WHAT AND WHAT ARE THE POTENTIALITIES OF SEXUALITY? - GEOGRAFÍA - 2024

The potentialities of sexuality are the elements that give rise to the realization of human sexuality. They are those conditions prior to sexual expression or experimentation that play an important role for these to occur.

According to what was proposed by Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles, doctor in Human Sexuality and founder of the Mexican Association for Sexual Health (AMSS), there are four potentialities of human sexuality: gender, affective ties, eroticism and reproductivity.

Sexuality is an inherent quality of all human beings, present from birth to death.

This includes the conception that people have of themselves as sexual beings, and the search for pleasure as an expression of that sexual personality.

The expression or experimentation of sexuality occurs in the form of thoughts, desires, fantasies, values, attitudes, beliefs, practices, activities, roles and relationships.

The integration of potentialities: a mental process

Integrating the four potentialities of sexuality is essential.

Professor Rubio assures that gender, emotional ties, eroticism and reproductivity are a kind of determinations present in human beings that are integrated into the individual at a mental level before sexuality comes to be realized in concrete acts.

The potentialities are configurations present in the human being in the biological field, which lead him to have certain types of experiences, which he then integrates in his mind and endows with meaning, meaning and affection.

From the integration of potentialities to the realization of sexuality there is a process to go through.

Integration is a purely mental process and prior to the act of sexuality. However, sexuality cannot occur effectively without the integration of potentialities.

In other words, sexuality cannot be generated without “the meaning of reproduction as a possibility (reproductivity), the experience of belonging to one of two sexes (gender), the significance of the pleasurable quality of the erotic encounter and the significance of effective links interpersonal ”.

For this reason, these elements are characterized as potentialities, since they are a kind of enhancers or engines for sexuality to take place.

The four potentialities of sexuality

1- Gender

Within the context of sexuality, gender corresponds to all those mental constructions that exist in an individual with respect to their belonging to the male or female sex.

It also refers to all the qualities or characteristics present in the individual that place him at some point within the range of differences between both genders.

Gender is based on the biological basis of dimorphism, that is, the fact that human beings are a specific type of living organism and acquire two different forms in terms of sex: female and male.

Gender is a potentiality that not only influences the sexuality of the individual but also in all areas of their life, since through this they build their own identity and their way of interacting and relating.

Thus, it is clear that within sexuality gender plays a fundamental role, since many perceptions and ways of acting of the individual will be directly influenced by their gender.

This ends up being related to the other potentialities, which have to do precisely with the way of relating and with the conception of oneself and of its reproductive function.

2- Reproductivity

The term reproductivity refers both to the biological capacity of the human being to reproduce, and to the mental constructions that are built around it.

This potentiality is a direct product of the human condition of being alive. The development of sexuality essentially starts from the need to reproduce as a species, although it is not limited to this aspect.

Beyond its biological manifestation in conception, pregnancy and childbirth, reproductivity is a potentiality that has important social and psychological expressions.

In the psychological field, the awareness of the reproductive capacity is present in the manifestations of the sexual being. When acting in search of pleasure, this faculty is combined with eroticism, feelings and gender awareness.

Part of the sexual identity of the individual is made up of his full consciousness of being an entity capable of reproducing, or by the desire to reproduce.

Furthermore, consciousness is not limited to the biological realm. For example, it can also include an understanding of the phenomenon of motherhood and fatherhood that reproduction entails.

In the social sphere, ideas are also built regarding the reproductive potentiality. For example, it is usual that the study of the reproductive fact or contraception is instituted in the educational area.

3- Eroticism

Eroticism is a phenomenon formed by the processes concerning the incitement of sexual appetite, arousal and orgasm, and by the mental constructions regarding these. For this reason it is the potentiality that is most easily identified with sexuality.

It encompasses specialized sound or visual cues that acquire sensual meanings through language and culture.

In addition, it may or may not be related to the act of love, so it is essential for love, but it can also occur in contexts in which it is not present.

Eroticism manifests itself in the biological sphere in the organism, but it is its impact on the mind that makes it powerful as an enhancer of the development of the individual's sexuality.

The interpretation that is made of the erotic symbols and representations destined to arouse the sexual appetite, the excitement and, finally, the orgasm, has a powerful influence on the subsequent development of the acts performed for the pursuit of pleasure.

On the other hand, the individual way of interpreting and relating to the erotic forms the erotic identity of the individual, which constitutes the way in which he conceives himself as a sexual being.

4- Affective ties

Affective or sentimental ties refer to the ability of individuals to feel some type of positive affection for other individuals, and to the mental constructions regarding those feelings.

In a natural and inherent way, the human being establishes affective bonds because he seeks to guarantee his own care and development.

That is why these are directly related to the willingness of a person to interact with others to achieve positive and pleasant sensations.

The individual is motivated to relate to others when there is a strong enough bond for him to strive to maintain it. This dynamic is also applicable to the realm of sexual desire.

The significance that is given in the mind to the rest of the potentialities of sexuality can produce an affective resonance towards others that prompts to relate to them to achieve the goal of sexuality.

Furthermore, the affective bond has a mental, internal and individual character, and it occurs in this dimension at a time prior to the concrete act of sexuality. Hence, it is considered a potentiality.

For all the above, the affective bond is constituted as an enhancer in the search for pleasure and in the expression of individual sexual identity.

References

1. ARANGO, I. (2008). Human sexuality. Recovered from: books.google.com
2. DE MONTIJO, F. (2001). Civic and Ethical Formation 2 °. Recovered from: books.google.com
3. DÍAZ, H. (2011). Sexuality Recovered from: saludenfamilia.es
4. RUBIO, E. (1994). Human potentialities (Holons): Holonic Model of Human Sexuality. Recovered from: amssac.org
5. Wikipedia. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org