The development of sexual identity in males: lines of action in the third millennium

Abstract

In each persons identity we find a strong and enrooted concept of their gender and sexuality. The concept of masculinity and feminity have been stereotyped and poorly founded by social rules that have created social oppressiveness since it hasnt changed during years. This has opened a gap between gender and sexuality which has contributed to fragment the persons identity. As a matter of fact, being true that the human being builds in a way its own gender, it is also true that this process is not a creation, since it derives from a biological sexual information, a reality which is very resistant to change and has as a reference point many variables from which stand out the characteristics that define the dominant train of thought of the moment about masculinity and femininity and the ways in which men and women relate to each other. Nowadays we are living an identity crisis in males because of the quick changes that have been introduced in male roles, having masculinity acquired a polymeric character with approaches that in occasions exclude each other.
When the social concept of masculinity is in discussion there is no doubt that the adolescent male goes through difficulties in how to focus their personal development and in how to confront their relationship with women. The big challenge of our time is to rethink the concept of masculinity, since there is not enough scientific information about how to change male rules without interfering in their psychological structures and being also too harder to vertebrate the male identity as to the female one. Having these problems in mind, the article tries to look for these basic structures separating them from those other aspects that in the contrary find themselves attached to social attributions. In this study the teenager male affectivity is studied, as its difference with women showing the need to ensemble the concept of masculinity with the need to love oneself, to be loved by others and to love others as well. The article concludes with some educative proposals that help male teenagers to consolidate their personal identity.

Key Words: sex and gender, masculinity and feminity in personal identity, male teenager affectivity.

Citación recomendada | Recommended citation

Lorente, A. P. (2007) . The development of sexual identity in males: lines of action in the third millennium. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 65(238). https://www.revistadepedagogia.org/rep/vol65/iss238/15