Abstract
(Hetero)sexual double standards (SDS) entail that different sexual behaviors are appropriate for men and women. There is large variation in whether people endorse SDS in their expectations about the sexual behavior of women and men (i.e., SDS-norms). To explain these individual differences, we examined associations between SDS-norms of Dutch adolescents (aged 16–20 years, N = 566) and what parents, peers, and the media teach adolescents about appropriate sexual behavior of boys and girls (i.e., SDS-socialization). Adolescents completed an online survey at school. Regarding SDS-socialization, more traditional SDS-norms conveyed by the media and peers, but not of parents, and less perceived sexual activity of female peers, were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. Only for boys, exposure to sexy girls/women on social media and sexual music videos of female artists were associated with more traditional SDS-norms. Thus, SDS-socialization by peers and the media and opposite gender models (for boys) are important in light of adolescents’ SDS-norms.
Highlights
Women and men are often held to different standards of appropriate behavior (Foschi, 2000; Prentice & Carranza, 2002)
Other studies find evidence for opposite-gender modelling, with girls’ sexual attitudes being associated with viewing sexualized music videos of male artists (Van Oosten et al, 2015b). Because of these inconclusive gender-specific findings, we examined in a explorative way whether and how adolescent gender moderates the associations between sexual double standard (SDS)-norms and SDS-socialization conveyed by models in the media and male and female peers
More parental sexual media restrictions were associated with adolescents watching more sexualized music videos of both male and female artists, but less exposure to porn and sexualized girls and women on social media
Summary
Women and men are often held to different standards of appropriate behavior (Foschi, 2000; Prentice & Carranza, 2002). A well-known example is the (hetero) sexual double standard (SDS), in which different sexual behaviors are expected of, and valued for, men and women (Emmerink et al, 2016; Zaikman & Marks, 2017). Men/boys are expected to be sexually active, dominant, and the initiator of (hetero) sexual activity, whereas women/girls are expected to be sexually reactive, submissive, and passive. Concepts related to SDS-norms, such as gender role adherence in intimate relations (Sanchez et al, 2012) and women’s association of sex with submission (Kiefer et al, 2006) appear to be related to women’s lower sexual pleasure and greater difficulty achieving orgasms compared to men. Traditional SDSnorms have been related to other societal problems, such as homophobia, sexism, and gender inequality (Zaikman & Marks, 2014; Zaikman et al, 2016)
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