Sexual Roles for Men and Women - Assignment Example

Sexual Roles for Men and Women Introduction The researches on sexual interaction have essentially tried to focus on the roles played by each of the gender during the interaction and more specifically the aspects of sexual stereotypes. Traditionally women are supposed to be submissive and usually not take the first initiative to begin a sexual interaction. They are mainly expressive in nature. On the other hand men are supposed to be more aggressive and play the role of an initiator in sexual interactions. We may even call them ‘instrumental’ in nature. However, when these expected roles and actions are not observed in either men or women, then there might be some confusion regarding the expectation from a particular partner. Here the study of sexual anxiety and other aspects of the interaction become necessary. Often we may term a man as ‘feminine’ or a woman as a ‘tomboy’. This is due to certain observable facts about their nature and behaviorist traits. We often tend to typecast such men as gay instead of looking into further details. Several complications in sexual relations might arise due to the gap in conventional expectation and reality. The paper takes up the comparative study of two articles on sexuality and traditional gender roles in sexual interaction. The first article (assigned text), ‘“Feminine” Heterosexual Men: Subverting Heteropatriarchal Sexual Scripts?’ by Darryl Hill discussion about the role of ‘feminine’ men and the way they have deviated from the expected roles specified in the scripts. The second article, “Heterosexual Adjustment among Women and men with non-traditional gender identities” by Katz and Farrow (2000) complements the first by describing the way sexual roles and socio cultural aspects affect the sexual functioning in an individual. The main theme in the articles is that traditionally prescribed sexual roles for men and women are always preferred in generating sexual satisfying relationship. Assigned test summary Hill (n.d.) points out in his work that effeminate men or men with feminine characteristics pose a challenge to the conventional definition of men’s role in a sexual interaction and even disturb the balance in a sexual relationship. He begins from the point that most often women might find such men difficult to deal with in terms of sexual interaction since they are burdened and uncomfortable with such hypersensitive men who mostly hold back from taking the initiatives. However he proposes in his study that many times, these ‘feminine’ men once in a relationship might generate healthy and happy interactions owing to their feminine characteristics. The author uses various researches and literature surveys to prove this point eventually. He therefore adopts a qualitative method of research based on secondary survey. The characteristics of these ‘feminine men’ or ‘feminine boys’ include an inclination towards wearing girls’ accessories, looking pretty and proper stylish grooming. They are often called ‘metrosexual men’ by the media sources. However they might not be gay and hence the best term which is used to describe them in this study is ‘feminine heterosexual men’. Hill points out the views of feminist women and pro-feminist men in this context. The sexual scripts of heterosexual men have been critiqued by experts on grounds of demonstrating lust instead of emotional connection and getting close on the basis of mere sexual satisfaction and to reach an orgasm. Two different theories have been categorized in this study – heteronormative and heteropatriarchal scripts. In the former script men are supposed to play an aggressive role and women would be passive or submissive. Now, this theory may be challenged easily since practical observation has shown the different strategies used by women to instigate eroticism during sexual interaction. The second theory is based on power differences which may be used by both the sexes to generate eroticism. The author points out to various studies by scholars and experts to point out that male dominance was not the essence of heterosexuality which does not prescribe it. Over the past four decades a switching of sexual roles has taken place between the two genders. However the heteronormative theory still plays in the back of one’s mind when he or she contemplates sexual interaction and it is therefore common for women to reject them as a potential life partner. Such men are often referred as ‘slightly gay’. This is even stronger when women have an anti-gay approach. Often we see that this preference against effeminate men is based on the traditional script on sexuality. However more recent studies have shown that some women prefer men with effeminate characteristics since typically masculine men had a bad reputation among a sample of university women participants. It also depends on the terms by which the feminism in that man is specified. Often soft characteristics like kindness might increase the likeness of women towards these men. Also the income and success factors play a big role in the choice of effeminate men. However women seemed to like men whop were dominant at least in terms of taking sexual initiatives. The researcher have listed studies which specify men with unrestricted sexual behavior as ‘bad boys’ and those with restricted behaviors as ‘good boys’. a study showed that the nice guy (implying effeminate men with less tendency of taking sexual initiatives) was preferred by a sample of students. However researches have also shown that apart from mere sexuality the feminine men defined in our study have greater probability towards a healthy and happy relationship. The reasons were that these men were likely to be emotionally less restrictive, establish no barriers of differentiation between themselves and were less likely to have a divorce or separation. The author also highlights the possibilities of switching the traditional gender roles. Thus if both the woman and the man are nontraditional then it is easier for them to accept one another in sexual relationship. If these issues of eroticism and power difference may be resolved then these so called feminine men have greater capacity to resolve conflicts in relationships, thus promoting a better conjugal relation. Student selected text summary The second article, by Katz and Farrow (2000), centers on a similar idea of sexual orientation. They have discussed the essence of gender roles and brought up the roles played by both women and men in traditional and nontraditional form. The paper begins the discussion with sexual scripts that are conventionally framed. In these scripts, women are supposed to be submissive and more expressive in their approach while the initiator is the man who is defined as ‘instrumental’. Traditionally it is expected that women will prefer the instrumental men who fit ideally in the role defined by sexual scripts rather than those who demonstrate more feminine characters. This preference is mainly based on real or expected satisfaction in sexual interactions. Often feminine traits may include expressiveness or oversensitive nature in men. The authors bring in the concept of self views and use this to analyze the maladjustment aspects associated with deviation form stereotypical gender roles during sexual interactions. The study focuses mainly on the expressive men and instrumental female on the basis of self verification theory. This concept refers to the fact that an individual would prefer those views about himself or herself that are consistent with the way they view themselves. For instance, an expressive man is not what a traditionally oriented woman would expect and hence the way the man looks at himself is not comprehendible to the woman. People may feel themselves more comfortable with partners who would view them the way they actually are. Increasing social predictability is the idea behind such verification theory. The hypotheses indicate that women with less traditional traits (rather instrumental traits) reveal low adjustment quality in terms of sexual interactions. Secondly, men who have more expressive traits also demonstrated less adjustment to sexuality compared to other men. The method used consisted of a primary survey including a sample of 313 undergraduates who were single and 183 out of them consisted of women and ANOVA table for the analysis. Median age was 19. The survey was based on self report. The measures include 60-item self report on personality traits based on gender, 25-item report to reflect sexual anxiety, 13-item report based on level of sexual desire. The answers were to be given on a Likert scale with varying range for each category. The results proved the hypotheses those women with nontraditional traits showed greater anxiety and lesser desire and vice versa. On the other hand, men who are expressive in nature also reveal less desire and more anxiety. Synthesis The assigned text, ‘”Feminine” Heterosexual Men: Subverting Heteropatriarchal Sexual Scripts?’ and the second article titled, ‘Heterosexual Adjustment among Women and men with non-traditional gender identities’ bring out certain important themes about relationship between men and women. Heterosexuality Hill has put forward several theories with respect to heterosexuality defined at different times. Conventionally heterosexuality was defined in terms of power differences and traditional dominance of men. He introduces the two theories of heteronormative and heteropatriarchal ways where traditional beliefs were based upon submissive behavior of female and dominant behavior of men. He finally sums up saying that heterosexuality may be expressed as ‘‘refusing to be a man’ in the traditional sense’ (154). This may be taken as a less oppressive way of addressing the term. He puts forward several criticisms of the heterosexual views patronized in early literatures. The term has been accused and critiques to signify dominance of the male section. In the second article the heterosexuality is defined and categorized mainly in terms of characteristic traits. The term may be categorized into traditional and non-traditional gender roles. Heterosexuality implies the defined categorization of sexual roles played by different genders. Both the studies thus address heterosexuality before analyzing the impact of sexual stereotyping and the deviation from this concept in modern times. Gender roles and sexuality Hill addresses this through his demonstration of the various characteristics of the feminine man. The female characteristics are assigned to this man who may be referred by different terms like metrosexual, queer straights, etc. he also associates them with nontraditional women who are more dominant in sexual interactions and will be eager to take the initiatives. Sexual stereotyping has resulted in generating some staunch expectations from sexual relationships. While some women still are influenced by the traditional concepts, others have tried to be broadminded and prefer men who are less dominating in emotional terms. Such women have found the nontraditional sexual traits in men more attractive especially if combined with occupational success. The second article by Katz and Farrow have characterized the traditional sexuality in women in terms of ‘expressiveness’ and submission and in men as ‘instrumental’ and initiator of the first move in sexual interaction. Traditional sexual roles are important in generating positive sexual traits like sexual desires and low sexual anxiety. This anxiety result from the fact that an individual is concerned how his sexual traits would be accepted by his partner. The studies here therefore discuss the traditional definition of sexual roles with respect to the satisfaction in sexual interaction. With reference to traditional and nontraditional sexuality the studies have shown how the concept presented in our conventional heterosexual scripts have been challenged by effeminate men as well as instrumental female. Sexual adjustment As already discussed to some extent in the previous section, Hill discusses this by collecting nd presenting different literatures and research works which have taken up the issue of gender role switching and sexual adjustment. While his study has shown that most women do prefer dominant and masculine male for sexual interaction, there are cases and studies which have shown that women also find the effeminate men more attractive. Again he points out an important thing at the end of the paper. He presents that such metrosexual men can lead to good conjugal relationships since they respect and value the feminine values once these differences in sexual expectations may be sorted out. Women with more open outlook and nontraditional views have been able to accept the feminine men. The second article selected here shows that in order to general a proper and healthy sexual adjustment it is essential for men and women to fall into the traditional categories of sexuality. A man needs to take the initiatives in sexual interactions while women are expected more to be either passive or submissive to these moves. When women are less expressive and men are less instrumental there is likely to generate maladjustment in sexual interaction. This is mainly because the self views of these individuals are not known to their partners and this generates an anxiety in them in fear of revelation of their true self which might not match the expectation of their partners. The studies therefore bring up the issue of deviation from traditionally defined sexual roles and analyses its impact on the sexual relationship between a man and a woman. The authors of the two studies address this issue differently. However, majority of cases have shown that sexual maladjustment results from deviation from the traditional sexuality and gender role. Preferences are also biased towards the traditional definition when it comes to sexual behaviors and response. Comments With the passage of time one can observe the gradual blending of the demarcation of gender roles in terms of sexuality. While men were supposed to be careless about their looks and more aggressive in their outlook, the modern metrosexual men are more concerned about looking good and oriented towards adopting modern stylish clothing. Women on the other hand are more expected to be concerned about their appearance and other sensitive details of life. One the other hand women are becoming more upright and less submissive in nature and outlook. Now this has led to a confusion of perception regarding sexual behaviors and expectation about sexual responses from one another. The two studies explain these issues in detail. While Hill undertakes a literature survey and qualitative analysis to show the aspects of the effeminate man and his potentiality of getting a woman partner, Katz and Farrow (2000) have not considered only effeminate men but also instrumental female for their analysis. Their sample survey and statistical results show the most expected result. However the method used by them is self verification which is based on self reports. Yet the study of gender roles and sexuality may be best analyzed from a cognitive angle and medical practitioners and cognitive experts would have been the right people to analyze these characteristics or validate the self reports obtained from the participants. Also the group chosen could have had a proportion of married couples as well in order to let us have a comparative structure. The study is carried out form a layman’s perspective but definitely gives a basic overview of the empirical evidence to justify the already established sexual scripts. The literature reviews analyzed by Hill would have been useful if they were chronologically arranged and the findings tabulated such that we could have noticed the change in preference of the women. Here again we find different interesting aspects but a generalized view is too farfetched to be formed and believed from this research. Sexual stability is the ultimate goal is these studies. The final idea we may form from the studies is that sexual adjustment may be reached by a mutual; cooperation and understanding between the sexual partners. Apart from the purely sexual activity one needs to concentrate on the emotional aspects as well. Cognitive experts could have analyzed this in a way where emotional freedom is essential to gain sexual stability is relationships. Emotional turmoil might create distance in relationships as well. This idea is not much under focus in the second study. Bibliography 1. Hill, Darryl B. “Feminine” Heterosexual Men: Subverting Heteropatriarchal Sexual Scripts?, College of Staten Island, City University of New York 2. Katz, Jennifer and Sherry Farrow, Heterosexual Adjustment among Women and men with non-traditional gender identities, Social Behavior and Personality, 2000, 28(6), 6130620 Read More