Sexual script theory is asociological theory that states thatsexual behavior is socially scripted, meaning that individuals followsocial norms that inform their actions and perceptions. Under sexual script theory, different individuals—such as men and women—are assumed to have different expected roles in sexual situations, and to act in alignment with their expected roles.
The termsexual script refers to the social guidelines that dictate, similar to how the script of a play dictates to an actor, how individuals should understand sexual situations, and how they should act in those situations. Individuals may agree or disagree with sexual scripts. Among other influences, these guidelines are shaped by thelaw,stereotypes (especiallygender stereotypes), and media includingpornography.
Based insocial constructionism, sexual script theory was first developed by American sociologistsJohn H. Gagnon andWilliam Simon in their 1973 bookSexual Conduct. Research on sexual script theory has found that major sexual scripts aregendered, and often especially pertain toadolescents andyoung adults. Research has also found that sexual scripts can be used to understand issues related tosexual health andconsent.
Scripts are social functions that guide individuals' actions and perceptions regarding appropriate behavior.[3][1] The script is a cognitiveschema that instructs people how to understand and act in sexual situations. There may be several people in the same situation, but they may differ in the roles that they have been given or have chosen to enact.[3] Sexual scripts dictate what one should be doing at a particular time and in a particular place, if one is to play the role characteristically associated with that script.[3][1] Sexual script theory is founded on the idea that the subjective understandings of each person about their own sexuality substantively determine that person's choice of sexual actions and their subsequent qualitative experience of those sexual acts.[3]
Sexual script theory is based insocial constructionism, which posits that "the interpretation of reality, including human behavior, is derived from shared beliefs within a particular social group".[4][3] In turn, sexual script theory posits that "sexuality is learned from culturally available messages that set guidelines regarding sexual behavior and activities",[5] and that "people learn scripts as a function of being raised in a particular culture".[1]Human sexual behavior and the meanings attached to those behaviors, includingwhat makes them "sexual" behaviors, derives from metaphorical scripts individuals have learned and incorporated as a function of their involvement in the social group.[4]
Gagnon and Simon, who originated sexual script theory, state that "for behavior to occur, something resembling scripting must occur on three distinct levels: cultural scenarios, interpersonal scripts, and intrapsychic scripts."[4] Cultural scenarios, shaped by culturalinstitutions, provide context for roles.[4] Interpersonal scripts "rest on the roles and general circumstances provided by cultural scenarios"; individuals' interpersonal scripts are created by adapting general cultural guidelines.[4] Intrapsychic scripts "may entail specific plans or strategies for carrying out interpersonal scripts", including "fantasies, memories, and mental rehearsals".[4]
Sexual scripts are shaped by the structure and rules of asociety, includingmarriage laws,vows, andlaws against certain sexual behaviors or relationships.[1] In mostWestern cultures, sexual scripts are "markedly different" for male and female individuals.[1]
Sexual script theory was introduced by American sociologistsJohn H. Gagnon andWilliam Simon in their 1973 bookSexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality. The theory emerged as a "logical extension" ofsymbolic interactionism, which "focuses on how meaning is created, modified, and put into action by individuals in the process of social interaction."[4] Gagnon and Simon's work was also preceded by that of sociologistErving Goffman, who had useddramaturgy to liken human social interaction to the performance of assumed roles in a theatrical production.[4] Simon and Gagnon were also preceded by sex researchersAlfred Kinsey, andWillam Masters and Virginia Johnson.[4]
At the theory's creation, Simon and Gagnon noted that "their perspective was a reaction to the dominant theoretical views of human sexuality at the time:psychoanalytic and biological".[4] Dominant perspectives had dictated that sexual behavior was determined by instincts or drives, and inherently tied tohuman biology.[4]Sigmund Freud had established his psychoanalytic theory towards life and procreation (libido).[4] Freudian psychoanalytic perspectives on sexuality continued to be influential even as biological perspectives were popularized.[4]
Sexual script theory came about during the rise ofsocial constructionism in the 1960s and 1970s, a time in which researchers felt cultural events called into questionessentialist perspectives.[4] Simon and Gagnon considered sexual scripts as interwoven withgender scripts, which had been developed infeminist scholarship around that time.[4]
Research on sexual scripts and sexual script theory has concluded that sexual scripts are organized through gender, class, ethnicity, and other social vectors.[6]
Research on sexual scripts and sexual script theory has concluded that sexual scripts are gendered.[1]Gender scripts, undergender schema theory, "possess a gender-role component defining which sex typically performs [an event sequence]".[7] In Western cultures, sexual scripts for women and men differ, often complementing one another.[1] These differences are often considered adouble standard.[8] Gendered sexual scripts are exhibited inmainstream media, and they especially affect adolescents and young adults.[9]
Traditionalgender stereotypes, which inform sexual scripts, "associate maleness and masculinity with assertiveness, aggressiveness, sexual adventurism, and emotional restraint, and femaleness and femininity with docility, passivity, sexual modesty, and emotional intimacy".[2] For example, inheterosexual relationships, it is customary for the male to present greater initial enthusiasm for sex.[1] Due to social norms, as well as stereotypes aboutmale sexuality, a man may fear that his masculinity, sexual prowess, and fertility may be questioned if he does not exhibit sexual passion early in the relationship.[1] Conversely, a woman may be cautious about expressing sexual enthusiasm early in a relationship due to related social norms and stereotypes aboutfemale sexuality.[1]
Among young men, "sexual activity is goal directed (toward self-pleasure and tension release) and easily divorced from the more general relationship to one’s partner", while this activity for women is viewed as "potentially dangerous" to one's body and reputation.[1] Gender scripts may also affectproduct design, such as in the development of different types ofrazors for men and women.[10]
For sexual scripts, major cultural scenarios tend to be almost exclusively related toadolescence andearly adulthood. Common scripts relate to and may vary by age, with adolescence and early adulthood being the stages in which "individuals develop and refine their interpersonal and intrapsychic sexual scripts".[4] Fewer sexual scripts are associated with other life stages; "sexually significant events" are rarely associated with those in thechildhood ("presexual") orold-age ("postsexual") stages.[4]
Children tend to have a better understanding of their own sex's scripts and characteristics than those of another sex.[7] From an early age, men are often raised to embrace their sexuality, while women are usually encouraged to suppress it.[11] While young boys are taught to hold theirpenis to urinate and to handle it for purposes of washing, girls are taught not to touch theirclitoris.[1]
Therape script is defined as stereotypes or false beliefs aboutrape, its victims, and rapists.[12]Rape stereotypes are heavily influenced by religion, law, and the media.[12] The rape script may describe rape as a violent act done to a woman by a malestranger.[12] Victims of rape may look to the rape script to determine whether they have experienced rape.[12] These scripts may lead tovictim-blaming, especially for "women and girls who do not follow society’s traditional gender scripts, such as those who drink alcohol and/or who aresex workers".[13]
Women who agree with the sexual script may learn to suppress their sexual desires and begin viewing themselves assexual objects; men who agree are more likely to agree with rape myths and the objectification of women.[8][better source needed] They are also more likely to believe in "token resistance", the idea that women who say "no", really mean "yes".[8][14]
Drawing uponconversation analysis, Hannah Frith andCelia Kitzinger write that discussion of sexual encounters may be considered scripted if the speaker uses any of these five linguistic devices: references to predictable stages, references tocommon knowledge, production of consensus through seamlessturn-taking and collaborative talk, use of hypothetical and general instances, oractive voicing.[6] By referencing sexual scripts in this way, "young women present the difficulty of saying no to unwanted sex as normatively difficult—as a commonplace, ordinary problem—such that they cannot be held accountable for their own specific difficulties, nor can negative dispositional attributes be made on that basis."[6]
Sexual scripts influencesexual health decisions, such as the use ofcondoms.[15] Women who abide by sexual scripts that promote women's submission may "lack the assertiveness skills needed to initiate purchasing condoms, providing condoms, and enforcing condom use".[15] In heterosexual encounters, a prominent script dictates that men are responsible for the provision of condoms.[15] This script, in addition to one that dictates that "women who suggest or carry condoms arepromiscuous", discourages women from carrying or suggesting condoms.[15] However, women are not necessarily evaluated more harshly than men when enforcing condom use.[16]
Amongmen who have sex with men, there are sexual scripts regarding gender roles fortops and bottoms. Tops (those penetrating) are stereotypically associated with masculinity, while bottoms (those receiving penetration) are stereotypically associated with femininity.[17] Issues with condom negotiation are related to unequal gendered power dynamics, with tops being more likely to dictate condom usage.[17] Among young Black men in theDeep South of the United States, a sexual script assignstrade men ("typically masculine-looking men who have sex with both men and women") as more "risky" regardingHIV transmission, as they may avoidsafe sex practices such as condom use.[17]
Pornography usually includes sexual scripts supportive of traditional masculinity, portraying men as sexually powerful, controlling, aggressive, and dominant.[18][19] Pornography consumption leads to more sexual open-mindedness and a non-judgmental outlook on sexual behavior such aspremarital sex,one-night stands, havingmultiple sex partners, andcasual sex.[19][18] This is especially true for male consumers of pornography.[18]
Sexual media influences scripts as it can "provide consumers with scripts they were unaware of [...],prime scripts they were already aware of [...] and encourage the utilization of scripts by portraying particular sexual behaviors or general patterns of sexual behavior as normative, appropriate, and rewarding".[20] Scripts in pornography can also designate "(1) what constitutes a sexual encounter, (2) what types of people should participate in a sexual encounter, (3) what events should or should not occur during a sexual encounter, (4) what verbal and nonverbal responses may be expected during an encounter, and (5) what possible consequences may occur when engaging in particular sexual scenarios."[19]
American writerRictor Norton writes that sexual script theory is an "inadequate tool for understanding sexuality", as he believes society is not the driving the force in understanding sexuality, and that sexuality comes from an individual's own desires and morals.[21] Norton writes, "thisbehaviorist model is even moredeterminist than the biological model, which suggests that erotic desire is a powerful motive force arising from within, which has the capacity of resisting the social forces that would attempt to restrain or redirect it."[21]
Legal scholar David Gurnham writes that the traditional heterosexual sexual script limits a woman's agency.[22] He states that "consent-giving according to the traditional script presupposes a more passive role for women, with the consequent implication that males may feel that their scripted role entitles them to use deceptive or coercive means", and that this issue renders consent "invalid or at the very least severely compromised".[22]