Monday, March 21, 2011

Difference between sexual orientation and sexual harassment

Sexual orientation, identity and harassment are the branches of a same tree but these terms are conceptually different. The broader concept is sexual identity; which says how a person identifies himself. This identification includes sexual orientation and sexual characteristics.

Sexual characteristics are based on biology i.e. related to gender identity, and we’ll be focusing more on orientation; because we can’t comment on the characteristics a person possesses, but we can help him to improve his metal growth by discussing a concept which is directly applied on his thoughts and ultimately lead him to action.

The general definition of this concept says that sexual orientation is the direction of one’s sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite or both sexes. Let’s understand this concept with a simple example of my academics, when I was in school, I had studied many subjects, but the subject in which I was more interested was mathematics, because of its problem solving, finance related nature, so in future that interest of mine had lead me, to choose the field of finance, it means that my career orientation, the direction of my career was finance. Similarly when it comes to one’s sexual life, then the interest of a person defines the sexual orientation of that person but this interest is limited to three categories same, opposite or both.

So according to my understanding, in actual sexual orientation is more like an appearance, why am I called a girl? Other than biological characteristics, it is obvious that I m a girl not because I think I m a girl.  why a person is called a gay, no one knows whatever is going on, in your mind but one can see your actions, in our society there are prescribed rules and standards, if u are following rules prescribed for a boy then u’ll be called a boy otherwise u’ll be kicked off  from the bracket. And also if a boy inclined towards the same sex that doesn’t mean he is gay and this inclination would not be his orientation but this inclination would be called sexual preference, which means to whom u prefer.

however If a boy has feminine appearance or interest then the question is why he is doing that, obviously he has something in his mind which is reflecting through his actions. At the same time such an orientation does not mean that this person is actually the one he seems.

According to some medical professionals, sexual orientation involves complex mixture of biology, psychology, and environmental factors. It can be a genetic, hormonal problem that may play a big role. And when these exceptional situations seem visible, it shows that sexual orientation whatever it causes is not simply chosen. And when we go through this then my understanding becomes true.

On the other hand sexual harassment is a different thing, it has nothing to do with the sexual orientation u possess.  This concept is a behavior, unwelcoming sexual attention, intimidation, coercion and bullying, it is just about making the other person offensive, make him or her feeling humiliation. It is not related to sexual orientation, the driver behind sexual harassment is ones mental negativity, sexual orientation is a neutral term, and it is up to you how u take it either negative or positive. But sexual harassment is pure negative term; a person will never harass his friend.

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