“He Enjoys Giving Her Pleasure”: Diversity and Complexity in Young Men’s Sexual Scripts

Abstract

Research on heterosexual men’s sexual expectations has focused on self-described personal traits and culturally dominant models of masculinity. In a pair of studies, we used a sexual scripts perspective to explore the range and diversity of young men’s thoughts about sex and relationships with women and to develop measures for assessing these scripts. In the first study, we conducted semi-structured interviews to elicit young men’s accounts of their sexual relationships. We used these narratives to produce brief sexual script scenarios describing typical sexual situations, as well as conventional survey items assessing sexual behavior themes. In the second study, we administered the scenarios and theme items to an ethnically diverse, national sample of 648 heterosexually-active young men in an online survey. Using exploratory factor analysis, we delineated sets of sexual scripts and sexual behavior themes. In the scenarios, we found both a traditional masculine “player” script and a script that emphasized mutual sexual pleasure. Analysis of theme items produced scales of Drinking and Courtship, Monogamy and Emotion, and Sexual Focus and Variety. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding heterosexual men’s thinking about sexuality and how cultural change in sexual thinking may arise. We also discuss the need for measures of sexual thinking that better integrate perceptions and expectations about the partner as well as the self in relation to the partner, rather than solely self-assessed traits.

A Latent Class Analysis of Heterosexual Young Men’s Masculinities

“…The scale score was calculated as a mean; alpha was .81. Next, men’s endorsement of three different sexual scripts (men’s ideas about how sexual relationships and encounters are or should be) was assessed with measures we developed in previous research (Morrison et al, 2015). All scores were computed as means.…”

Condoms and Contexts: Profiles of Sexual Risk and Safety Among Young Heterosexually Active Men

“…The University of Washington’s Institutional Review Board approved all procedures. Other analyses based on the study’s qualitative and quantitative data have been reported elsewhere (Masters, Casey et al, 2013; Morrison, Masters, Wells, Casey, Beadnell, & Hoppe, in press). …”

Correlates of Young Men's Intention to Discuss Birth Control with Female Partners

“…We assessed men's responses to the traditional masculinity and sex‐positive woman sexual scripts, using the scenario method presented by Morrison et al Men were presented with eight brief scenarios representing the former and three representing the latter. For each scenario, we asked “How desirable is this situation for you?” Response options were rated with scores from 0 (very undesirable) to 4 (very desirable).…”

“…One alternative sexual script speaks to men's ideas about female sexuality and the traditional feminine sexual script described above. Referred to as the “sex‐positive woman” script, it involves men's appreciation of and attraction to women who express desire toward men, sexual pleasure as a goal for people of both genders and relationships that are emotional as well as physical . A script like this one, which is more attentive to women's desire, but also more gender‐equitable overall, may also be consistent with a greater willingness of men to proactively discuss birth control methods other than condoms.…”

“…However, scripts that offer alternative models for sexuality have also been identified and are being studied both qualitatively and quantitatively . One alternative sexual script speaks to men's ideas about female sexuality and the traditional feminine sexual script described above.…”