Human male sexuality

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Human male sexuality encompasses a broad range of issues, behavior and processes, including male sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sex. Various aspects and dimensions of male sexuality, as a part of human sexuality, have also been addressed by principles of ethics, morality, and theology. In almost any historical era and culture, the arts, including literary and visual arts, as well as popular culture, present a substantial portion of a given society's views on human sexuality, which also include implicitly or explicitly male sexuality. In most societies and legal jurisdictions, there are legal bounds on what sexual behavior is permitted. Sexuality varies across the cultures and regions of the world, and has continually changed throughout history, and this applies equally to male sexuality. Aspects of male sexuality include issues pertaining to biological sex, body image, self-esteem, personality, sexual orientation, values and attitudes, gender roles, relationships, activity options, and communication.

Although female and male sexuality show many common features as aspects of a common human sexuality, there are clear differences between the two.

Some commonly held, possibly stereotypical, views of differences between male and female sexuality include:

although men typically desire both love and sex, they are traditionally held to be more likely to desire sex even in the absence of a loving relationship
paraphilias are more common in men than in women
men are relatively more easily aroused by visual stimuli than women, and are generally greater consumers of pornography than women
men are more likely than women to pay for sex

[edit] Homosexuality

The ancient Roman and Greek cultures generally viewed penetration as the key aspect of male sexuality. They typically did not stigmatize or distinguish homosexuality as such, rather stigmatizing the act of being sexually penetrated; to be a penetrator was to be masculine, regardless of the sex of the penetrated person.

In contrast, most modern cultures are very concerned with distinguishing homosexuality and heterosexuality, particularly male homosexuality, and traditionally tend to equate masculinity and heterosexuality, regarding homosexual men as effeminate. These views are now being challenged by more recent social tolerance, as well as increasing acceptance of homosexuality.