Sexophobia is the fear of
sexual organs or
sexual activities
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...
and, in a larger sense, the fear of sexuality. As such, it can be applied to the attitude of a person based on their educational background, personal experience, and psyche, or to general stigmatization from collective entities like religious groups, institutions and/or states.
Health
Sexophobia in the clinical talk has an effect on the way patients speak to their doctors, as it manifests itself in the communication strategies that are employed to speak about private health problems.
In that sense, the use of neutral and veiled vocabulary by doctors can discourage patients to speak openly about their sexual issues.
Otherwise, historian and sociologist
Cindy Patton has identified sexophobia as one of the main trends that characterized the development of the second phase of the
HIV epidemic
The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS ...
s in Great Britain, along with homophobia and
germophobia.
References
Sexology
Human sexuality
Prudishness
Non-sexuality
Body-related phobias
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