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• Miko and Erika's relationship


  Developed slowly, met at a birthday party, started dating and spent most of their time together, dated exclusively for a year
• Miko and Erika have become increasingly intimate physically, but have not discussed sex straightforwardly and sex has not been the main focus of their relationship
• Whenever Miko and Erika go beyond the limits they unknowingly set for themselves


  They feel awkward and end up pulling back
• Miko and Erika wonder if the eve of Valentine's day would be the perfect time to cross the line that they have set up for themselves
• If Miko and Erika have sex for the first time on the eve of Valentine's day, it would have an effect on them individually and on their relationship, with possible far-reaching effects
• If Miko and Erika talk to each other about their desires and decide to refrain from becoming more intimate physically, especially on the eve of Valentine's day, it would have effects on themselves and on their relationship
• The decision that would more likely lead to personal growth and more clearly reflect the concern for each other is unclear
• Human sexuality


  A complex area of study that focuses on all aspects of humans as sexual beings, including sexual anatomy and responses, sexual feelings and behaviors, intimate relationships, sexual identity and desires, sexual health and wellbeing, and the way we perceive and express our individual sexual selves
• Evolutionary perspectives


  • Sociobiologists view human sexual behaviors as the product of natural selection in evolution and thus view these behavioral patterns as being genetically controlled
  • Contemporary evolutionary theorists view behavior as the result of an interaction between evolved mechanisms and environmental influence
• Exchange theory


  • Highlights the role of rewards and costs in relationships
• Social learning theory


  • Adds the concepts of imitation, identification, and self-efficacy to learning theory
• Learning theory


  • Emphasizes how sexual behavior is learned and modified through reinforcements and punishments according to principles of operant conditioning
• Freud's psychoanalytic theory


  • Views the sex energy, or libido, as a major influence on personality and behavior
• Critical theory


  • Focuses our attention on the social construction of categories, the ways they are applied to people, and the consequences for individuals and society
• Feminist theory


  • Systematically analyzes the meaning of gender in contemporary society
• Queer theory


  • Challenges the gender binary and the sexual orientation binary, arguing that gender expression and sexual orientation are both dimensions along which individuals vary
• Sociological perspective


  • Investigates the ways in which institutions such as religion, the economy, the family, medicine, and the law influence sexuality
• Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that contemporary times are immersed in a mindset and form of culture that induce one to have doubts about the value of the human person, the meaning of truth and good, and the goodness of life
• Human sexuality finds crisis in appreciating its true meaning due to the prevalence of relativism, nihilism, and naturalism
• Catholic Church's teaching on human sexuality


  It is anchored on the truth that God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion, and that as a person, we long for the mystery of communion with our fellow human beings and the mystery of love
• If we live according to the truth of our sexuality, we fulfill the very meaning of our being and existence, but if we do not, we miss the meaning of our existence altogether and forfeit true joy and happiness
• Sexuality


  Affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his/her body and soul, especially concerning affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others
• Vocation of the human person

  Realized in marriage and virginity or celibacy
• God's plan for marriage

  Involves total self-giving of man and woman to each other
• Sexuality


  Not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such, and is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death
• Marriage is intimately connected to family, and God will build his kingdom of heaven over this work
• Man and woman


  Should acknowledge and accept his/her sexual identity, as physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life
• It is an illusion to think we can build a true culture of human life if we do not accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and their close interconnection
• Our creation as male and female and our longing for communion


  The fundamental fact of human existence
• The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place

  Are noble and honorable, and the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude
• The human body includes right from the beginning the capacity of expressing love, in which the person becomes a gift and fulfills the meaning of his being and existence
• Understanding the fundamental meanings contained in the mystery of creation, such as the nuptial meaning of the body, is important to know who man is and who he should be, and therefore how he should mold his own activity
• The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine, and was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it
• The original nakedness, mutual and at the same time not weighed down by shame, expresses the interior freedom of the gift - the disinterested gift of oneself
• The freedom of the gift is the response to the deep awareness of the gift, and through this truth and freedom that love is built up, which must be affirmed as authentic love
• The marriage act unites husband and wife in the closest intimacy and together makes them capable of generating new life, through the fundamental structure
• Christ manifests the love with which he has loved the Church by giving himself for her, and that love is an image and model of the love which the husband should show to his wife in marriage
• Chastity


  The virtue that calls us to use our sexuality in a reasonable, responsible, and faithful manner
• Chastity


  A deep respect and admiration for the person AND for the gifts of our sexuality and sex, the readiness to affirm and love the person in every situation
• Every person, whether married or single, is called to live a chaste life, as chastity must be developed and practiced because our sexual attractions and feelings are so strong and intense, often overpowering