Sexuality refers to beliefs, practices and feelings regarding sexual behaviour. As such, it encompasses a range of sexually intimate behaviours that include masturbation, kissing, fondling, vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse, as well as related practices (e.g. masochism) and aids (e.g. aphrodisiacs). Sexuality also includes emotional reactions, fantasies and attitudes regarding these behaviours.
Many authors have argued that conceptions of sexuality are socially constructed, and cross national data generally support this position. Hofstede (1998) described two broad types of sexual cultures, although there are certainly variations within these categories. In ‘masculine’ cultures (e.g. Japan, Mexico, UK, US), sexuality research focuses on frequencies and numbers of partners; bridal chastity is emphasised (and male promiscuity is allowed, if not encouraged); sexual attitudes are moralistic (and thus have limited the availability of contraceptive information and the options for fighting AIDS); and women are positioned as sexually passive. In ‘feminine’ cultures (e.g., Sweden, Denmark, Thailand, South Korea), people place minimal importance on chastity; view premarital sex as socially acceptable; endorse a matter-of-fact attitude towards sexuality (which has allowed taboos to be set aside to address AIDS); focus research on personal feelings and interpretations of sex; view sex as relational; and position both men and women as active (vs passive). Although the constructed nature of sexual belief is apparent when making crossnational comparisons, sexuality may be understood to be natural and normal by members of a culture.
In Finland, an egalitarian perspective with a matter-of-fact approach dominates and has allowed research to focus on topics such as sexual satisfaction. Researchers have found that women and men reported nearly identical levels of pleasure from sexual intercourse, including similar rates of pleasure from the most recent intercourse. This was the result of a general increase in women’s pleasure from 1971 to 1992; men’s ratings were nearly constant across time periods. Moreover, Finnish studies of sexual satisfaction move beyond orgasm to include emotional satisfaction, the use of a variety of sexual techniques and practices, the importance partners assign to sex, the frequency of intercourse, and the use of pornographic imagery. Results indicate that each of these factors directly influences sexual satisfaction (Haavio-Mannila and Kontula 1997).
In English-speaking countries, a moralistic approach dominates and researchers have focused on readily quantifiable constructs. Examination of differences between men and women is common. One meta-analysis of research from 1966 through 1990 revealed that men, when compared to women, were more accepting of nonmarital sex (especially premarital sex outside of committed or engaged relationships), were more sexually permissive, reported greater levels of sexual interest, reported greater frequency and variety of sexual behaviours, and reported greater numbers of sexual partners. They also reported lower levels of anxiety, fear and guilt and were less supportive of the sexual double standard (Oliver and Hyde 1993). These male—female differences are well known in the United States, and lay conceptions of men’s sexuality position sexual desire as ever present, easily aroused, and very difficult to control. As a result, men are expected to be oriented towards sex but not relationships, and men’s social behaviour towards women is readily explained as efforts to increase the likelihood of sex. This perspective on men’s sexuality is sufficiently widespread that it not only appears regularly on US television (Ward 1995), but also in sexual education curricula (Fine 1988).
Theories
Researchers have adopted several approaches to understanding the manner in which individuals come to enact (or reject) their culture’s prescribed sexual script. The masculinity ideology (MI) approach, derived from feminist theory and reliant on cultural analyses, positions masculinity as a belief system that dictates what boys and men should and should not do. These principles are learned and reinforced during childhood and throughout adulthood. In the US, MI directs adolescent boys and adult men to engage in promiscuous sexuality and emphasise the sexual, but not interpersonal, aspects of relationships. MI also directs men to avoid being perceived as feminine and to pursue status (David and Brannon 1976). In a series of studies conducted with nationwide samples of American adolescents aged 15–19, Pleck and his colleagues found that adolescent boys who offered greater endorsement of MI also reported greater numbers of sexual partners, more adversarial relations with women, and lower levels of emotional intimacy. High MI boys also viewed condoms more negatively, did not believe their partner wanted them to use condoms, thought women had primary responsibility for preventing pregnancy, and believed that impregnating a woman validates masculinity (Pleck et al 2004).
Other social scientific approaches rely on modelling of sexuality by important others. Researchers have repeatedly observed that adolescents acquire much of their knowledge regarding sexuality from peers and the media (Haggstrom-Nordin et al. 2002), who tend to portray sex positively and encourage premarital heterosexual intercourse. By adolescence, parents have become a less available source, likely the result of discomfort, their focus on undesirable outcomes (e.g. disease, pregnancy) and their discouragement of their children’s sexuality (Sutton et al. 2002). Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated the effect of non-familial sources and fmd, for example, that associating with peers who have experienced coitus is related to a greater probability that an adolescent has experienced intercourse himself (Selvan et al. 2001). Moreover, US adolescents who view television with greater proportions of sexual content engage in heretofore unexperienced sexual behaviours more quickly than adolescents who view less sexual content. Those who view greater levels of sexual content, in comparison with those who view lower levels, engaged in heterosexual intercourse approximately nine months earlier. The computed age differential was approximately seventeen months for noncoital behaviours (Collins et al 2004).
Sexual development
Sexual development refers to the shift from being asexual in childhood (i.e. not thinking about and not engaging in sexual behaviour) to being sexual during adulthood. Nearly all adults experience this transition. Specification of ‘milestone’ behaviours, as well as the timing and responses to these milestones, varies across cultures. First heterosexual intercourse, for example, is a common milestone whose rates vary. The percentage of adolescents who report having experienced intercourse ranges from 4 per cent in Mumbai, India (Selvan et al. 2001) to almost 50 per cent of Swedish (Haggstrom-Nordin et al 2002) and US high school students (Pleck et al 2004). Variations within subcultures and across time have been documented in Sweden, where the percentage of adolescents who reported intercourse rose from the late 1970s into the 1980s and remained constant throughout the 1990s. Adolescents in vocational schools were more likely to report sex than their peers in college preparatory schools (Haggstrom-Nordin et al. 2002). Historical and subnational variations are also present in the US, where intercourse rates increased from the late 1970s until the late 1980s and fell in the first half of the 1990s. The decrease in the early 1990s was due primarily to delays in first intercourse among white adolescents; black and Hispanic adolescents’ reports of intercourse were relatively constant during this time (Pleck et al. 2004).
Sexual development includes changes during adulthood. Although results from nonclinical samples are rare, one longitudinal study of men aged between forty and sixty-nine (Time 1) revealed a pattern of decreased sexuality nine years later. More specifically, men reported less frequent intercourse, fewer frequent erections, lower levels of sexual desire, lower levels of satisfaction and greater levels of orgasmic difficulty. Ability to ejaculate by masturbating, which reflects continued ability to achieve orgasm, was unchanged. Rates of change suggested a curvilinear pattern, with men between sixty and sixty-nine reporting greater declines than men between fifty and fifty-nine, who mostly reported greater declines than men between forty and forty-nine (at Time 1). Although this study did not examine causes of dysfunction such as overall health or the effects of medication and has other sampling limitations, it suggests a pattern of decreased sexuality with advanced age (Araujo et al. 2004).
Issues and omissions
One important issue facing sexuality researchers today is an issue of definition. In this essay, sexuality was intentionally and broadly defmed as ‘beliefs, practices, and feelings regarding sexual behaviour’. This definition is ambivalent about behaviours such as nocturnal emissions and public nudity (which is considered sexual in the US). Definitional concerns also exist at the measurement level. In their review, Oliver and Hyde (1993) identified four distinct questions regarding premarital sex (any, casual, committed, engaged) and their analyses revealed different strengths of effect for these questions. Researchers have noted that a minority of self-identified ‘heterosexual’ men also engage in sexual behaviour with other men (Pleck et al. 2004), which suggests a disjunction between terminology and behaviour. Of greater concern is evidence that ‘virgin’ and ‘sex’ may have different meanings among research participants. One examination found that individuals routinely accepted penilevaginal intercourse as sufficient for virginity loss, with fewer accepting anal sex and even fewer accepting oral sex as sufficient. Approximately half of the sample held different criteria for virginity loss as a function of sexual orientation, and a small minority believed it was impossible to lose one’s virginity through same-sex practices (Carpenter 2001).
In English-speaking countries, the research has focused primarily on numerical markers such as age of first intercourse and number of sexual partners, and rarely addresses topics such as men’s subjective experiences (Hofstede 1998). As a result, there is little research in these countries that examines men’s subjective interpretation of their sexual experiences. One study found that young adult men described their first experience of intercourse as positive, empowered, loving and negative, respectively. More positive ratings were also associated with the possession of more masculine (‘instrumentar) traits and greater satisfaction with one’s upper body strength (Smiler et al. in press), characteristics typical of the national stereotype of men. Examination of first ejaculation, a milestone indicative of men’s sexual development, is very limited. American adolescents typically report curiosity and excitement, whereas Nigerian adolescents report feeling grown up and excited (Frankel 2002). Studies of this sort suggest that men’s experiences are not well described by focusing on (assumed) pleasure from orgasm or number of partners.
Political factors also influence the questions that researchers ask. In the 1970s, US policymakers began to emphasise preventing pregnancy and reducing disease transmission among adolescents, but focused their efforts on girls. When the AIDS epidemic emerged in the 1980s, policymakers began to include men, but this effort was slowed by cultural taboos regarding male homosexuality. In the mid-1990s, American policymakers began emphasising abstinence and downplaying the role of contraceptives. In each case, research support followed political objectives. In the early 2000s, US lawmakers threatened to withhold funding for a small number of sexuality studies they deemed inappropriate after these studies had been approved by the requisite peer review committees. Recognition of the constructed nature of sexuality, combined with a broader definition of sexuality, would produce a better understanding of this important aspect of life.
References and further reading
Araujo, A.B., Mohr, B.A. and McKinlay, J.B. (2004) ‘Changes in sexual function in middleaged and older men’, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 52:1502–9.
Carpenter, L.M. (2001) ‘The ambiguity of “having sex”’, Journal of Sex Research, 38:127–39.
Collins, R.L., EUiott, M.N. and Berry, S.H. (2004) ‘Watching sex on television predicts adolescent initiation of sexual behavior’, Pediatrics, 114:e280-e289.
David, D. and Brannon, R. (1976) ‘The male sex role’, in D.David and R.Brannon (eds) The Forty-nine Percent Majority, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 1–48.
Fine, M. (1988) ‘Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females’, Harvard Educational Review, 58:29–53.
Frankel, L. (2002) Tve never thought about it’, Journal of Men’s Studies, 11:37–54.
Haavio-Mannila, E. and Kontula, O. (1997) ‘Correlates of increased sexual satisfaction’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26:399–419.
Haggstrom-Nordin, E., Hanson, U. and Tyden, T. (2002) ‘Sex behavior among high school students in Sweden’, Journal ofAdolescent Health, 30:288–95.
Hofstede, G. (1998) ‘Comparative studies of sexual behavior’, in G. Hofstede (ed.) Masculinity and Femininity, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 153–78.
Oliver, M.B. and Hyde, J.S. (1993) ‘Gender differences in sexuality’, Psychological Bulletin, 114: 29–51.
Pleck, J.H., Sonenstein, F.L. and Ku, L. (2004) ‘Adolescent boys’ heterosexual behavior’, in N. Way and J.Y.Chu (eds) Adolescent Boys, New York: New York University Press, pp. 256–70.
Selvan, M.S., Ross, M.W., Kapadia, A.S., Mathai, R. and Hira, S. (2001) ‘Study of perceived norms, beliefs and intended sexual behaviour among higher secondary school students in India’, AIDS Care, 13:779–88.
Smiler, A.P., Ward, L.M., Caruthers, A. and Merriwether, A. (under review) ‘Pleasure, power, and passion’.
Sutton, M.J., Brown, J.D., Wilson, K.M. and Klein, J.D. (2002) ‘Shaking the tree of knowledge for forbidden fruit’, in J.D.Brown, J.R. Steele and K.Walsh-Childers (eds) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 25–55.
Ward, L.M. (1995) ‘Talking about sex’, Joumal of Youth and Adolescence, 24:595–615.
ANDREW SMILER
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