Walking the tightrope of Biology Psychology Sociology: No wonder we call it Sexology!

An interesting article in SMH today
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/the-drugs-of-desire-pushing-us-into-a-sexual-arms-race-20090528-boz7.html
Discusses the medicalisation of sexuality and sexual health.
I quote:
"The model of sex research Masters and Johnson pioneered, with its focus on physiology and the language of function and dysfunction, has led inexorably, these critics [Leonore Tiefer and others]argue, to a mindset where sexual functions are seen as simply physical ones, with cures that are pills or creams or gels or patches."

If you are intersted in this issue, check out the site:
http://www.newviewcampaign.org/

Have we swung too far into the biological in sexual function? Are we too eager to reach for the magic tablet rather than 'talk'?

I came across this web site today. Discusses the issue (they call!) SexTech
http://sexuality.about.com/od/sex_tech_faq/f/sex_tech_FAQ.htm

Interesting questions:

• Does technology change the way we have sex?
• Is Tech ruining Sex?

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Consent and Regret: Two sides of the coin in Sexual Behavior?

An article in the Sun Herald by Leslie Cannold has the following (quote from article)

"Consent and regret are different. You can't regret someone forcing you to do something because regret suggests responsibility and you weren't in control in the first place. You can consent to something, even drive it, yet realise while it's happening you've bitten off more than you can chew."

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/sexual-freedom-wont-spare-you-regret-20090524-bj6d.html

Teen brains are fired by testosterone fuelled desire and yet in their developmental stage of neuronal connections - vulnarable to impulsive behaviour and risk taking.

How can we help? Sex Education? Parental guidance?

Peer Pressure to have sex: All in the mind?

A Sydney Morning Herald article on the 21st May questions the reality of teenagers assumptions of what their "peers" are doing sexually.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/sex-peer-pressure-selfimposed-20090521-bg9q.html

• Almost 70 per cent of young people who took part in a Melbourne-based study believed they'd had fewer sexual partners than their "average" peers.

The author of the study says:
.."it was important that young Australians be told it was okay to hold off starting to have sex, or to go without for a time, and that it was "not always the case" their peers had multiple sexual partners."

The article that details this study is in: Sexual Health Volume 6 Number 2 2009

I recently wrote a description of the research activities in the Graduate Program for Sexual Health for marketing. It sounds so good, I thought I should share it with the world!

Research in GPSH:
Applied and social research in sexual health within the context of the sexual rights in a bio-psycho-social investigative paradigm, especially in minority communities such people with a disability, aging, migrants and gender variant children; and the translation of research results into best practice models of health professional-patient communication, sex education and health delivery.
The strength of the team lies in the inter-professional international nature of the research community and the multidisciplinary supervision team enabling the application of innovative research methodologies befitting the sensitive areas of research.

Want to join us?

An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald comments on how teen girls are not taught skills to resist sexual pressure.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/girls-not-taught-skills-to-resist-sex-pressure-20090518-bcpf.html
The reseaarchers talked with >60 girls in Pert (Australia) and reported that:
"A predominant theme that conceptualized the nature and timing of first intercourse among female adolescents in this study was the degree of personal control they maintained over their transition from abstinence"
and:
"positive recollections of first coitus were embedded within a greater self-efficacy for abstinence and sense of personal control over the timing of and the context in which intercourse was initiated."
"disappointing and regretful experiences among those who initiated intercourse earlier and for reasons external to the self. Conforming to social norms, drunken encounters, and pressure from partners...."
Read the article in:
Journal of Adolescent Health, Volume 43, Issue 6, December 2008, Pages 593-599

Apparently the first Obama budget has word on sex education. Wonder what impact this will have at a global level?
http://rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/05/07/2010-budget-slashes-abstinenceonly-money-keeps-abortion-funding-restrictions