Sensuality
Related: erotica - mind - perception - pleasure - sense - sex
Die Sinnlichkeit / Sensuality (1898) - Franz von Stuck
Sexuality and sensuality
There is no clear borderline between sexual and nonsexual enjoyment of touching someone else's body. For example, holding hands may or may not have a sexual connotation, depending on culture, situation and other factors. There are, however, actions that are clearly sexual by almost anyone's definition but which have been argued by an accused as not having sexual relations since the most common form of heterosexual sexual intercourse had not occurred. The distinction between sexual and nonsexual behavior can be relevant due to social rules.
Some criteria that may be applied are:
- the body parts involved (see also intimate parts)
- physical signs of sexual arousal
- subjective feeling
While enjoying touching the body of someone else implies enjoying one's own body also, the latter may also happen without another person; enjoying one's own body also may or may not be of a sexual nature. If it is, it is called autoeroticism.
The whole of one's sexual activities (including erotic dreams and waking sexual fantasies and daydreams) is called one's sex life. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior#Sexuality_and_sensuality [Jun 2005]
Sensuality
Definition
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1. The quality or state of being sensual or lascivious.
2. Excessive devotion to sensual pleasure. --AHD [Jun 2005]
Franz von Stuck (* 23. Februar 1863 in Tettenweis, Landkreis Passau (Niederbayern); † 30. August 1928 in München) war deutscher Maler und Bildhauer. --http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Stuck [Jun 2005]
cover illustration from a German book
another version of Sinnlichkeit by Franz von Stuck
sensuality
c.1340, "the part of man that is concerned with the senses," from O.Fr. sensualité, from L.L. sensualitatem (nom. sensualitas) "capacity for sensation," from L. sensualis "endowed with feeling, sensitive," from sensus "feeling" (see sense). Chiefly "animal instincts and appetites," hence "the lower nature regarded as a source of evil, lusts of the flesh" (1621). --http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=sensuality [Jun 2005]
see also: symbolism - decadent art - 1898
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the expression of sexual feelings due to genetic predisposition or one's own personal experimentation. Sexuality can be influenced by hormonal changes in the development of the fetus during pregnancy. Sexuality influences social behavior. Human sexuality can also be understood as part of the social life of humans, governed by implied rules of behavior status in quo. Gender identity (which is more inclusive than sexual identity) can be molded by the social environment to which one is exposed, e.g. an authority figure giving a little boy a toy truck to play with, and a girl a doll. Human physiology makes sexuality possible, but it does not predict sexual behavior or behavior regarded as gender-appropriate in any way.
Sexuality molds the environments in which we live, influencing print, audio and video.
Human sexual choices are usually made using cultural social filters. Some may choose to abstain from sex before marriage because their religious creed goes against such actions. In some Eastern cultures it is acceptable for a man to have many wives, while in Western culture bigamy or polygamy is frowned upon. This summation is made using the cultural filter. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality [Feb 2005]