Although both men and women are viewed as emotional and sexual beings, women in the end are viewed as emotionally ruled, as Alyssa finds love with a guy not because of his sex but because of their connection, and men are ruled by sex, whereas Holden ruins his relationship because he is insecure about his masculinity and sexual experience. Alyssa found her moral standards based on her inner self instead of society and she was criticized because of this. Sexuality is rewarded or punished in society because of this. Sexuality is rewarded or punished in society because it exists in a context, as for Alyssa with a loss of reputation as respectable woman (Rubin). Her experienced past is unexpected and not accepted while men are expected to have this experience to be real men. This is the reason why Holden is unable to deal with his girlfriend having more diverse sexual experiences than he. There are also some similarities with the way lesbians treat Alyssa and the rest of society. Alyssa is evaluated by her friends as non-gender because she is now in love with the dreaded male. These seemingly feminist women are supposed to want the best for her regardless if she is happy with a man but they are too involved in the stereotype to do this. Alyssa follows Richs law that sexual identity can potentially change throughout life yet Alyssa is compelled by both homosexuality and heterosexuality to follow societys norms of each (Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence). Alyssas continuum causes her discomfort as well because as people change, their whole world is "put into upheaval and things she did once did are not of the same person as she is now or what people expect. Lesbians put the same pressure on Alyssa to conform to their group norms as society does for people to be heterosexual. We see the movies position on other connected issues about sexuality as well. We see some of the stereotypical definitions disregarded in this m...
