Society’s perception of sex has been touched on frequently in writings about sex, including my own.
What needs to be addressed here is that for every individual opinion on something in the very broad field of sex and relationships, there is a vast amount of opposition in our society. If there is incredible opposition for a single opinion, take all of your views on sex together, and it might seem like you face insurmountable odds.
Take a discussion on body image for example. One of the most prominent opinions in society is that the beauty standard set primarily by the media is out of control and people should love their bodies without feeling the pressure to look like Barbies.
It would be amazing if society would completely support that opinion. However, there’s a lot of adversity. Fashion, advertising and media outlets typically promote certain body types over others, though positive coverage is also appearing more in the mainstream.
There’s also the atypical opposition. Some people out there say being skinny or not “curvy” is hideous and disgusting. People who work out a lot get stereotyped as being meatheads. You can find antagonism for every body type out there.
My point is this: Society isn’t here to coddle us. It’s not going to consistently empower the sex you have, the people you’re into or any of the other views on sex you may have.
Societal change is always needed; we certainly see that when it comes to issues like body image and sexuality. Still, we’ve also seen with these issues that society doesn’t respond to change with any form of immediacy. While we work on creating this change in society, we also have to take a minute to reconcile our sex within ourselves.
In this reconciliation, we have to try to remove ourselves from society. That’s impossible to completely do, but at our core we must have some beliefs that are steadfast in regards to sex.
Society may say you should look a certain way, but what do you believe? Who do you believe is the perfect partner? Are one-night stands good or bad things? It’s even okay to believe that some of the ideas that the majority of society conveys are correct. I mean, those beliefs must be there for some reason, right?
Asking yourself these questions is a great first step to becoming a more sexually confident person. Take these core values and build your sexual self around them.
When we talk about all of these awful themes we see regarding the realm of sex, we tend to forget that they’re just opinions. Becoming confident in yourself is a way to combat negativity in the form of these opinions.
Once we become confident in ourselves, I feel we open the door to create the greatest amount of change. Others who see us believing in ourselves, regardless of what society says, become motivated by our stories and our presence. We then create positivity to combat society’s negativity.
The opinions of society will always be there. The younger we learn to combat them, the better off we’ll be. Combining the concepts present within the social change we wish to see with sexual confidence gives us the ability to hold out and be able to fight for a better future while society catches up to our beliefs.