The experience and meaning of same‐sex sexuality among heterosexually identified men and women: An analytic review

The components of sexual orientation, including but not limited to sexual desires, attractions, behaviors, and identities, are generally assumed to align in predictable ways. However, ample research from sociology and other social and behavioral science disciplines shows that for many people, these components do not align as expected. In this article, we focus on individuals who identify as heterosexual and experience same‐sex sexual desires, attractions, and/or behaviors. First, we briefly review the available quantitative data on the prevalence of such experiences and use data from one high‐quality national survey—the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)—to show that self‐identified heterosexuals account for as much as one‐half of the same‐sex sexuality that is reported. Then, we turn to recent qualitative literature and draw attention to the contexts within which heterosexually identified men and women experience same‐sex sexuality, how they make sense of these experiences, and the interpretive strategies they use to reconcile their same‐sex sexuality with their heterosexual identities and their gendered presentations of self. Finally, we conclude by discussing the significance of this research and pointing to several paths forward for sociologists and other researchers.     

What Theories and Methods From Relationship Research Can Contribute to Sex Research

Sexual and relationship satisfaction tend to be closely linked in the context of romantic relationships. Understanding how sexual processes influence relationships and how aspects of the relationship influence a couple’s sex life can provide insight into the maintenance of sexual desire and satisfaction over time. In this article, we review how theories and methods that form the foundation for relationship research have made—and will continue to make—sexuality research a stronger, more theoretical, and methodologically sophisticated science. We discuss the key theories that have been used to advance our understanding of who is more likely to be sexually satisfied in relationships, when sex is most satisfying, and how couples can have more satisfying sex lives and relationships. We then provide an overview of dyadic and repeated-measures designs and demonstrate how the use of these types of research methods allows relationship and sexuality researchers to answer novel and nuanced questions about how romantic partners influence each other, as well as how sexual processes unfold in couples’ daily lives and over time. Throughout the review, we highlight what we see as fruitful directions for future research at the intersection of sexuality and relationships.     

Healthy Sexual Development: A Multidisciplinary Framework for Research

ABSTRACT

A group of Australian researchers from a range of disciplines involved in studying children's sexual development developed a framework for researching healthy sexual development that was acceptable to all disciplines involved. The 15 domains identified were: freedom from unwanted activity; an understanding of consent; education about biological aspects; understanding of safety; relationship skills; agency; lifelong learning; resilience; open communication; sexual development should not be “aggressive, coercive or joyless;” self-acceptance; awareness and acceptance that sex is pleasurable; understanding of parental and societal values; awareness of public/private boundaries; and being competent in mediated sexuality.     

Sexuality in Marriage,Dating, and Other Relationships: A Decade Review

In this article, we review the major research advances made during the 1990s in the study of sexuality in marriage and other close relationships. More specifically, we provide a critical review of the empirical findings from the last decade on such sexual phenomena as sexual behavior, sexual satisfaction, and sexual attitudes within the context of marriage, dating, and other committed relationships. After highlighting the major theoretical and methodological advances of the 1990s, we focus on the research literatures of: (1) frequency and correlates of sexual activity in marriage; (2) sexual satisfaction, including its association with general relationship satisfaction; (3) sexuality in gay and lesbian committed relationships; (4) trends in sexual behavior and attitudes in dating relationships; and (5) the role of sexuality in dating relationships. We also incorporate brief reviews of the past decade's research on sexual assault and coercion in marriage and dating and on extramarital sex. We end our decade review with recommendations for the study of sexuality into the next decade.     

“Bad Girls Rule”: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Commentary on the Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls

Feminist, critical, and postmodern scholars have long recognized sexuality as a site of power relations. The recently released Report of the APA (American Psychological Association) Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls is a welcome addition to ongoing feminist and activist conversations on how to intervene on issues of sexuality in the name of girls' and women's health. This article offers a critical interdisciplinary analysis of this influential APA report, expanding on and challenging several of its main claims. This article critiques the report as over-determining the negative impact of sexualization; offers other literatures as critical additions including feminist literature on media, consumer culture, gender, and the body, and earlier “pro-desire” feminist psychology scholarship; and critiques the task force's conflations of objectification and sexualization. The article concludes with a call for broadening feminist scholarship and activism across disciplinary boundaries to emphasize girls' and women's sexual agency and resistance, as well as sexual health and rights.     

SEXUALIZING THE SOCIALOGICAL: Queering and Querying the Intimate Substructure of Social Life

This presidential address explores the sexual substructure of everyday life.¹ I focus on the intimate connections among sexuality, race, and ethnicity. Masculinist heterosexuality is a central component of the bedrock upon which ethinic boundaries rest; and feminism, unruly female sexuality, and homosexuality are three cracks in that foundation. To illustrate the usefulness of understanding the sexualized dimensions of racial and ethnic relations, and social life in general, I provide four examples of the importance of considering sexuality in race, ethinicity, and nationalism: sex and nationalism, sex and urban residential segregation, sex and conquest , and sex and race . In all four sections, I attempt to reveal the sexual substructure of social life. Moreover, I urge sociologists to consider sexuality and the role of sexual systems in their own research.     

Sexual Behaviors in Mexico: The Role of Values and Gender Across Adolescence

Adolescent sexuality research has expanded to include noncoital behaviors, but there is limited knowledge about individual factors such as cultural values associated with these sexual behaviors outside of industrialized nations. Thus, we examined associations between Latino values (familism, sexual guilt, and importance of female virginity) and three sexual behaviors (making out, oral sex, and vaginal sex), among adolescents ages 12–19 (53% female) in Mexico. Findings indicate that sexual guilt and importance of female virginity were consistently associated with all sexual behaviors. Some associations differed by gender and school level. For instance, sexual guilt was a better predictor of high school girls’ oral and vaginal sex. This study expands our understanding of adolescent sexuality in Mexico.     

Persons with profound intellectual disability and their right to sex

This article discusses sexuality and sexual rights of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. I will address the issue by reflecting on my own previous negligence about the issue, and unpack the ethics of sexuality of persons with profound intellectual disability in the light of ethnographic observation and interview data. I will discuss the significance of cognitive and communicative capacities as regards sexual rights as well as the boundaries of ethically justified facilitation of sex. I will also analyse the definition of sex and its ethical implications. Finally, I will offer some reflections on how we should consider more carefully in research the sexuality of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in order to enhance in practice their sexual fulfilment.     

Sources,Characteristics and Effects of Mass Media Communication on Science: A Review of the Literature,Current Trends and Areas for Future Research

A significant amount of science coverage can be found nowadays in the mass media and is the main source of information about science for many. Accordingly, the relation between science and the media has been intensively analyzed within the social scientific community. It is difficult to keep track of this research, however, as a flurry of studies has been published on the issue. This article provides such an overview. First, it lays out the main theoretical models of science communication, that is, the ‘public understanding of science’ and the ‘mediatization’ model. Second, it describes existing empirical research. In this section, it demonstrates how science’s agenda‐building has improved, how science journalists working routines are described, how different scientific disciplines are presented in the mass media and what effects these media representations (might) have on the audience. Third, the article points out future fields of research.     

Medicalizations and demedicalizations of sexuality therapies

This article complicates recent discussions about the expanding zones and influences of medicalization and biomedicalization on sexuality and sex therapy by contextualizing them with competing nonmedicalizing trends. These latter developments include an escalating nonexpert commercial sexuality sector on the Internet, as well as a long history of anarchic and democratizing social politics, such as "the counterculture" and "free love movements." What these nonmedicalizing trends have in common is the view of sexual problems and solutions as far broader than sexual dysfunctions and sex therapies, a belief in the social determinants of individuals' sexual experiences, and a deep concern regarding the socially harmful consequences of medicalization. With the quantity of sexuality information and advice available to the public through the Internet only likely to expand, a long era of clashing claims about relations between sexuality and health and about the role of expertise in sexual life can be foreseen.     

Pornography in small places and other spaces

This article investigates pornographic web-based media at a time when commercial pornography has flooded the Internet and pockets of sex activism are budding alongside the porn boom. Pornography moving freely across borders is foremost a capitalist vision, but the web’s sexual potency is equally defined by web users and artists who visit and maintain peer-to-peer networks for producing and sharing sexually explicit materials. Revisiting Foucault’s notion of space as ‘heterotopia’, networked sexual communication and pornography are shown to permeate physical places and other spaces. Web users cultivate attachments to everyday places and spaces other than the ones they routinely inhabit. Networked sexual agency materializes desire far beyond the confines of community rituals and commodity industries. Besides the fact that porn industries expand their markets and diversify products, sex communities emerge alongside these markets and play a vital role in negotiating sexuality. The article shows how the Internets decentralized mechanisms of power and communication, including debating societies and playgrounds, have entered the realm of online porn and sexuality. Developing a theoretical notion of space as other spaces, the article unfolds the sexual web as exuberant, dispersed in bodies and cultures, yet forcefully regulated by global corporations and nation-state governments.     

Sexuality in the Global South: 50 Years of Published Research in the Journal of Sex Research—Inclusions,Omissions, and Future Possibilities

Sexuality researchers from a range of disciplines have called for more global inclusiveness in sexualities research, particularly in the Global South (GS). We investigated the degree to which sexuality researchers have published work focused on the GS by conducting a content analysis of 50 years of research published in the Journal of Sex Research (JSR). We examined all research articles, brief research reports, and clinical notes published in JSR from 1965 to 2014 (N = 1,626). Overall, a small percentage of articles focused on the GS with no increase over time (4.8%; N = 78). Articles in the GS focused on Asia (37.2%), Latin America (28.2%), Sub-Saharan Africa (23.1%), the Middle East (6.4%), and a mix of GS regions (5.1%). Topics related to sexual and reproductive health were most prevalent (19.2%), followed by articles on sexual risk, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (17.9%), sexual norms, attitudes, and beliefs (16.7%), sex work (11.5%), cultural practices (10.3%), gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues (9.0%), intimate partner relationships (3.8%), and sexual violence (3.8%); the remaining categories (transgender and transsexual populations, sex research methods, sex testing, and women’s sexuality) were negligible. We conclude with recommendations for improving the quantity, quality, and scope of global sexuality research in JSR.     

Beyond the Binaries: Depolarizing the Categories of Sex,Sexuality, and Gender*

Most sociological research designs assume that each person has one sex. one sexuality, and one gender, congruent with each other and fixed for life. Postmodern feminists and queer theorists have been interrogating bodies, desires, and genders, but sociology has not. Deconstructing sex, sexuality, and gender reveals many possible categories embedded in social experiences and social practices. As researchers, as theorists, and as activists, sociologists have to go beyond paying lip service to the diversity of bodies, sexualities, genders. The sociologist's task should be to deconstruct the conventional categories of sex, sexuality, and gender and build new complex, cross-cutting constructs into research designs. There are revolutionary possibilities inherent in rethinking the categories of gender, sexuality, and physiological sex. Sociological data that challenge conventional knowledge by reframing the questions could provide legitimacy for new ways of thinking. Data that undermine the supposed natural dichotomies on which the social orders of most modern societies are still based could radically alter political discourses that valorize biological causes, essential heterosexuality, and traditional gender roles in families and workplaces.     

A Review of: “Exploring Black Sexuality. By Robert Staples.”

Higgins, Trussell, Moore, and Davidson (2010) expand our understanding of sexual satisfaction by showing that first vaginal sex is more likely to be psychologically than physically satisfying and by revealing differences between women and men and similarities between African Americans and Whites. Their analyses highlight the need for further theory-building, explicating the dynamics of change over time, integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches, and articulating implications for public policy. These are crucial steps toward developing a social science of sexual satisfaction. More research that focuses on positive aspects of sexuality, such as satisfaction, should be encouraged.     

Gendered jocks or equal players? Athletic affiliation and hooking up among college students

ABSTRACT

Previous research has found sex-specific effects of athletic participation on young adult sexuality, with male athletes reporting increased sexual activity and female athletes reporting lower levels of sexual activity relative to non-athlete peers. Yet research has not examined sexual activity by athletic affiliation beyond quantity, nor considered the normative landscape of non-relational college sexual culture. The current paper examines the relationships between sex, athletic affiliation, and hooking up among students at 14 U.S. universities with Division I and II athletics programs. Findings show that, controlling for demographics and background characteristics, 1) male and female athletes participate in hooking up at higher rates than non-athletes, and 2) male athletes have less male dominated hookups in terms of sexual initiation. Results are discussed in terms of the increasing value similarity of men and women's collegiate sports programs.     

Promoting sexual health and responsible sexual behavior: an introduction

Facing a myriad of sexual health problems today, health ministries are being compelled to develop comprehensive approaches to sexual health promotion. Recently, there have been several attempts to develop these strategies at national, regional, and global levels. One of the challenges of articulating strategies has been arriving at basic definitions of sex, sexuality, sexual health, and responsible sexual behavior. However, there is remarkable consistency throughout these recent documents. These documents call for leadership of the health sector to create better climates for discussion of sexuality, access to information and education about sexuality, prevention strategies, access to care, and more research in human sexuality and evaluation of programs designed to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior.     

Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexuality in Chinese Families

Given that young people in China are faced with increased sex-related risks, it is important to understand from a communication perspective, the role of parents as a prominent sexual socialization agent for Chinese adolescents. Semistructured, one-to-one interviews were conducted with Chinese adolescents (N = 37) about their parents’ communication about sex and sexuality. Using a constant comparative method, four categories were identified with respect to Chinese parents’ direct/explicit communication about sexuality and in addition, four categories of indirect/implication communication (RQ1). Further, four categories regarding Chinese adolescents’ attitudes towards such communication were apparent (RQ2). Overall, Chinese parents attempted to transmit values and expectations about dating and sexual activities indirectly, implicitly, and/or nonverbally. Adolescents in the present study also expressed tendencies to avoid sex-related communication with parents. Some even explicitly stated that avoiding such communication was beneficial. The findings’ implications for the role of culture in parent-adolescent communication about sexuality and communication openness are discussed.     

A Content Analysis of Sexual Consent and Refusal Communication in Mainstream Films

Young adults have limited access to comprehensive sex education. As such, they may seek sexuality information through such alternative sources, such as mass media. Previous research suggests that media, including films and television shows, can influence sexual behaviors and attitudes. Because sexual consent communication is important to sexual experiences, the purpose of this study was to assess how sexual consent and refusal communication were depicted in films. We also examined contextual factors that influence consent and refusal communication, such as gender, relationship status, location, and types of sexual behaviors. Four researchers analyzed popular mainstream films (N = 50) from 2013 based on a codebook developed inductively and deductively. The most common consent and refusal communication cues were nonverbal or implicit. The majority of scenes portrayed consent immediately before sexual activity. We also conducted chi-squared analyses to assess differences in consent and refusal communication based on gender and relationship status. There were no gender differences in the portrayal of consent cues; however, characters in established relationships used nonverbal cues more often than those in novel relationships. Mass media can normalize behaviors, and our results suggest that films may further normalize nonverbal or implicit consent cues.     

Why medicalization? Introduction to the special issue on the medicalization of sex

This special issue grows out of the need to bring into focus the historical and sociocultural contextualization of sex to the sexological community. The specific focus is on analyzing how medicalization is affecting many areas of sexual life and discourse, but the larger goal is to help situate sexuality studies in its broadest perspective. Articles will be of general interest to those interested in interdisciplinary scholarship; the specific articles address HIV politics, sex therapy, women's sexual health, sex and aging, the popularization of weak science, and the media's view that sexual exuberance is a central marker of recovery from cancer. Medicalization is a current trend that illuminates the importance of a broader view of sexology.     

The State of Sex Research in MFT and Family Studies Literature: A Seventeen‐Year Content Analysis

The ability to conceptualize and treat sexual problems has been widely accepted as a crucial skill to master the MFT training. However, clients’ sexual relationships are often ignored by clinicians because of a lack of experience or training, or personal discomfort. In this content analysis, we review sex and sex therapy research within MFT and family studies journals since the turn of the century. Of the 13,919 articles published within the 15 journals, 137 focused on sexuality or sex therapy. The articles were divided into five themes: sexual and relational health, sexual diversity, treatment and contributors of sexual dysfunction, sex therapy practices, and sexual education and development. Implications for clinical practices, sex therapy integration, and future research are discussed.