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Articles Youth & SexualityLecture 1:
Article 1: The consequences and determinants of traditional gender role
adherence in intimate relationships (Sanchez et al. 2012)
The traditional sexual script is that a man is dominant and that the female is submissive.
this gender roles in sexual behaviour influence the sexual behaviour at an early stage. Girls
can feel like sex just happens to them whereas boys are in charge. But there can be
problems because of this imbalance and this can lead to dissatisfaction.
Sexual script theory = the majority of sexual behaviour in heterosexual relationships tend to
follow a prescribed social script that reflects the cultural norm. the most dominant script
is that the men lead and initiate sex & the female is more submissive and follows the men.
- This script has influence on several stages of sexual encounters such as the
expectations about sex, styles of attracting, initiations, safe-sex etc.
- This script has stronger effects at different stages of the relationship. In the beginning
the script might be more prominent then when you get to know your partner.
Women and girls see themselves as more submissive & sometimes even passive, but this is
based on self-report and this can be a little biased. – men see themselves as taking on the
more powerful role.
- Based on data it is also shown that women have more unwanted sexual behaviour
and complain more. this may suggest that women are not telling there wishes.
Why engage in unwanted sexual activity?
- To preserve your relationship (women)
- Gaining or keeping a social status (men)
- To conform to the male initiator script (men)
There must be a distinguish between unwanted sexual behaviour or not being sexual
aroused until the foreplay begins. women may desire sexual activities for closeness not
for sex per se.
Some people say that while the men are initiators of the sex, the women are the restrictors.
so they can see that they don’t want sex. But in reality it is seen that women found it hard
to say the don’t want it or when it comes to making decisions about safe sex.
- It turns out that women have the feeling that they have less power in the sexual
relationship.
But not always is the traditional script followed. Over the decades it is seen that women
become more dominant as well. they initiate more sex. It can also be that this initiation
was underestimated because women express the initiation different then men.
- Women are more direct non-verbal strategies whereas men are more into indirect
nonverbal strategies.
Over the year it is shown that women are showing more assertiveness in sexual behaviour
and men show that they are also willing to give the women a part of the dominance. – so
there are more egalitarian scripts.
But… the traditional script is still very popular. But not only in sexual behaviour you see these
gender roles. also in other areas women find it harder to show agency, dominance,
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,aggression etc. Even though there are some changes, it is still the most common idea.
also because you get disapproval when you move away from the gender role.
- This leads to a vicious cycle.
Also the fear of losing a relationship or status can make people move into the gender roles.
When there is romance men and women are more likely to conform to the traditional gender
norms when they believe that doing so will make them more desirable for a prospective
partner. it kind of depends on the wishes of the partner as well.
- Women are likely to underscore on masculine domains when romance is involved
(with attractive partner), because this is conforming to the gender role.
o Women might believe that intelligent, ambitious women are not sexually
desirable.
o So by using the romantic script women may be more likely to see the man
as their provider and therefore don’t seek for power or education anymore.
So romance does motivate gender-role conformity. But why? This may have to do that
thinking about sex might prime gender conformity behaviour.
- Men who watched women on tv where more likely to show gender conform behaviour
when primed with sex.
- Sexual cognition might prime gender and self-stereotyping.
- Women primed with sex showed more submissive behaviour (they waited longer to
interrupt a phone call), then women who where not primed with sex.
What is the consequence of eroticizing inequality so the use of the traditional script?
- It takes away the freedom for the women to express themselves sexually.
- It robs the spontaneity which is needed for sexual satisfaction.
- For the women, the submissive role can be damaging because there may become
automatic links between sex and submission. This can lead to lower sexual autonomy
and sexual satisfaction. ; and this can be a problem for the partner as well.
o Sexual autonomy refers to the extent to which an individual perceives that
they are in control and can exercise choice in their sexual encounter. this is
a key factor for sexual satisfaction. – this also leads to safe-sex decisions.
But due to the script, women lose there sexual autonomy because they
are expected to be submissive.
Women therefore report more dissatisfaction, less arousel and more
inhibition.
It is shown that during the context in which women experience more traditional scripts (early
sexual encounters & short term relationships) there are also more problems, which may be
due to the traditional script.
Also the men suffer from the traditional script. They tend to become more aggressive which
suits the dominance role, but this can become problematic. – men also think that they need
assertiveness for sex.
- This also leads to the problem of thinking man and violence are connected.
o This is because men use aggression when they feel that there status is at
stake. So they might also use violence against there partner to prove there
status as a man.
Men who stay strictly to the gender roles are also more accepting of rape supportive beliefs
and also blame rape victims more then the person who did it. This is because of the
aggression link.
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,So if the scripts are so problematic, why use them? media plays an important role where
they make the women submissive and the male dominant. Because this is so eroticized, the
idea of the traditional script becomes internalized.
But still, why follow when it lowers your sexual satisfaction?
This can be due to backlash = penalties for counter stereotypical behaviour. As a kid you
were told to behave like a girl or boy and if not you could get punished. So when people grow
up, they tend to stick to these roles to avoid disapproval.
- When women express sexual interest or desire it can be stigmatized as sluts. Even if
the society doesn’t say it, women still believe that they think it. Even though there is
no evidence, still this believe of double standards exits.
They did a research with 3 conditions; bogus pipeline, anonymity and exposure. Men scored
the hights on exposure, when the results where shared with others, whereas women scored
to lowest on exposure. so people do fear backlash for their sexual behaviour when your
response would be revealed to others.
Intrapsychic reasons do also play a role. When persons tends to invest in traditional gender
roles ideals, they do it also in the sexual relationship. Personal factors also play a role.
more feminist attitudes can lead to not following the submissive role. Parental relationships
are also important. – if you have a more supportive relationship with your father, this can lead
to bigger sexual assertiveness.
Sexually submissive behaviour is NOT problematic when this submissive behaviour is
consistent with someone’s desires.
- Women report fantasies of dominant men.
- But men report kind of more dominance from women.
From a research the data showed that the submissive behaviour only lead to lower
satisfaction when it was NOT in line with the personal preferences.
- But they found that when women engaged in a dominant role and did not eroticize the
submissive role, that lead to the most sexual satisfaction.
So following gender roles might lead to satisfaction when it is consistent with what the person
wants. If it is because of pressure from the outside, it can undermine the autonomy. so the
reason underneath the sexual behaviour is very important.
For further research: sexual cognition primes gender and gender-role conformity. But it is
unclear what the psychosocial processes are underneath that. With this model they give
inspiration for further research.
For the explanation of this model see the lecture or the article.
The intervention is based on the last two point of the model:
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, 1. Shift perception from the cultural standard do counter stereotype induction. So
exposure to women in leadership positions or telling a women is strong. You will learn
the women that submissive behaviour is not the only preferable standard. It should be
focused on the behaviour aspect, not the appearance.
2. Change the perception about the other gender’s desire show that men also
want a dominant woman sometimes.
Article 2: Doing gender in sex and sex research (Vanwesenbeeck, 2009)
Gender is central to sexuality and vice versa. for this reason gender is a important subject.
- In homosexuality masculinity is linked to lesbianism whereas feminism is related to
male homosexuality.
- Other areas are: intersex, gender dysphoria, transgenderism etc.
But most of the time gender is studied in relation to men and women in heterosexuality.
this relation ship is basic and sometimes people call it heterogender = the asymmetrical
stratification of the sexes in relation to the varying institutions of patriarchal heterosexuality.
There are a number of difficulties (10) in the treatment of gender in (hetero)sex research.
1) Gender vs. sex a lot of the time people use the word gender, when instead the word
sex should be used (male/female). The word gender was introduced around 1950/1960.
Gayle Rubin came up with the sex/gender system where gender was the oppressive
result of a social production process cultural femininity and masculinity as opposed
to concrete female and male bodies, to social level, social norms etc.
But the word lost it meaning and now it simply refers to concrete men and women. So, it
reason why the word gender might be used when the word “sex” must be used, it because
there is confession if people mean sex as in male/female or sex as in sexuality.
But now gender is used with a biological determinist perspective, something it was
never intended to be. it is intended to show all the aspects of distinction and
division between male and female.
2) Gender and sexuality gender is mostly seen as determining sexuality.
Richardson says that prioritization of gender over sexuality has been dominant
throughout BUT she says that gender and sexuality are inherently co-dependent.
o The relationship between gender and sexuality is dynamic, fluid and unstable.
o The shoreline is her metaphor, where as gender = land (greater fixity) and
sea = sexuality because it is more fluid. but according to the writer of this
article, you can’t see the individual as an active agent in this metaphor while it
is.
3) Preoccupation with difference there is a preoccupation with gender/sex differences
while we should move beyond the question of the differences. We are geneigd to think
categorical. And in some cases it its very useful to do that. Especially in research it can be
necessary, or in political reasons and sometimes there a benefits in thinking in difference.
But sometimes it is worth going beyond the differences.
There are some evidence for differences.
Gender difference in the cognitive realm:
o Women are more relation oriented and partner focused whereas men are
more oriented towards the self & body.
o Men endorsed all reasons for sex more often then women.
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