The Effect of Variations in Sexual Scripts on Consent Negotiations

• In Event: 4264 - Sexualities II: New Horizons in Sexualities Scholarship

Abstract

In this paper, we draw on 51 in-depth interviews with adults about their past sexual interactions to gain new insight into 1) the pathways through which dominant sexual scripts influence consent negotiations, 2) the factors that lead people to diverge from these traditional scripts, and 3) how these alternative scripts foster different communication patterns and consent behavior. From our interviews, we are able to identify four factors – sexual experience, sex education, exposure to alternative sex scripts, and participation in non-traditional sex communities – that are consistently associated with the rejection of dominant scripts and, specifically, more explicit sexual communication and consent negotiation.

Authors

• Kat Rittenhour, University of Iowa

• Michael Sauder, University of Iowa