Actual versus desired initiation patterns among a sample of college men: Tapping disjunctures within traditional male sexual scripts

Abstract

Research on men's sexual scripts has tended to overlook that some men do not endorse traditional scripts or that one or both members of a couple might desire a departure from culturally dominant sexual scripts. This study used in-depth interviews with 32 college-aged men from a community college in New York City to examine disjunctures between current and desired sexual initiation patterns. Results show that although men currently practice male-dominated patterns of sexual initiation, many men desire egalitarian patterns of initiation. Men offered clear preference to be an object of desire to their female partners, deployed narratives of wanting to share the "labor" of sexual initiation, and expressed ideologies of sexual egalitarianism. We consider how shifting terrains of gender relations in contemporary U.S. culture may shape masculinities and sexual scripts. We also consider how an examination of disjunctures between current and desired practices might be useful to HIV researchers interested in interviewing across multiple levels of the sexual script.

Sexual Scripts of Women: A Longitudinal Analysis of Participants in a Gender-Specific HIV/STD Prevention Intervention

“…The level of analysis is vital to delineate and consider (intraspychic, interpersonal, cultural). Currently, the cultural realm of sexual scripts is studied more commonly than either interpersonal or in-trapsychic scripts (Dworkin & O'Sullivan, 2005;Whittier & Melendez, 2004). In this particular intervention, questions about scripts were written to be centrally focused on the intrapsychic realm, which was defined as the motivational elements that produce commitments to a particular action sequence, including desires and fantasies.…”

“…There is some suggestion that sexual scripts may be changing in contemporary U.S. culture for both heterosexual men and women (Dworkin & O'Sullivan, 2005; Ortiz-Torres, Williams, & Ehrhardt, 2003;Seal & Ehrhardt, 2003;Segal, 1995). Research has underscored how men do not simply view sex as a conquest but also seek emotionality, commitment, and love through sex, although this may be dependent on whether partners are casual or committed (Seal & Ehrhardt, 2003;Seal, Wagner-Raphael, & Ehrhardt, 2000;Segal, 1997).…”

“…Other work emphasizes how women have moved beyond passivity or responsiveness to men's sexual advances to include their own initiation and pleasure-seeking, persuading reluctant male partners to have sex, and experiencing success at negotiating safer sex (Anderson & Aymami, 1993;Anderson & Sorensen, 1996;Exner et al, 2003;Kamen, 2003;O'Sullivan & Byers, 1993. Recently, research has also underscored how experiences with rigid definitions of gender in heterosexual relationships can, at least in part, translate into the desire to move away from traditional scripts (Dworkin & O'Sullivan, 2005;OrtizTorres et al, 2003). Moving away from dominant cultural scripts may not only be rewarding at the individual or interpersonal level, but might also have important health implications given the ways in which overconformity to traditional gender norms has been found to be associated with HIV risk (Campbell, 1995(Campbell, , 1999Ortiz-Torres et al, 2003;Seal & Ehrhardt, 2003;Seal et al, 2000).…”

The Role of Sexual Scripts in Sexual Aggression and Victimization

“…Past research on cognitive scripts and, more specifically, sexual scripts has focused on the consensual nature of scripts as generally shared representations of events (e.g., Alksnis, Desmarais, & Wood, 1996;Dworkin & O'Sullivan, 2005;Lenton & Bryan, 2005;Littleton & Axsom, 2003;Rose & Frieze, 1993). However, participating in the socially shared representation of prototypical elements of sexual encounters does not mean accepting it as a guideline for one's own sexual behavior.…”

Predictors of Sexual Scripts Among Young, Sexually-Active, Substance- Using African American Women

“…To date, these concepts have not been considered in the guiding theoretical framework of HIV prevention interventions with YSSAAW [72]. Historically, researchers have explored varied types of sexual scripts [49,54,55,57,59,[72][73][74][75][76][77]. Most recently, US-based research related to sexual scripts explored gender and sexual behavior among adolescents and college students [78,79], stigma associated with being sexually inexperienced [80], sexual scripts that tolerate sexual coercion among college students and nonconsensual sex/rape among AA and White adolescent and college women [81][82][83], hip hop media as a powerful mechanism promoting saliency of sexual scripts for AA women [84] and most related to this study was a qualitative study assessing the effects of sexual victimization history of undergraduate women on hypothetical sexual script characteristics [85].…”