Sex
The physical and psychological characteristics that distinguish between males and females; attributes that determine one's gender; also, the functions and processes involved in intercourse and procreation. In addition, 'have sex' means 'to have sexual intercourse, copulate'. The term is derived from the Latin word, sexus, which appears to be related to secare, meaning to cut or to divide.
Group sex: Sexual activity shared by three or more people at the same time in the presence of each other.
Opportunistic sex: Sexual intimacy and intercourse that occurs spontaneously and without anticipation so that the participants may not take precautions against sexually transmitted diseases.
Oral-anal sex: Sexual activity in which the mouth and tongue are used to stimulate the anus.
Sex and Alcohol: Intake of alcoholic drinks as a means of increasing the sex drive or enhancing sexual performance. Studies show that modest amounts may help people overcome anxiety, fear or inhibition, and enable them to relax and enjoy it. Large amounts, however, have been found to decrease or even eliminate the man's capacity to achieve or maintain an erection, and the woman's ability to have an orgasm. Alcohol may also impair judgment and open the way to sexual activity that may be later regretted; under its influence, contraceptives may be forgotten and unwanted pregnancy may result.
Sex appeal: The capacity to arouse sexual interest and desire. This is largely a matter of personal taste and cultural pattern. However, generally speaking (and judging by film and TV idols in the 80s), people in Western society are particularly responsive to athletic, uscular, somewhat aggressive men, and relatively slim women with slightly oversized breasts, shapely legs and buttocks, careful makeup, flowing hair, and revealing or provocative clothes. In certain non-Western societies, the sources of sex appeal are extremely varied, including such features as gigantic buttocks, pendulous breasts, flattened heads, protruding navels, crossed eyes, artificially stretched necks, and scarred or tattooed bodies.
Sex drive: The primary, probably instinctual, urge for sexual grtification. On the average, the impulse reaches its peak in the late teens among males and in the 30s among females. Although both sexes maintain an interest in sexual activity throughout their lives, by the age of 50, the average man is satisfied with two orgasms per week, and beginning in the 50s and 60s, the average woman experiences a slight decline in sex drive, and is usually less preoccupied with sex than in her earlier years.
Sex education: Instruction on the physical, psychological, and behavioral aspects of sex, given in a classroom setting, but also through books and other publications. Formal sex education is designed to supplement or correct information and misinformation imparted by parents, peers, and the mass media.
Sex hormones: Chemical messengers that control the sexual and reprodductive processes. The primary sources are the pituitary gland, the ovaries, the testes, and the adrenal cortex.
Sex object: A person, animal, or inanimate object (such as a fetish) towards which sexual impulses are directed. The term is used often in a deragotary sense, because many women (and sometimes men) resent being treated primarily as objects for stimulation and gratification. Also known as: sexual object.
Sex relations: A broad term for any physical relationship between two or more people that serves the purpose of arousing or satisfying the sexual impulse, ranging from necking and petting to al forms of intercourse. Sex relations include the exploratory sexual behavior of children as well as premarital, extramarital, and marital sex (and may be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual).
Sex research: Studies of sexual behavior that can be documented in large populations, as distinguished from anecdotal information based on observations of a few individual subjects.
Sexual guilt: A generalized expectancy for self-monitored punishment for violating or anticipating the violation of internalized standards of socioally acceptable behavior regarding sexually related thoughts and behaviors.
Sexual preference: Preference for sexual activity with males, females or both (heterosexuality, male or female homosexuality, bisexuality), or for specific forms of sexual gratification such as oral sex, anal sex, rear entry, woman-above, man-above, mutual masturbation, as well as for particular forms of sexual stimulation such as biting, whipping, and bondage.
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