Sexual Script Analysis

Improved Essays
In a book entitled Sexual Conduct, John Gagnon and William Simon described their sexual script theory. They defined scripts as “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.”(Wiederman 7). Gagnon and Simon helped us understand sexuality as a behavior and identity. This idea brought clearer understanding to human sexual encounters. Simon and Gagnon suggested that sexual behaviors was more about social meaning than animal urges. Our sexual scripts are defined by many things in our lives, from the toys we played with as kids to the family structure we grew in to the current friends we have. Sexual …show more content…
Gender identity what is in your head, whereas gender expression is the way you express your gender. The gender roles influences how the script plays out. Our sexual scripts have been defined by our gender. A females might be raise to be caring, sexually submissive, and gentle or strong and aggressive; whereas a male might be raise to be strong, competitive and aggressive or gentle and caring. The way this female choses to display her gender it will have a significant impact on her sexual script, same goes for males. For example, females tends to play the role of the seductive stimulus, while males are the aggressor. In the male sexual script, males are responsible for managing the sexual encounter after the females has agree to it. In addition, males feel pressure to perform and thereby satisfying the female/male partner. In the female sexual script, females are responsible for “setting the mood”. In addition, females feel the pressure to give excellent oral and thereby satisfying the female/male …show more content…
A hookup can be just kissing to intercourse and everything in between. On the Fox News segment, college students and a guest expert talked about the hookup culture and marriage. The intended audience of this segment is everyone from other college students to non-college student adults. The guest expert, Susan Patton, is a Princeton University Alumna. Susan and the anchor are sending a powerful message to young women, “the cornerstone of your future and happiness will be inextricably linked to the man you marry, and you will never gain have this concentration of men who are worthy of you.” (BBCENTERTAINMENTful). They are encouraging women to find their husbands while in college, to focus more than just their professional career to also focus on their personal life because their happiness will be linked to the man they marry. To get their message across they are relying on gender roles that women are supposed to be housewives, women are responsible for raising children, a mother first and a professional

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Hooking Up

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hooking Up by Kathleen A. Bogle. is a sociological study of people before and after college about the sexual phenomenon of "hooking up". Hooking up is the way mostly younger generations meet people and instead of courting the other person they have sex and usually never talk again. The term "hooking up" can be linked back to the mid nineteen eighties (Bogle 2008). Hooking up is very prevalent on college campuses and that is where Bogle 's study takes place. Bogle proves many arguments in this study.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rough Draft (light editing): Literary works provide an intimate insight into how the human mind works. Many novels can offer a variety of perspectives to answer age old questions. In Freakonomics, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Brave New World, the authors explore how one’s environment may lead to good or bad moral decisions. Whether by attempting to quantify poor behavior or exploring indulgence, these novels offer a unique perspective on human behavior; one that only literature can offer.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Dangers of College Students “Hooking Up” Annotated Bibliography Alice. " College Students and STIs." Go Ask Alice! N.p., 17 Dec. 1999. Web.…

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In a book entitled Sexual Conduct, John Gagnon and William Simon described their sexual script theory. This idea brought clearer understanding to human sexual encounters. Simon and Gagnon suggested that sexual behaviors was more about social meaning than animal urges. Sexual scripts proposes the importance of meanings and symbols in human sexuality. This scripting approach to sexuality allowed us to connect the different aspects of sexuality, such as interpersonal, intrapsychic, and cultural.…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    A large part of the book explores this phenomenon and how it fares with both sexes, both during undergrad, as well as post-grad. Bogle uses data collected via interviews of undergrads and graduates from two institutions to create an analysis of the expectations, experiences, and perceptions of students in regards to hooking up. She finds that the responses from both colleges align, despite the difference in private/public and religious affiliation/lack of. From there, in the analysis, she sees that the term “hooking up” is ambiguously used, and students themselves have trouble identifying what it means. This stems partly from the emphasis on personal choice that was normalized somewhere between the dating era and the hook up era.…

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, biological sex and gender are different. Gender identity is something that a person feels and expresses. Gender identity is a representation of a gender trope that a person wants to see in the mirror and hope others see them as. Gender identity is not innate, it is set at an early age. We…

    • 1705 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hook Up Culture

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this section, a review of literature highlights the emerging adult’s attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about sex and sexuality. Rather than oversimplifying a diverse generation cohort into a homogeneous group, the aim here is to give a deeper understanding of how the emerging young adults (Millennials) ages 18-29 years are shaping the culture with new sexual scripts. Let me begin first by explaining “sexual script”. The term “sexual scripts”, was introduced in the 1970s by John Gagnon and William Simon in their book Sexual Conduct. They define sexual scripts as action guidelines that help organize the world in the sexual arena.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Hook Up Culture

    • 1624 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The author gives a holistic picture of where exactly the hook up culture is found and primarily in college campuses, though many of these encounters are started through dating apps. She serves as a guide to young adults and how to properly develop their first sexual encounters which in the future will benefit them psychologically and pertain healthy relationships in the…

    • 1624 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Starting with functional theory, sexual identity is “learned in the family and other social institutions, with deviant sexual identities contributing to social disorder”. Under conflict theory, individuals or specific institutions consider some forms of sexual behavior desirable therefore enforce heterosexism; while symbolic interaction theory views it as “socially constructed when people learn the sexual scripts produced in society” (Andersen,…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    One’s gender identity refers to one’s perception of self either as a male or female, as well as being masculine or feminine. Keeping this in mind an individual’s…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Effects Of Hookup Culture

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The hook up culture plays a weighty role with this generation. Hooking up is starting to become more engrained in popular culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predictions and changing…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gender is a socially constructed component that shapes the society that’s around us. From an early age, children are taught what a little boy is and what a little girl is and how each should act. Gender Identity is the knowledge that one knows if they are male or female. From an early age, children know many differences between themselves and their peers, although it might not be as defined in a way of actual biological differences. Mainly children see gender differences based on what roles they are exposed to.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We identify with (or in some cases totally reject) social gender categories like “man” or “woman.” Gender expression is how we “do gender.” It is a behavior. In relation to expression, gender expectations are the culturally outlined “oughts and shoulds” of how we do gender. Gender attribution is the way we interpret cues from others and effortlessly assign them to a gender category (Bornstein 26).…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From a very young age we are taught the “sexual scripts” (pg. 313) that we are expected to follow and this largely dictates how we feel we should conduct our intimate relationships. Sexual scripts in many societies are largely “heteropatriarcical” meaning they are based on a system of heterosexual male dominance (pg. 354). Tight control over what is sexually acceptable can be harmful for the development of healthy intimate relationships especially for those who do not fall within the traditional heterosexual gender binary. A young American female receives mixed messages about her sexuality every day. In her article The Cult of Virginity author Jessica Valenti says that, “present-day American society- whether through pop culture, religion, or institutions –conflates sexuality and morality constantly” (pg. 336).…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sex is a reference to whether a person is genetically male or female, and determines the biological role that a person will play in reproduction. Gender is the sociocultural distinction between male and female. Gender identities are the conceptions we have of ourselves as being male or female. Gender roles are sets of cultural expectations that define the ways in which each sex should behave. Gender inequality is a major issue faced by women in the United States.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays