The Evolution of the Meaning of Sexuality

A multidisciplinary approach is required to investigate the multiple components of human sexuality and its evolution in our species. It is well documented that originally sexuality was focused on reproduction: males selected mates that, because of youth and physical appearance, provided the best chances to pass on their genes, perpetuating their lineage. Females, on the other hand, selected the mate that, because of strength and status, offered the best protection and means of survival for themselves and their offspring. This scenario has now been challenged, but it remains, by and large, the most plausible. Focus on reproduction, however did not exclude other important meanings in sexual relationships since the appearance of the genus homo; indeed, non-conceptive copulations were a constant aspect of human sexuality and the almost unique characteristic of our species, a female continuously accessible to her male, set the stage for a trend towards monogamy and created the substrate for closed families. This classic picture of sexuality for reproduction and bonding between mating partners, together with important recreational aspects probably lasted for hundreds of thousands year, until – during the XX century – humanity experienced the first sexual revolution: sex without reproduction; this majo