SYNOPSIS:

     Paula Jones said, "No!"
Monica Lewinsky said, "Yes!"
What would you have said?
Our sexual interests and responses
might best be explained by our sexual imprinting.

    Our sexual responses often seem mysterious even to ourselves.
We may feel that our 'sex-drives' possess us rather than we possessing them.
This cyber-sermon outlines a new hypothesis
which may be one step toward a comprehensive theory of human sexuality.
Older theories have tried to explain our sexual responses
either in terms of our biological heritage—animal sexuality—
or in terms of social learning—the way we develop most behaviors.

     But the sex-script hypothesis presents a third possible explanation:
Our internal sexual responses may have been imprinted into us at an early age.
During certain critical periods in our psycho-sexual development,
particular images, stories, and sexual responses—our "sex-scripts"—
were imprinted in our brains more or less at random.
And these sexual fantasies remain with us for the rest of our lives.

     A basic analogy that may help us to understand sexual imprinting
is the phenomenon of acquiring a native language.
When we were infants, we quickly and permanently acquired our first language.
It seems that the "language-file" is open for such imprinting
only during the first few months of life.

     We do not know just when the human "sex-file" is open for imprinting,
but we may be able to identify specific events
which have a remarkably-permanent impact on our sexual responses.
Much more research is needed to explore the possible connection between
adult sexual responses and sexually-imprinting events in childhood.

OUTLINE:

I.     INTRODUCING THE SEX-SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS

II.    THE EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND OF HUMAN SEX-SCRIPTS

III.   SEXUAL IMPRINTING AT CRITICAL PERIODS
            IN PSYCHO-SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

IV.   THREE LEVELS OF SEX-SCRIPTS

V.    VARIETIES OF SEX-SCRIPTS

VI.   IDENTIFYING OUR OWN SEX-SCRIPTS

VII.  HOMOSEXUAL SEX-SCRIPTS

VIII. THE IMPACT OF SEX-SCRIPTS ON OUR RELATIONSHIPS

IX.   TRANSCENDING OUR SEX-SCRIPTS

    Happy orgasms to everyone!

    Probably no other sermon has ever begun with such a greeting.
But, in contrast to many other religions,
Unitarian Universalism is sex-positive rather than sex-negative.

    Sex can be one of the most wonderful dimensions of human life and love.
And one outcome of this cyber-sermon might be
a better understanding of your own sexual responses.

    Human sexual responses are fundamentally different from animal sexuality
because of the very important mental dimensions of our sexuality.
Our sexual responses are deeply controlled by our imprinted sex-scripts.

I.     INTRODUCING THE SEX-SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS

    The sex-script hypothesis conjectures
that certain ideas, images, fantasies, sex-objects, etc.
are imprinted into our minds during our first 20 years of life.
Imprinting is quick and permanent, in contrast to learning,
which requires constant repetition and reinforcement.
Another form of mental imprinting is acquiring our native language.
We 'pick up' the vocabulary and syntax of our first language
without a single hour of instruction.
Perhaps our sexual fantasies are acquired in a similar way.
And both our mother-tongue and our sexual 'turn-ons' are permanent.

II.    THE EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND OF HUMAN SEX-SCRIPTS

    We inherited from our animal ancestors the fact of sex-scripts.
But the contents of our sex-scripts are imprinted some time after birth.
We share sexual anatomy and hormones with the other animals.
But we do not have stereotyped sexual behavior as seen in animals.
Rather, our sexual responses arise from our imprinted sex-scripts.

III.   SEXUAL IMPRINTING AT CRITICAL PERIODS
            IN PSYCHO-SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

    At critical periods in our psycho-sexual development
(most commonly at puberty), the 'sex-files' of our minds are particularly open.
Then, almost anything in our environment can become part of a sex-script.
After such sexual imprinting, those sexy images, ideas, fantasies, etc.,
will remain part of our psychological make-up for the rest of our lives.

IV.   THREE LEVELS OF SEX-SCRIPTS

    Human sex-scripts can be sub-divided into three dimensions:
(1) sexual interest—our minds involuntarily fascinated by certain themes.
(2) sexual arousal—our bodies responding sexually to certain stimuli.
(3) sexual orgasm—the climax of sexual arousal linked to certain fantasies.
In all three dimensions, we experience our sexuality
as something that is happening to us rather than something we do.
Our imprinted sex-scripts seem to have a power of their own.

V.    VARIETIES OF SEX-SCRIPTS

    Because our sex-scripts are imprinted after birth
rather than given by our genes,
almost anything can become part of the story that 'turns us on'.
Unusual sex-objects, settings, words, gestures, clothing, behavior, etc.
often do become parts of our imprinted sex-scripts.
Most sex-scripts depict the fantasy sex-partner as someone of the other sex.
But homosexual sex-scripts call for partners of the same sex.

VI.   IDENTIFYING OUR OWN SEX-SCRIPTS

    Unfortunately, our sex-files are not directly accessible to us.
But we can discover what our sex-scripts contain indirectly:
in erotic dreams; by seeing which kinds of pornography 'turn us on';
by noting what sexy images in advertising draw our attention;
by sexual experimentation to see what 'really turns us on'.

VII.  HOMOSEXUAL SEX-SCRIPTS

    Homosexual sex-scripts have long been puzzling to sexology.
And many people who find themselves with fantasies
of having sex with partners of the same sex are often puzzled.
But both major types of sex-scripts might result from sexual imprinting.
How all forms of sexual imprinting occur
remains for the next generation of sexologists to discover.

VIII. THE IMPACT OF SEX-SCRIPTS ON OUR RELATIONSHIPS

    Our imprinted sex-scripts come from an earlier phase of our lives.
Thus, when we become more mature in our personal relationships,
we may be bothered by sexual responses that seem 'immature'.
Perhaps we experience this as a tension between lust and love.
Thru years of personal growth, we have become adults.
And we want our loving relationships to express our self-created selves.
But 'our bodies' may still be responding like teen-agers.
(Our sex-scripts may contain sexual responses
that seem to belong to an earlier phase of our lives.)
If we make our sex-scripts explicit to ourselves and each other,
we may be able to create relationships beyond our sexual imprinting.

IX.   TRANSCENDING OUR SEX-SCRIPTS

    Perhaps we can transcend our sexual imprinting
when we create personal relationships of such depth and power
that—even tho we still have our generic sexual responses—
they pale in comparison to the interpersonal dynamics we have created.
Sex can be transformed from the quest for someone
who fits our pre-existing sexual fantasies (our generic sexual responses)
to a special sexuality
that arises only in one particular relationship.

    Much more research is needed to see if the sex-script hypothesis
will be confirmed, revised, or rejected.
The basic question will be:
Does this new model of imprinted sex-scripts
help us to understand our own sexuality?

AUTHOR:

     James Park is an existential philosopher and sexologist.
You will learn much more about him on his home page:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum ,
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/

    This cyber-sermon is based on a book-in-process to be called
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies:
A New Key for Sexology.
A synopsis and outline for each of the 11 chapters
will appear if you click the following URL:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/syn-sex.html

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who would benefit from reading about the sex-script hypothesis.
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