In this lesson, you reviewed information about the human sexual response, including arousal and sexual satisfaction. Advice or “tips” for amazing, mind-blowing, life-altering, and awesome sexual encounters are plentiful in the popular media, including magazine articles, websites, and blog posts.

Choose a Source of Information from the Popular Media to Critique

In this assignment, spend some time searching popular media sources for articles offering advice for increasing sexual satisfaction and/or performance. Specifically, look for sources that claim to provide ways to turn-on, arouse, or satisfy a partner. Choose one source that you will perform a critical analysis of based on the lesson material, the textbook, and your own additional research. Scholarly articles are not recommended as the focus of this critique, but may be used as references to support your analysis of the popular media source.

Complete a Written Critique of the Source

Write a 2- to 3-page critique of the source you chose that addresses the following issues:

• Accuracy: Discuss how accurate the information given in the source is in regards to sexual response.
  • Frame your critique by comparing the suggestions to at least one model of sexual response presented in the lesson (i.e. Masters’ & Johnson’s, Kaplan’s, Basson’s, Dual-Control etc.). Keeping in mind that sexual response has many components, you are also encouraged to address other issues related to accuracy that seem relevant, including physiology, emotions, context, and so on.
• Tone: Describe the tone of the article as goal/performance-oriented, relationship-oriented, any other tone you may notice and provide illustrative details to support your assessment.
• Issues of diversity: Describe the extent to which the source recognizes diversity in sexual response and orientation. For example, is there heterosexism present in the article? Does the article assume the person reading the article is sexually active with a member of another sex?
• Reinforcement of gender role stereotypes and/or sexual gender roles: What gender roles are encouraged by the article? What examples in the text can you find to support your claim?
• Mutual satisfaction: Critique the article’s effectiveness in addressing and encouraging the satisfaction of both sexual partners.
• Reflection & Opinion: Describe your personal reaction to and reflection upon the article and any sexual suggestions given. Provide an explanation of why you feel the way you do.

Written Response and Paper Format Directions

• Prepare your response in a word-processing document.
• Your complete written assignment should be a minimum of around 2 single-spaced pages (1-inch page margins and 12-point font), excluding your reference list, name, and title; there is no maximum page requirement.
• Cite ALL references as appropriate using in-text citations as appropriate and include a reference list at the end of your written summary. This includes any of the instructional material included in this lesson or the course. All answers and conclusions must be supported, as appropriate, with evidence and resources/citations using APA. Reference the Writing Resources for assistance.

Submission

You must submit your paper to Turnitin, using this drop box. Please be aware that your paper will be checked for plagiarism through Turnitin. Thus, make sure everything is in your own words and that anything you paraphrase has been paraphrased appropriately. Make sure that you submit the correct file(s). Contact the HelpDesk or your instructor if you have questions.