Culture has an important effect on sexuality, especially since attitudes have changed drastically in the twentieth century. Some cultures maintain a clearly defined cultural definition of sexuality; however, many cultures have a blend of various ideologies give the diversity of the modern society. There are three cultural approaches to sexuality: restrictive, semi restrictive, and permissive.

Restrictive cultures disapprove of premarital sex and create rules to prevent such behavior from occurring. Rules go as far as to separate boys and girls to prevent any possibility of sexual conduct. Less extreme cultures will make their disapproval known and will educate their young to avoid premarital sex.

Semi-restrictive cultures also disapprove of premarital sex; however, the rules are not as strict. Adults in these cultures tend to ignore promiscuous behavior until the girl becomes pregnant. If this happens, then the couple is expected to wed. America has a semi-restrictive culture. Americans tend to be a bit uncomfortable with early adolescents having sexual relations; however, this behavior is expected, yet still frowned upon, among late adolescents.

Permissive cultures expect sexual relations before marriage and may also encourage such behavior. For example, among the people of the Trobriand Islands in the South Pacific, children begin having sex at an early age and their sexual relationships blossom during the adolescent years. Few of these cultures have persisted, due to the spread of Christianity and globalization.

I believe the best approach to be the semi-restrictive culture’s approach; however, I do not believe that the sexual relationships should be ignored by the adults. One of the biggest problems in American society is ignoring problems, such as teen pregnancy. With fewer parents educating their children on the birds and the bees, more focus is being placed on sex education. Adolescents need sex education to understand what happens and the dangers of sex before marriage. While premarital sex should be discouraged, we must recognize that it does happen and educate our children to deal with such occurrences. Ignoring premarital sex and promoting abstinence will not lead to fewer teen pregnancies as indicated by national studies.

There is no “one, true” cultural acceptance of sexuality. Although many self-centered zealous individuals attempt to suppress forms of sexuality, many times this causes a sexual deviancy in their subcultures. Surprising anything leads to a counter-culture. There are worse things to having the idea of sex out in the open. What is going on behind closed doors might even be worse.