Sexuation process

Sexuation process

We are all sexed beings: we are born with sexuality and we die with sexuality. But, in addition, throughout our lives our sexuality develops and transforms through what we know as the process of sexuation.

Sexuation is a progressive, biographical and complex process in which biological, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual and other factors are intertwined. Both our own life experiences and structural factors have an impact on how our sexuality and all the spheres that depend on it, such as our gender identity, our sexual orientation, our desires, our pleasures, our limits and red lines, our affections, etc., are configured.

In this process of sexuation, the cisheteropatriarchal system, as well as the sex/gender system, as a cultural mechanism that differentiates what is considered masculine from what is considered feminine, providing them with different positions of power, have a considerable influence.

Sexuality is intersected by biological, psychological, social and spiritual factors:

The biological dimension of sexuality is mainly related to the sexual characteristics we are born with, as well as reproductive issues.

The psychological dimension of sexuality has to do with our subjective experiences, with our emotions and with individual notions of what we understand by intimacy, pleasure, desires and needs.

The social dimension has to do with how different social environments affect the experience of our sexualities, including cultural, political and economic issues.

For example, it is not the same to have a homosexual sexual orientation in Spain, where equal marriage is recognised, as it is in Afghanistan, where same-sex relations are currently punishable by death.

Nor is menstruating in Nepal the same as menstruating in Nigeria or Germany.

On the other hand, the social dimension implies recognising that the experience of sexuality has historically been conditioned by various factors that have generated structural inequality, especially between men and women.

One of these factors is patriarchy or the patriarchal system: a discriminatory and oppressive structure of social organisation based on the superiority of the masculine and the subordination and invisibility of women and all that is considered ‘feminine’.

The spiritual dimension relates energetic, transcendental or more subtle aspects to sexuality. Although it is a little known dimension, there are very ancient disciplines, such as Tantra, which already studied it.