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Write a 6 pages paper on issues in contemporary sociology: sexuality and gender. While sexuality and gender roles appear to be synonymous, subtle differences in connotation exist between the terms as used in sociological studies. A person’s sexuality is innate in, or emanating from within, him or her. it refers to the sum total of his/her attitudes and preferences as determined by his/her sexual orientation. One might say one’s “sexuality” makes that person heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, depending on the partners he or she is (or is not) attracted to. However, unlike sexuality, gender roles are imposed from without, in the form of a variety of social influences. Starting from the socialization phase of childhood and adolescence, gender roles exert influence on people’s actions throughout their lives. When one feels ill at ease, or even resentful, of gender roles, and internal conflict may result [Gender Roles Forum, 2008]. Gender roles vary over time, and as they evolve they, in turn, create social upheavals and reforms that spawn profound changes in society and the nation in general.

In post-Victorian society, the regulatory framework has evolved such that gender roles and, consequently, attitudes towards sexuality have essentially been redefined. Storry and Childs [2002] provide the following timeline of important developments in British history which indicate the trend towards an increasingly permissive outlook, until the 1970s:

Anxieties about the sexual mores of the younger generation certainly preceded the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s [Storry and Childs, 2002]. The sixties and the seventies saw more liberal regard towards abortion, divorce and sexual discrimination. Likewise were new reforms given impetus on the issues of obscenity and censorship and homosexuality. The import of these developments was not lost upon the new Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was elected into office for the first time in 1979 and re-elected in 1983 and 1987.