Men ’ s Exploration of Multiple Sexual Partners : Economic vs . Psychosocial Explanation

This paper examines factors influencing the number of female sexual partners for heterosexual men. Men’s pursuit of multiple female sex partners can be measured two ways: the frequency of purchasing sexual services from prostitutes and the maintenance of sexual relationships with multiple women within a short span of time. Factors influencing the number of sexual partners include male differences in resource attainment, conservative versus progressive views about sexual behavior, and beliefs in stereotypes about “expected” behaviors for women. Findings show that (1) male resource attainment positively influences the men’s preference for multiple partners, despite promoting progressive views about sexual behavior and less acceptance of female stereotypes, and (2) conservative sexual views and acceptance of female stereotypes have only indirect effects on men’s preference for multiple partners. The present paper addresses certain factors that determine why some heterosexual men have more female sexual partners than others. Men’s exploration of multiple female sex partners can be measured by their frequency of buying sex services from prostitutes and keeping sexual relationships with multiple women within a short span of time. The paper argues that men’s differential resource attainment, their conservatism or progressivism about sexual behavior in general, and their belief system in regard to stereotypes or myths pertaining certain “expected” behaviors for women may result in some men’s preference for temporary relationships to conventional ones, which ultimately makes differences among men in exploring multiple female sexual partners. In so doing, the paper shows pathways among aforementioned socialpsychological factors. The Social Exchange Theory tells us that sex is a resource for women when men want it, and thus men’s having multiple partners for sex is a mere social exchange (Baumeister and Tice 2001). This perspective does not clearly convey, however, why the demand side of the exchange system has put some men in a more advantageous position than others; that is, to explore more sexual partners from the pool of women in society. Therefore, even when there are demands on men’s side, the question remains: why do some men prefer and explore more temporary sexual relationships while others do not? To answer this question, at least partially, we argue that both structural (e.g., men’s education and occupation), and cultural factors (that are inherent in the • Department of Sociology, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina •• Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Southern University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana ••• Department of Sociology, Francis Marion University, Florence, South Carolina belief systems regarding sexuality) determine this difference to some extent. While men’s ideological and psychological constructs regarding sexuality are shaped by society (e.g. sexual conservatism, believing in various myths and stereotyping) ensuring women’s subordination in men’s minds, only some men take the advantage of this privilege. These constructs are the core in some men’s preferring short-term relationships to long-term ones leading to the exploration of multiple sex partners. Men’s preference for short term relationships is reflected in their intention to have temporary partners, perhaps to avoid responsibilities of relatively permanent relationships when they have no time to keep regular relationships. While the hegemonic expression of masculinity is shaped by differential social forms to confirm gender order in society (Carrington and Scott 2008), the sexual conservatism or progressive attitude towards human sexual practices (such as, premarital sex, teen-sex, homosexuality, and extramarital sex) may influence the construction and stereotyping of women’s “expected” behaviors by men (Mankayi 2008). This stereotyping is reflected in believing in rape myths, such as women asking for sex when they are provocatively dressed, do hitchhiking, attempt to defend their reputations, and go men’s homes willingly; the rape myths also include the belief that rapes are always women’s fault, and a source of bad reputation for women. The acceptance of rape myths may contribute to men’s exploration of multiple sexual partners measured by buying/ attempts to buy sex from prostitutes and keeping multiple partners. From structural point of view, however, it can be argued that when some men have more access to resources than others, they may try to explore multiple sex partners. For men, therefore, the access to resources (such as, higher education and prestigious occupations) is one of the determining factors in exploring multiple partners for a short time-span. Thus, while the belief system pertaining sexuality and stereotypes of women’s behavior encourage men to explore temporary partners, the lack of resources constrains some men’s exploration. This belief system reflects men’s feeling of entitlement to have multiple partners. Also, compared to men who lack the resources, such as education and decent occupations, men with more resources are more likely to be sexually less conservative, but less susceptible to rape myth acceptance because of their “enlightenment” through education and higher occupations. Yet, but they take advantage of their privileges as men by exploring relatively short-term sex partners from multiple outlets. Necessarily, all men have the privileges, but all cannot afford these. In the present paper, we, therefore, try to establish connections among men’s resources, their sexual conservatism, social-psychological constructs regarding their sexual power reflected in their stereotyping of women in various myths (e.g. rape myths for the present paper) with their preferring multiple short-term relationships to relatively permanent ones, which results in buying sex and having multiple sex partners. For the ease of interpreting these connections, the first section of the present paper addresses the patriarchal belief systems in relation to men’s acceptance of rape myths, which serves as a proxy for their attitude towards women’s behavior in general. This section also shows how the rape myth acceptance promotes men’s preference for shortterm sexual partnerships that ultimately results in exploring multiple partners. The second section analyzes how the feeling of sexual entitlement in men’s minds is reflected in their sexual conservatism and acceptance of rape myths, and how the latter is influenced by the former. After establishing these relationships in general terms, we relate men’s differential accesses to resources to their levels of sexual conservatism, and rape myth acceptance. Also, we argue that these accesses reflect some men’s more structural power over resources than others, and this differential accesses increase their likelihood of taking advantage of their privilege in exploring multiple sex partners, despite being less conservative and less susceptible to rape myth acceptance. I. Rape Myth Acceptance: A Panorama of Masculine Hegemony in Labeling of Women’s Sexuality In general framework, buying sex and having multiple sex partners are closely dependent on a belief system that is operative in the minds of the actors, and thus, the analysis of these beliefs also reflects a social system. For men, both taking services from prostitutes and keeping multiple partners are socially acceptable and tolerable in several societies where the consumers of prostitution are invisible (Farley 2004 & 2005; Hughes 2004 & 2005; Hughes & Denisova 2002; Marianne 2004), and for the same reason, men’s search for multiple partners is “naturalized” or “essentialized” in societies. Men are rewarded for having multiple partners while women are penalized by sexual double standards (Mihausen and Harold 1999). We argue that the belief system concerning women and sexuality among men needs to be understood when we explain the differences among men in exploring multiple partners. This system is obvious in men’s differential levels of accepting various stereotyping (e.g. rape myths) about women’s sexuality. While some studies (e.g. Peplau 2003; Diamond 2004; Lenton & Bryan 2005) explicate that the notion that men have more sexual desires than women is questionable, others (e.g. Hawkins et al. 2004; King and Scott 2005) show that female sexuality is suppressed in many cultures. Although Impett and Peplau (2003) show that men have more sexual desire than women in general, and women are compliant in performing unwanted sex with partners, they do not reject the idea that it is because of social-cultural construction of sexuality in relation to gender. In this vein, we add that even among men, this belief system varies significantly, and as such, men’s levels of preferring short term partners differ from one to another as well. As Melrose (2000:1) argues, “‘Patriarchy’ refers to a system of male domination, which results in economic, social and political inequalities between men and women”. This system, thus, creates privileges for men in general. Following Begany and Milburn (2002), we argue that these privileges ensure an existence of a patriarchal world in men’s minds about their entitlements for sex and their control on women’s sexuality. For example, while prostitution refers to the market for men to buy women’s bodies, and as such their sexuality (O’Neil and Berberet 2000), having multiple female sex partners for heterosexual men is normalized by men’s power in society. This normalization is reflected in men’s minds about women’s sexuality, and also, because men can fulfill their sexual needs from multiple outlets, they prefer temporary sexual encounters to permanent ones. The notion of “power” explicated above is based on what is called “gender privilege” (Johnson 2000; McIntosh 1993), which refers to “unearned” and “conferred” dominance and privileges (McIntosh 1993). These privileges also conf