Gender and Reactions to a Hypothetical Relationship Partner's Masturbation and Use of Sexually Explicit Media - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Sex Research, May, 2000 by Christina A. Clark, Michael W. Wiederman

A large body of research literature supports the conclusion that, at least with regard to some aspects of sexuality, there are marked gender differences (Oliver & Hyde, 1993). For example, previous research has indicated that men generally have more positive behavioral and affective responses to sexually explicit materials than do women (Kelley, Byrne, Greendlinger, & Murnen, 1997; Lopez & George, 1995; Lottes, Weinberg, & Weller, 1992; Padgett, Brislin-Slutz, & Neal, 1989). Similarly, compared to women, men are more likely to engage in masturbatory activity and to do so with greater frequency (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994; Leitenberg, Deitzer, & Srebnik, 1993; Oliver & Hyde, 1993). Why would such gender discrepancies exist?

Some researchers suggest that the process of socialization provides gender-specific cues as to what constitutes sexually appropriate behavior. More to the point, DeLamater and Hyde (1998) noted that sexuality, and what is considered sexually appropriate behavior, are created by culture and that people are socialized into acting in socially appropriate ways by learning the scripts relevant for specific behaviors. In the current research, we use Script Theory to predict and explain certain perceptions about a hypothetical partner's solitary masturbation and use of sexually explicit media.

Script Theory and Socialization

Social scripts are used by individuals to help organize life events. They are internalized as individuals attempt to gain a sense of their world and assimilate new incoming information (Weis, 1998). In addition to personal experience, cultural aspects such as one's social class, ethnicity, and religious affiliation become important factors in the script internalization process (Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Weis, 1998). Laumann and Gagnon (1995) also suggested that other factors such as the legal system, the field of medicine, and the mass media influence social scripts. This may be particularly true with scripts concerning sexuality.

Script theories concerning sexuality generally include four assumptions (Laumann & Gagnon, 1995):

1. Patterns of sexual conduct in a culture are derived from what is important in that specific society.

2. There is no natural or instinctive sexual knowledge.

3. Through the socialization process individuals acquire the culturally appropriate sexual responses including those that may not coincide with cultural norms.

4. People are not unchanged by the socialization process and, as time passes, the individual tends to make specific, personal adaptations to that which they were originally presented.

Given these assumptions, individuals learn the socially proscribed scripts for with whom they should have sexual contact, when they should have it, where they should have this contact, what they should be doing as part of their sexual experience, and why they should perform or engage in certain sexual behaviors (Laumann & Gagnon, 1995). Additionally, Mosher and MacIan (1994) have described a sexual script as "the set of rules for ordering information in a connected and psychologically magnified family of sexual scenes to predict and produce, to interpret and understand, to direct and defend, and to justify and evaluate the happenings in any ongoing, imagined, or past sexual scene" (p. 101).

Sprenkle and Weis (1978) noted that scripts also exist for with whom one should not engage in sexual activity (i.e., someone other than one's regular partner). In their research, Sprenkle and Weis delineated two scripts concerning extradyadic sexual activity. One script was a general directive not to engage in sexual activity outside the primary dyad. The researchers stated that this prohibitive script, which developed around several social messages, involved the collective belief that extradyadic sexual activity is immoral or immature (Bell, Turner, & Rosen, 1975; Neubeck, 1969) and extradyadic sexual activity is an indicator of problems within the primary relationship (Bell et al., 1975; Johnson, 1970). The second script suggests that all extradyadic behavior is to be carried out in secrecy and that the partner of the individual engaging in extradyadic activity should react to the situation in a negative fashion by feeling jealous, hurt, or rejected (Sprenkle & Weis, 1978). While Sprenkle and Weis focused on extradyadic sexual intercourse, they suggested that the definition of extradyadic sexual activity does not necessarily have to revolve strictly around penile-vaginal intercourse. Extradyadic sexuality could include other activities, although they did not elaborate on all possible derivations of this theme. To our knowledge, previous research has not considered how individuals would respond to other forms of extradyadic sexuality such as partner solitary masturbation or partner solitary use of sexually explicit media. Based on socially prohibitive scripts regarding extradyadic sexual intercourse, we expected that these other extradyadic sexual activities would also be evaluated negatively by individuals whose partner was engaging in them.