Women's Sexuality and Sexual Rights Essay Example

“When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.”(Tacitus). I think this quote clearly outlines how the majority of our global society view women. In many cultures and family norms, we see the importance that the sexual purity of a woman is given, and in a world where women are majorly treated as inferior to men, when a woman is publicly open about her sexual identity, she is looked down upon and seen as less than other women. The issue of women’s sexuality and sexual rights is a long standing one. Even with the amount of progression that our society has achieved it is redundant for men to be at the frontlines of decision making for matters concerning women and their sexual freedom, and identity. In this paper, I will be talking about how some of these issues are experienced on a collective basis while some cases can be unique to specific areas. I will also address ways in which women are restricted the freedom of sexuality and how the sexual rights of a woman are often breached in society.

The topic of women's sexuality and sexual rights is a collective issue globally, but some places have cases that are specific to them; for example, compared to developed countries, third world countries have more severe cases of the violation of women’s rights. We can attribute the cause of this to media exposure, education, and patriarchy traditions that are still being practiced in these countries. For example, in countries like the United States, in some states, the question as to whether abortion be legal or not is something that is constantly being discussed in the legislation by a male-dominated chair. In isolated third-world countries where  77% of girls are married before the age of 18, and in many cases, if not all, they are married to older men (world vision 2021) and then forced to start reproducing at an age where their body is not ready for it. 

A person’s sexual right is identified as their freedom over sexual activity and reproductive rights. For a long time women have had no control over their sexuality in many ways. For example, being pressured to produce offspring, their virginity being regarded as a proof of their family’s morality, and in the case of many women, their sexual life is majorly based on the satisfaction of her husband(Burn, 2011) Soon after women are married, they are pressured by not only their family but their partner’s family to start to reproduce, and in many cases these women are not ready for childbirth. In these cases, the families do not take into consideration that they may have goals and aspirations that they want to achieve which they would have to forfeit if they have a child. The issue of a woman’s virginity being used as proof of the family’s morality has led to problems such as honour killings. 

Feminist theory is the study of religion that reconsiders the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of religion from a feminist perspective with a commitment to transform religion for gender equality(Burn, 2011). Feminist ideas have played an important role in changes to across the globe; feminists work to fight for the freedom of women to determine their sexuality without discrimination and opperession.  The feminist movement has helped bring about change by organizing campaigns for reform on women’s reproductive rights, sexual harrassment and sexual violence.

I chose this topic for my paper because of my background. I come from a patriarchy-dominated country that still objectifies women and their sexual identity. I have had female family members that have been pressured to get married and start having children solely based on the continuation of a lineage without the consideration of what they desire for their own lives. The challenges I went through while writing this paper was an emotional one. I felt very dejected to see that, even though we have, as a society, made significant progressions, there are still many ways in which we are lacking and the area of a woman’s sexuality and sexual rights is one of them.

In conclusion, It is clear that these issues are experienced on a global level but the severity of cases vary from area to area. We have made a lot of progress, thanks to the hard work of feminists before us, but I think that it is evident that we have a long way to go in terms of the liberation of a woman’s sexual identity.