Abstract
Simon and Gagnon’s sexual script theory identifies multi-tiered influences which shape individual ideas about sexual relationships. The cultural celebration of heterosexuality as the accepted standard dominates major social institutions, and permeates cultural sexual messages. The reception of these heteronormative messages influences the formation of individualized sexual scripts; however, how individuals apply these individualized scripts to understanding the sexual lives of others is little understood. More specifically, what are the effects of heteronormative sexual scripting for imagining a sexual scenario not marked by a male-female partnership? This study asked a sample of heterosexual, bisexual and non-identified college students at a four-year private institution in the northeastern United States to define lesbian sex. Results suggest the influence of culturally heteronormative sexual messages for orienting one’s initial understanding of what sex is, though participants described various levels of acceptance, rejection and/or revision of these messages as they formed their own scripts. However, when asked to define lesbian sex, participants drew from the more rigid heteronormative cultural script to form their definitions. The association of lesbian sex with vaginal penetration by a phallic substitute, such as a dildo, affirmed the overarching influence of the heterosexual, male-centric sexual standard for shaping the individual sexual imaginary.
Highlights
American attitudes toward sex in the twenty-first century appear, on their face, more liberalized than ever
How is individual-level understanding and construction of meaning around what sex is, to include how it is performed and for what purpose(s), applied to understanding the sexual practices of others? And, what can the application of individual scripts for imagining sex beyond the standard male–female partnership reveal about the limits of dominant heteronormative sexual scripting? Using an in-depth semi-structured interviewing, this exploratory study sought to capture the effects of heteronormativity for young adult development of sexual scripts and subsequent understanding of non-heterosexual sex by asking a sample of heterosexual, bisexual, and non-identified college students to define and describe sex between two women
This study was initially conceived in response to a gap in the literature, how the transmission of heteronormative sexual scripts inform individual conceptualization of relationships not marked by a heterosexual partnership
Summary
American attitudes toward sex in the twenty-first century appear, on their face, more liberalized than ever. Using an in-depth semi-structured interviewing, this exploratory study sought to capture the effects of heteronormativity for young adult development of sexual scripts and subsequent understanding of non-heterosexual sex by asking a sample of heterosexual, bisexual, and non-identified college students to define and describe sex between two women. Presenting these participants with a sexual scenario absent the culturally privileged male body challenges the dyadic heterosexual framework, which governs socialization to sex and which may limit the imagined possibilities for sex outside this normative framework
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