approximately 50-75% of females and 25% of males. An increase in muscle tone (myotonia) of certain muscle groups, occurring voluntarily and involuntarily, begin during this phase among both sexes. Also, the external rectal sphincter may contract randomly upon contact (or later during orgasm without contact).
In males, the beginning of the excitement phase is observed when the penis becomes partially erect, after only a few seconds of erotic stimulation. The erection may be partially lost and regained repeatedly during an extended excitement phase. Both testes become drawn upward toward the perineum, notably in circumcised males where less skin is available to accommodate the erection. Also, the scrotum can tense and thicken during the erection process.
In females, the beginning of the excitement phase is observed when the nipples become erect. Additonally, venous patterns across the breasts become more visible and the breasts increase in size, which becomes more observable if lying on the back. The labia majora become flatter, thinner, and raise upwards and outwards in nulliparous women (those who have not given birth). In parous women (those that have given birth), they increase two or three fold in size. The labia minora increase in size and may protrude above the labia majora. The clitoris becomes tumescent, or swollen, like the glans of the penis. After only seconds of stimulation, vaginal lubrication is produced by the vasocongestion of the vaginal walls. They darken in color and become smoother than normal. Also, the uterus elevates, more vertically as time passes, and the inner two-thirds of the vagina stretch, usually a total of 7 to 10 cm.
Plateau phase
The plateau phase is the period of sexual excitement prior to orgasm.
The plateau phase is the second phase of the sexual cycle, after the excitement phase. Further increases in circulation and heart rate occur in both sexes, sexual pleasure increases with increased stimulation, muscle tension increases further.
During this phase, the male urinary bladder closes (so as to prevent urine from mixing with semen) and muscles at the base of the penis begin a steady rhythmic contraction. Males may start to secrete seminal fluid and the testes rise closer to the body.
At this stage females show a number of effects. The areola and labia further increase in size, the clitoris withdraws slightly and the Bartholin glands produce further lubrication. The tissues of the outer third of the vagina swell considerably, and the pubococcygeal muscle tightens, reducing the diameter of the opening of the vagina and creating what Masters and Johnson refer to as the orgasmic platform. For the many women who never achieve orgasm, this is the peak of sexual excitement. Women may also begin to moan ("Uh", "Fuck!", "Rah!" etc.).
Orgasmic phase
For main article, see orgasm.
Orgasm is the conclusion of the plateau phase in a release of sexual tension. Both males and females experience quick cycles (typically 0.8 seconds apart) of muscle contraction of the anus and lower pelvic muscles, with women also experiencing uterine and vaginal contractions.
Males ejaculate approximately 2-5ml of semen, with the volume varying considerably depending on the period of abstinence and degree of sustained arousal prior to ejaculation.
Orgasms in both men and women are often associated with other involuntary actions, including vocalizations and muscular spasms in other areas of the body. Also, a generally euphoric sensation is associated with orgasm. Orgasm generally causes perceived tiredness, and both males and females often feel a need to rest afterwards. This is often attributed to the release of endorphins during orgasm causing relaxation and drowsiness, but can also be due to the body's need for a short rest after a bout of vigorous sexual activity.
Resolution phase
The resolution phase occurs after orgasm and allows the muscles to relax, blood pressure to drop and the body to slow down from its excited state.
Generally males experience a refractory period, meaning orgasm cannot be achieved again until time has passed. The penis meanwhile returns to a flaccid state.
Females may not experience this refractory period and further stimulation may cause a return to the plateau stage. In some women, this allows the possibility of multiple orgasms. Otherwise, significant changes may also occur, such as the opening of the cervix and the reduction of blood flow to the genitals and nipples. Some women find continued stimulation painful in the resolution phase.
See also
External links
- Human sexual response on Discovery health (http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/sexpedia/sexresponse.html)
- The human sexual response cycle (http://www.umkc.edu/sites/hsw/Sexresponse/) by Stephanie Hampton
Orgasmic platform
In the plateau phase of the human sexual response cycle in women, the tissues of the outer third of the vagina swell considerably, and the pubococcygeal muscle tightens, reducing the diameter of the opening of the vagina and creating what Masters and Johnson call the orgasmic platform.
During orgasm, women experience rhythmic contractions of the orgasmic platform.
Post-coital tristesse
Sexual intercourse can sometimes lead to a feeling of melancholy called post-coital tristesse (from Latin post-coital, and French tristesse, literally - "after-sex sadness"). This is more common in women than in men.
Philosophy of sex
Philosophy of sex is the part of applied philosophy studying sex and love. It includes both ethics of phenomena such as prostitution, rape, sexual harassment and homosexuality, and conceptual analysis of concepts such as "what is sex"?
One of the leading contemporary philosophers of sex is Alan Soble.
External links
- A collection of snippets on the philosophy of sex at Alan Soble's website (http://www.uno.edu/~asoble/pages/snip.htm)
- Internet encylopedia of philosophy: philosophy of sex (also by Soble) (http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/sexualit.htm)
- Bibliography: Traditions in the Cultural Representation of Love, Sex, Gender, and the Body: c.100 BC - 1500 AD (http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/gendersextexts/culturalrepsbib.html)
- Sexuality and Ethics
Sex toy
A sex toy, also called a sexual prop, is a term for any object or device that is primarily used in facilitating human sexual pleasure. This term can also include BDSM apparatuses. Sex toys do not include contraceptives, pornography, or condoms.
A related term is marital aid, often used as a euphemism for sex toys, although marital aid is broader as it can also be applied to drugs and herbs marketed as supposedly enhancing or prolonging sex.
Contents [hide] Legal issues
In many areas, such as some U.S. Southern states, the sale of sex toys is either regulated or prohibited, though enforcement is often rare. Nonetheless the laws are on the books and these laws prohibiting or regulating "obscene devices" occasionally take center stage. As recently as 1999, an assitant attorney general in Alabama commenting on a case involving sex toys and discussing to what end the devices are used for was quoted as saying there is no "fundamental right for a person to buy a device to produce orgasm". It is also common practice for someone to move a motor home near a proposed sex shop as a means of protest to prevent the shop from opening where the law prohibits an "adult" establishment within a certain distance of a dwelling.
Types of sex toys
Male and female
- Anal beads are fun devices that consist of a string of beads that is inserted into the anus and then slowly pulled out to provide a very satisfying stimulation producing strong orgasms in both men and woman. They can also be used in conjuction with vaginal sex for two-way stimulation or shared with a girlfriend where you both have half the string inserted anally while playing with each others clitoris.
- Butt plugs are devices that are inserted in the anus for pleasure. They have a flared end to prevent the device from being lost inside the body.
- An electrode is used in erotic electrostimulation to apply electricity to various parts of the body for sexual gratification. A stainless steel urethral sound may be used as such an electrode when connected to electrostimulation equipment.
- Sexual lubricants are lubricants used to facilitate anal or vaginal sex, or as an aid to masturbation.
- Sybian is the brand name of a combination of a saddle-shaped mount with a vibrator built onto it.
- Sex dolls are imitations of the human form intended for simulation of sexual acts. They may consist of a representation of a face, the buttocks, genital areas, or the entire body. Most sex dolls are inflatable. Love pillows, especially popular in Japan, are inflatable pillows with a life-size picture of a porn star or anime character and optionally a hole for lovemaking.
- Nipple clamps are a family of tools which apply pressure to the nipples. They are often used as BDSM toys or torture devices. Some of them can also provide constant, intense nipple stimulation and heightened sensitivity.
Male
- "Pocket Pussies" or "vaginas" or "masturbators" are modeled to accept a penis for simulated intercourse. They are either shaped like vagina, or butt, or anything with a hole for penetration. Fleshlight is a popular variant of the 'artificial vagina,' intended to stimulate the penis in a way similar to coitus.
- Cock-rings are used to provide sensation (to one or both partners) by wrapping the base of the penis. They may also be used to delay the onset of male orgasm or to maintain an erection. They sometimes incorporate a pad designed to stimulate the clitoris.
- A cock harness is a more elaborate harness designed to be worn around the penis and scrotum. Its intention is similar to that of a cock ring. Often associated with BDSM activities.
A penis sleeve
- A penis sleeve is a cylindrical device that is placed on the shaft of the penis, with the aim of increasing stimulation for the person being penetrated. They often have soft bumps intended to provide further stimulation.
- A penis extension is a partially hollow device like a very short dildo, with the hollow end placed on the end of the penis, intended to increase the effective length of the penis, again for the benefit of the person being penetrated. These are generally worn with condoms to stop them falling off in use.
Female
- A dildo is a non-vibrating device which is used for sexual stimulation of the vagina. Godemiche is an old word for a dildo in the shape of a penis and scrotum.
- A strap-on dildo is a dildo attached to a dildo harness strapped to the groin and hips, generally to allow a person to penetrate a partner as if the dildo were the penetrator's own penis. In particular, they allow a woman to penetrate a man anally or another woman vaginally or anally. They may also be used by impotent men to allow them to penetrate their partner; strap-on dildos used this way are generally hollow, rather than solid.
- A double-ended dildo is a long, usually flexible dildo with both ends designed for penetration. It allows for mutual penetration between two persons.
- Vibrators are vibrating devices intended to stimulate the nerves of the body. Vibrators intended for sexual use are often dildo-shaped, although they also come in a bewildering range of shapes, allowing internal as well as external use.
Medical devices sometimes used as sex toys
- Medical specula are sometimes used as sex toys.
- Kegel exercisers, also known as vaginal barbells, can also be used as sex toys.
Various flesh-like materials used in sex toys
- silicone
- soft and lifelike, warms up quickly to body temperature, non-porous therefore easy to clean (with mild soap and water, or boiled for sterilization)
- Cyberskin / Ultraskin / Eroskin / Softskin / Cyber Jel-lee / Futurotic
- relatively new material (currently the closest emulation of real skin), made of silicone and plastic, very porous therefore must be cleaned very thoroughly (with Cyberskin cleaning solution or antibacterial soap and water)
- jelly
- cheaper, rubber-based material, quite porous
- latex rubber
- cheaper, very porous, might be allergenic
References and further reading
- Karlyn Lotney. The Ultimate Guide to Strap-On Sex: A Complete Resource for Women and Men Cleis Press, 2000. ISBN 157344085X.
See also
teledildonics, Realdoll, sexual intercourse, masturbation, erotic furniture, Wartenberg wheel
External links
- Sex Toys Illustrated (http://www.sextoysillustrated.com) Flash animations of sex toys
- Homemade Sex Toys (http://www.homemade-sex-toys.com) Guide to making your own sex toys
- Sex Toys Pro (http://www.sextoyspro.com/) detailed advice on sex toys
- The Love Lizard's Guide (http://www.lovelizard.co.uk) advice on sex toys and masturbation
- Passion for Pleasure (http://www.passionforpleasure.com/)General sex and sex toy info
- Sex Toy Superstore (http://www.fuckjob.com/toys/index.php) Thousands of products and reviews, everything from inflatable animals to the latest adult DVDs
