User:Pumpkiinss03/Sexual script theory

Sexual Script Theory
Sexual Script Theory was introduced by sociologists John H. Gagnon and William Simon in their 1973 book Sexual Conduct. Its basic principle states that all social behavior, including sexual behavior, is socially scripted. it is a cognitive schema that instruct people how to understand and act in sexual situations. A key learning factor in understanding sexual script theory is social constructionism, which is, "the interpretation of reality, including human behavior, is derived from shared beliefs within a particular social group." In regard to sexual human behavior, the meanings attached to those behaviors, including what makes them “sexual” behaviors, derives from metaphorical scripts individuals have learned and incorporated as a function of their involvement in the social group. According to Gagnon and Simon, “Scripts are involved in learning the meaning of internal states, organizing the sequencing of specifically sexual acts, decoding novel situations, setting the limits on sexual responses and linking meanings from nonsexual aspects of life to specifically sexual experience.” Gagnon and Simon layer sexual script theory in three levels, they state, "scripts are a metaphor for conceptualizing behavior within social life. Most of social life most of the time must operate under the guidance of an operating syntax, much as language is a precondition for speech. For behavior to occur, something resembling scripting must occur on three distinct levels: cultural scenarios, interpersonal scripts, and intrapsychic scripts."


 * Cultural Scenarios - provide the context for roles, and contain institutional arrangements and symbols that comprise collective life. Cultural institutions such as government, law, education, and religion can influence as they are experienced on a daily basis.
 * Interpersonal Scripts- rest on the roles and general circumstances provided by cultural scenarios, yet they entail adaptation to the particulars of each situation. Accordingly, each social actor helps create interpersonal scripts by adapting the general guidelines he or she learned from his or her experiences in the culture to the specifics presented in each social encounter.


 * Intrapsychic scripts- creates fantasy in the rich sense of that word: the symbolic reorganization of reality in ways to more fully realize the actor’s many-layered and sometimes multivoiced wishes.

Gagnon and Simon also note that the most prominent and affected have "age requirements" such as “You cannot engage in X until you are Y years of age,” or “By age Y you must have done X.” Gagnon and Simon further elaborate by stating,

"Common scripts themselves may have variants based on the relative ages of the actors, or at least the actors within a particular script are evaluated differently based on their respective ages. Adolescence and early adulthood are the most troubling stages for individuals and for the culture to which such individuals belong; it is during these stages that individuals are developing and refining their interpersonal and intrapsychic sexual scripts. “The major cultural scenarios that shape the most common interpersonal scripts tend to be almost exclusively drawn from the requirements of adolescence and early adulthood. There are virtually none tied to the issues of subsequent segments of life.”

Simon and Gagnon also note the extreme ends of the lifecycle might be that of as the presexual (childhood) and the postsexual (old age), at least in terms of predominant, shared scripts. They go on to explain, “Not that sexually significant events do not occur during these periods, but they are not or only rarely anticipated in prevailing cultural scenarios dealing with the very young and the very old."

Sexual Scripts Theory History
While Simon and Gagnon's sexual script theory is novel and has withstood since its release, they were not the first to suggest society influences human behavior and human sexual behavior. According to author Micheal Wiederman, "sexual script theory is a logical extension of symbolic interactionism, a term coined by sociologist Herbert Blumer in the 1930s based on the work of his mentor, sociologist George Herbert Mead who stated, “Symbolic interactionism focuses on how meaning is created, modified, and put into action by individuals in the process of social interaction." At the time of its 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." In addition, Simon and Gagnon were not the first to employ the script metaphor to social interactions, sociologist Erving Goffman presented dramaturgy as a sociological perspective, likening human social interaction to performance of assumed roles in a theatrical production.

Before Simon and Gagon's theory, the dominant perspectives of sexual behavior had already been determined, by instincts or drives, inherently tied to human biology. Sigmund Freud had establsihed his psychoanalytic theory towards life and procreation called Libido, that may find natural and healthy expression or may be distorted into psychopathology. Freudian psychoanalytic perspectives on sexuality continued to hold sway even as biological perspectives rose to attention. Other prominent researchers such as Alfred Kinsey, and Willam Masters and Virginia Johnson, had published articles on human behavior and sexual behavior long before Simon and Gagnon. Alfred Kinsey catalogued sexual behaviors of respondents and plotted them against such variables as age, sex, and social class. While Willam Masters and Virginia Johnson focused their research and therapy on bodily response to sexual stimuli; work based on the assumption that there is universal, and therefore natural, sexual functioning. Simon and Gagnon's sexual script theory seemed to have come at a time where a number of researchers in the 1960s and 1970s were appealed by the social constructionism approach because many cultural events during that time, called into question essentialist perspectives that had been taken for granted previously. In addition, Simon and Gagnon considered sexual scripts as explicitly interwoven with gender scripts, and feminist movements at the time were calling into question assumptions about male and female, and the extent to which these assumptions were inevitable versus products of culture and socialization. Their theory came at a significant time in history with vast cultural changes in the United States.

Paul Wright's 3AM Model
Paul Wright's 3AM theoretical framework is another method that has been used in many research regarding sexual scripts and pornography.

Wright's has developed a "sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual socialization that explains how consumption of sexual media can impact attitudes and behaviors." Through the socially constructed scripts that guide what is behaviorally acceptable or unacceptable in human behavior, sexual media influence occurs through the provision of scripts. According to the 3AM, "sexual media can provide consumers with scripts they were unaware of (acquisition), prime scripts they were already aware of (activation), and encourage the utilization of scripts by portraying particular sexual behaviors or general patterns of sexual behavior as normative, appropriate, and rewarding (application)."

Sexual Health Scripts
Sexual scripts influence sexual health decisions for all sexually active people. As previously mentioned, sexual scripts are the socially constructed guidelines to human sexual behavior. According to psychology scholar Lindsey L. Ross-Bailey, "women may abide by the sexual script that, “Women must maintain a feminine role by being submissive to male partners.” Women who endorse this sexual script may lack the assertiveness skills needed to initiate purchasing condoms, providing condoms, and enforcing condom use." The sexual script of "Men should be responsible for providing the condoms during sex", reigns prominent in heterosexual sexual encounters. Woman who believe this sexual script are unlikely to ever carry condoms and carry a greater risk of STIs. Women who carry condoms carry the sexual script of being "promiscuous".

In the LGBTQIA community, the "bottom" and "top" terms are socially constructed sexual scripts. These terms indicate whether a person in a homosexual sexual encounter or relationship is the more "masculine" or "man" or the more "feminine" or "woman". Because of this distinction, the condom usage responsibility and all preconceived "male" sexual scripts are assumed under the "top" responsibilities.

Mediated Sexual Scripts
Sexual scripts in media have great influence over young people and adolescents. According to researcher Rebecca Ortiz, "Greater exposure to sexual media content has been associated with stronger endorsement of recreational attitudes toward sex, increased intentions to have sex, earlier sexual initiation, and even increased likelihood of adolescent pregnancy." Because a majority of young and adolescent people lack sexual experiences, they seek out media outlets to form their own expectations and ideas about sexuality and sexual behavior. However, according to Ortiz, "less is known about how, why, and which sexual portrayals affect young viewers. The proliferation of stereotypically-gendered sexual messages in the media is of particular concern because constant exposure may lead to reinforcement of such stereotypes by viewers and could negatively affect their sexual well-being." These stereotypes typically aim to further push the narrative and traditional sexual scripts of "woman being submissive to men" and "men as dominating." According to Ortiz, this is called the Heterosexual Script, "The heterosexual script includes depictions of gender inequality between heterosexual partners, where male characters are often portrayed as sexual initiators and aggressors, while female characters are passive recipients and sexual gatekeepers who prefer love and affection over sex."

Sexual scripts have distinct gender role differences and play a huge role in how people view and express themselves sexually. The female script looking typically for love and affection and waiting for the man to make the first move. While the male script are looking multiple sexual partners and praise for their sexual endeavors. According to Ortiz, this leads to the sexual double standard, "Such gender differences have been called the sexual double standard, such that men and women are subject to different “rules” of sexual behavior." Agreeing with this double standard can negatively impact both men and women. Women may learn to suppress their sexual desires and begin viewing themselves as sexual objects. Men who agree with this double standard are more likely agree with rape myths and find them justifiable as well in the objectification of women. They are also more likely to believe in "token resistance", which states that women who say "no", really mean "yes".

These gendered sexual scripts are exhibited heavily in mainstream media. There is a clear indication that people with excessive use of mainstream media who support these gendered sexual scripts are more linked to "greater psychological distress, diminished sexual agency, and more dysfunctional beliefs about relationships", this is especially true in young adults and adolescents, who have been linked to struggle individually and within their relationships.

Men's Sexual Scripts and Pornography
Men's sexual scripts and pornography often correlate because of its tendency to legitimize gendered script stereotypes. Study's have found that pornography consumptions leads to a more sexual open-mindedness and non-judgmental outlook on sexual behavior, such as premarital sex, one-night stands, having multiple sex partners, and casual sex. This is espeically true in male pornographic consumers, according to scholar Paul J. Wright

"...two recent national longitudinal studies of adults aged 45 years on average that found that present pornography consumption predicted subsequent permissive sexual attitudes and casual sex behavior. Even more relevant is an experimental study that found that showing males pornography led to more support for “the view that parties should be free to form and discontinue intimate relationships without regulations by any government”. Second, there is evidence that pornography activates sexual scripts supportive of traditional masculinity. Interrogations of pornography carried out by humanistic scholars find that pornography portrays men as sexually powerful, controlling, aggressive, and dominant."

The sexual scripts created and enforced in pornographic content creates sexually expressive and open minded views on sexual behavior, but it reinforces potentially harmful male sexual scripts. Research also suggests that sexual behavior found in pornographic content form "how people are expected to perform and react when engaging in sex."

According to scholar Farnosh Mazandarani, on-screen interactions in pornographic content is often studied and examined by scholars, but she argues that physical representations in pornographic content is vastly overlooked and a major factor in establishing sexual scripts. Mazandarani found that women in pornography are "four times more likely to be physically represented within a scene than men. When on-screen, male performers are more likely to have cameras actively move to cut them out of the shot (29% of the time) than females (4% of the time)." In fact, the framing of men's faces are sometimes entirely cut out of scenes or are made silent. These differences in physical representations can majorly impact sexual scripts and sexual expectations. According to Mazandarani, "pornography is thought to provide a common script, or formula, for (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." For many, pornography is viewed as a driving force to creating male and female sexual scripts.

Sexual Script Criticism
Writer Rictor Norton's critique of sexual scripts strongly suggests that Simon and Gagnon's sexual script theory is too restrictive. He states, "that the theory of “sexual scripts” is an inadequate tool for understanding sexuality." Norton claims that society is not the driving the force in understanding sexuality, he claims that sexuality comes from the individuals own desires and morals. According to Norton, "it seems to me that this behaviourist model is even more determinist 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."

To add to this, researcher David Gurnham's critique of sexual scripts argues that with the traditional sexual script between heterosexual men and women, it limits a woman's agency. He argues, "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 [...] render consent invalid or at the very least severely compromised." Gurnham argues that this has the potential to lead to sexual acts made to "keep the peace" in potentially abusive relationship or dangerous situations. Gurnham further elaborates by stating this acceptance of traditional sexual scripts could lead to non consensual sexual activity, "where a woman consents to sexual activity X (say, vaginal sex), which the male partner assumes to constitute tacit consent to sexual activity Y (say, anal sex), sexual attitudes research suggests that some people who affirm the traditional sexual script may not recognize any wrongdoing." He argues that traditional sexual scripts have the potential to do more harm, than good.