Abstract:
The present study examined the process by which couples, in the context
of a heterosexual romantic relationship, participate in sexual activity. As they did
so, their interactions helped to construct their relationship. Social construction
theory and the gender perspective provided the theoretical foundation for this
qualitative research.
Nine heterosexual couples were recruited primarily through an
introductory course in human sexuality. Each member of these nine couples was
interviewed separately using a qualitative, semistructured interview format. Each
interview lasted about an hour and questions focused on behavioral and sexual
expectations for women and men in romantic relationships. Other areas
examined included prior dating relationships and sexual experiences, sexual
activity in the present relationship, comfort and satisfaction with the specific
sexual experiences in the current relationship, satisfaction with their sexual
relationship, and general relationship satisfaction. Qualitative data analysis
techniques were used to arrive at five major themes.
Results illustrated how women and men constructed notions of gender-appropriate
sexual interaction as they participated in sexual activity in their
relationship. First, participants' views of sexuality, the meanings they attached to
sexual acts, their expectations of specific sexual encounters and of sexual
relationships in general, and the choices they made in the navigation process
were often based upon social and cultural expectations of what sex is. Second,
these meanings and expectations combined to produce behavior that was
gendered. Third, choices participants made with regard to their current sexual
behaviors were very much affected by their previous sexual experiences with
their current partner as well as with past partners. Fourth, participants' original
social and cultural expectations were modified within the context of their current
relationship. Fifth, context specific experiences affected the navigation of sexual
activity.
Results suggest that sexual relationships themselves were constructed
and reconstructed as relationship partners interacted with each other and that
sexual interaction in general was heavily affected by the sexual double standard.
Participants did not always recognize however, that the double standard was
active in and affecting their relationship. Additionally, couples socially constructed
sex as being penile vaginal intercourse, a construction that invariably led to a
higher frequency of male orgasms.
