Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 1 Running Head: GENDER ROLES AND SEXUAL PLEASURE Scripting Sexual Passivity: A Gender-Role Perspective

In two studies, we demonstrate that attitudes towards traditional sexual roles are linked with increased sexual passivity for women but decreased passivity for men. For both genders, sexual passivity is associated with poor sexual functioning and satisfaction. Study 1 showed that endorsement of attitudes toward traditional sexual roles of male dominance and female passivity relates to greater sexual passivity among college-aged heterosexual women but less passivity for college-aged heterosexual men. For both young men and women, greater sexual passivity predicts less overall sexual satisfaction. In Study 2, we surveyed sexually experienced, heterosexual individuals via the Internet. Women, but not men, who endorsed gendered sexual roles were more likely to engage in passive behaviors. For both genders, passive behavior was linked to diminished sexual arousal, ability to reach orgasm, and sexual satisfaction. These relationships were mediated by autonomy and persisted when controlling for multiple potential confounds. Results are discussed in terms of gender role socialization and psychological factors affecting sexual satisfaction. Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 3 Scripting sexual passivity: A gender-role perspective Gender roles guide and constrain men and women’s behavior across a wide range of settings, including intimate relationships. The influence of gender roles in professional and academic settings is well studied; less attention has been directed towards their influence within sexual relationships. This lack of attention is noteworthy, because little research has been conducted on sociocultural factors affecting sexual function (Baumeister, 2001) and because gender-based norms and roles likely exert a prominent influence on intimate relationships. Because intimate contexts make gender roles salient, men and women may feel compelled to conform to gender roles during sexual encounters, (Coward, 1985, Rohlinger, 2002; Sanchez, Crocker, & Boike, 2005). Given the importance of sexual satisfaction for overall relationship satisfaction and longevity (see Sprecher & Cate, 2004, for a review), the effects of gender-based sexual roles on sexual enjoyment have potentially broad implications for romantic relationships. In this paper, we contend that gender role conformity indirectly depresses sexual satisfaction for women but not men, because traditional gender-based sexual roles dictate sexual passivity for women but sexual agency for men (e.g., Sanchez, Kiefer, & Ybarra, 2006; Tevlin & Leiblum, 1983). We further propose that although gender roles should differentially affect men and women, men and women should experience less sexual satisfaction to the extent that they are sexually passive. Specifically, sexual passivity should increase sexual problems and lower sexual satisfaction by undermining autonomy during sexual activities (Kiefer, Sanchez, Ybarra, & Kalinka, in press; Sanchez, et al., 2006). Past research has provided preliminary support for this Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 4 contention: among college-aged women who reported engaging in passive sexual behavior reported less sexual arousability, a relationship mediated by reduced autonomy (Sanchez et al., 2006). The present research extends these past studies by addressing two important theoretical concerns. First, there are numerous explanations for why women would engage in passive sexual behavior as well as for why sexual passivity would be linked to reduced sexual satisfaction. To rule out alternative explanations for these relationships, we examined the extent to which genderbased sexual roles, relative to other potential contributors (e.g., conservatism in relationships, libido, and partners’ agency), contribute to women’s engagement in passive sexual behavior. We also assess multiple alternative explanations for why sexual passivity might be associated with diminished enjoyment of sexual activities. Second, past research (e.g., Sanchez et al., 2006, Kiefer et al., in press) has focused exclusively on how sexual passivity affects sexual arousal and ability to orgasm among women. This research does not address whether the hypothesized negative relationship between sexual passivity and sexual satisfaction is unique to women. Baumeister (2000; 2004), for example, has argued that women’s sexual behavior and experiences are more influenced by social and contextual forces than are men’s, implying that, sexual passivity should be linked to women’s, but not men’s, sexual satisfaction. However, if both men and women require sexual agency and autonomy for sexual fulfillment, then men’s sexual satisfaction should also negatively correlate with sexual passivity. Thus, we examine whether sexual passivity predicts diminished sexual satisfaction among men as well as women. Gender-Roles and Sexual Satisfaction Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 5 For decades, gender-typed roles and behaviors have been theorized to adversely influence sexual functioning and satisfaction (e.g., Tevlin & Leiblum, 1983; MacKinnon, 1982; 1989). During the late seventies, researchers became interested in how psychological androgyny (Bem, 1974), or the presence of both masculine and feminine gender-role personality traits, influences sexual functioning and satisfaction. Studies on psychological androgyny found numerous relationships between androgyny, masculinity and sexual outcomes. For example, compared to couples that were seeking treatment for sexual dysfunction, untreated couples were more likely to have one or more androgynous members (Safir, Peres, Lichtenstein, Hoch, & Shepher, 1982). Androgynous individuals tended to report higher levels of sexual self-esteem (Kimlicka, Cross, & Tarnai, 1983), more liberal sexual attitudes (Johnson, 1989), and greater overall sexual satisfaction (Kimlicka et al., 1983) than sex-typed or undifferentiated individuals. In some of these studies, masculine gender-role self perceptions seem to be the stronger correlate of sexual self-esteem and sexual satisfaction than androgyny per se (e.g., Kimlicka et al., 1983; Willemsen, 1987). Although this research provides evidence that stereotypical masculine and feminine personality traits are related to sexual satisfaction, it fails to explain why androgyny positively correlates with sexual satisfaction. Moreover, despite androgyny—and gender-role selfperceptions more generally—being conceptualized as global personality dimensions, the expression of gender-based traits appears to vary considerably across different social contexts. Women’s gender-role self-perceptions vary across work, social, and sexual contexts in response to context-specific stereotypic cues and role expectations (Rosenzweig & Dailey, 1991). Men’s and women’s reports of their global gender-based traits are frequently at odds with those they report expressing in heterosexual sexual situations (Lawrance, Taylor, & Byer, 1996). Thus, Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 6 perceptions of gender-role based expectancies that are specific to sexual contexts may be more important predictors of sexual behavior and satisfaction than global personality traits. In sum, research on androgyny and sexual satisfaction is consistent with our contention that gender-based roles proscribing sexual agency are detrimental to women’s sexual satisfaction; however, past research has not directly tested this hypothesis. To extend this research, we examine whether gender-typed roles relate to sexual satisfaction, because they dictate gender-specific levels of agency in sexual contexts. Gender Roles and Sexual Agency Men and women receive different prescription regarding agentic behavior, with men’s expression of agency favored and women’s expression of agency restricted or met with disapproval in settings ranging from the workplace to the bedroom (Fiske, 1993; Rudman,1998). Heterosexual men are socialized to be sexually empowered, directive, dominant, and assertive, whereas heterosexual women are socialized to be sexually disempowered, to be responsive rather than active (Blumstein & Schwarz, 1983; Schwartz & Rutter, 2000; Sprecher & McKinney, 1993). Men are expected to be more sexually experienced than their partners and to initiate and direct sexual activities. In contrast, women learn to avoid the expression of sexual agency and to adopt a submissive, passive sexual role (Gagnon & Smith, 1973; Schwartz & Rutter, 2000; Tevlin & Leiblum, 1983). A number of societal sources, most notably the mass media, inculcate men and women into gender-appropriate sexual roles. Magazines, television shows, and movies frequently depict female sexual submission to male sexual agency and dominance (Baker, 2005; Dworkin, 1987; Jeffreys, 1990; Jhally, 1995; Kilbourne, 2000a, 2000b; Kitzinger, 1984; Lowry, Love, & Kirby, 1981; MacKinnon, 1989). Magazines targeted to young women promote passivity as a way to Gender Roles and Sexual Pleasure 7 satisfy male partners (Kilbourne 2000a, 2000b; Kim & Ward, 2004); and advertisements in men and women’s magazines frequently portray women as submissive and dependent (Baker, 2005). Female sexual passivity and male sexual agency are prominent themes not only in romance novels (Snitow, 1979), but also in mainstream literature (Millet, 1970; Zilbergeld, 1978). Inculcation of traditional sexual roles may influence men and women’s sexual behavior and enjoyment. Men’s and women’s reports of their sexual behavior suggest a fair degree of conformity to these culturally prescribed roles. For example, heterosexual men are more likely to initiate sex than are their partners (see Impett & Peplau, 2003) and more frequently report pressuring their partners to have unwanted sex; i.e., they seek their partners’ submission to their personal sexual desires (Miller & Benson, 1999). Correspondingly, many women report willingly submitting to unwanted sexual activities. In one recent survey, half of the women interviewed reported this form of sexual compliance (O’Su