In the DSMV (2013), the words sex and sexual refer to the biological indicators of male

and female or having the capacity to reproduce. Gender assignme (natal gender) refers
to the initial assignment as male or female which usually occurs at birth. Gender
reassignment denotes an official and usually legal change of gender. While gender
identity is a category of social identity that refers to an individual's identification as
male, female or some category other Ihan male or female. It is a person's subjective
sense of being a man or woman Masculine refers to the qualities and behaviours
judged by a particular culture be ideally associated with or especially appropriate to
men and boys whereas feminine can be described as qualities and behaviours judged
by a particular culture to be ideally associated with or especially appropriate to women
and girls. There are also those who have both masculine and feminine traits, feelings
and qualities. They are referred to as androgyny. Asexuals are the persons who do not
experience sexual drives or attraction to either sex while hypersexual are persons with
an excessive interest in sex to the point where it can cause problems in one's life
(Rosenthal, 2013).
Attraction is a characteristic that causes pleasure or interest by appealing to a person's desires
or tastes, and causes one to be drawn to the other. Human societies greatly value physical
beauty. A desire for beauty lies within the brain. In a research conducted by Langlois, et al.,
(1987), even infants who are not yet exposed to cultural standards of beauty will show a
preference for beautiful faces. When 2 - 8 month old infants were shown pictures of women's
faces that had been previously rated for their attractiveness, the infants spent more me
looking at the faces of the ones which are rated to be more attractive in another study, adult
subjects were asked to rate the attractiveness of flashed images of faces within 13
milliseconds. Though many of the participants reported that they only guessed their
responses, it showed that they were able rate the attractiveness of the faces which means
that images of beauty are processed automatically in the brain (Olson and Marshuetz, 2005 in
Rosenthal 2013).

Criteria of beauty are subjective and vary over time in different cultures. Girls of the Kayan
tribe on the border of Burma and Thailand wear brass rings around their necks as a sign of
elegance and status. As the girls grow, more rings are added, elongating their necks. Women
of the Maori tribe of New Zealand tattoo their lips and chin. A woman with full blue lips is
considered the most beautiful and desirable. In Mauritania, a country on the northwest coast
of Africa, heavier is better. Thick ankles, plump arms, stretch marks, and large buttocks are
considered among the most beautiful parts of the body. The universal hallmarks of beauty
include characteristics of symmetry, averageness, skin, hair, eyes, height, weight and age.
Most romantic relationships begin with two individuals falling in love with each other.
The singer Robert Palmer compares love with an addiction. This was verified in a study in
which 17 participants who were madly in love were asked to go to the lab and bring a
picture of their loved one. Participants were then placed in a brain Scanner fMRI
(functional magnetic resonance imaging) which measures the neural activity of the brain.
Their brain activity were recorded while they looked at the picture of their loved one. The
results revealed that when participants gazed at a photo of their beloved, regions in the
brain were activated. Those parts closely associated with the anticipation of reward and
with focused attention. This is the dopamine system in the brain which is the same
system involved in pleasure and addiction. Fisher et al., (2006) concluded that, rather
than defining love as an emotion, "being in love can be considered a strong motivation -
an addictive craving to be with the other person (Hewstone et al.,2015).

Thus, early passionate love is not an emotion in and of itself. Rather, it is best
characterized as a motivation or goal oriented state that leads to various specific
emotions, such as euphoria or anxiety. Unlike many emotions, love is not associated with
any specific facial expression, and it is focused on a single reward. The emotions
associated with love - elation, anxiety, joy, fear – may come and go. But the motivation to
be with the beloved - remains.
Why do people fall in love? From a biological perspective, there is a
part of the brain that is active when people are truly, deeply and
madly in love. The activity of the brain in the areas of positive
emotions, motivational drives and reward increases whereas brain
activities in the areas related to negative emotions, fear, aggression
and social judgement decreases. Similar reactions were seen in
couples who have been in love for 20 years. Oxytocin (for uterine
contraction, love and bonding functions) and vasopressin (for water
levels in the body, bonding and parenting behaviour) are hormones
that affect bonding. Another is the physiological reaction that
occurs when people are in love,which is not looking or giving
attention to other people of the opposite sex.