Sexual script theory

The idea of sexual script brings a new metaphor and imagery for understanding human sexual activity as social and learned interactions. The concept was introduced by sociologists John H. Gagnon and William Simon in their 1973 book Sexual Conduct. The idea highlights three levels of scripting: cultural/historical, social/interactive and personal/intrapsychic. It draws from a range of theories including symbolic interactionism, discourse theory and feminism. The theory of sexual scripting brings sociological, cultural, anthropological, historical and social psychological tools to the study of human sexualities. Whereas human sexuality is usually seen as the province of the biologist and the clinician, scripting helps research and analysis to understand sexualities as less biological and more cultural, historical and social.

Sexual scripting suggests the importance of meanings and symbols in human sexuality. According to Gagnon and Simon, scripts can be layered through three dimensions: 'cultural scenarios', 'interpersonal scenarios', and 'intrapsychic scenarios'. Sexual feeling does not simply happen from within the body but needs meanings and symbols which provide cues and clues to enable sexualities to develop. Cultural scenarios are linked to different historical periods and social change; scripts can be shown to change with the arrival of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, for example (Epstein, Lauman ...). Interpersonal scenarios are linked to encounters and interactions (for example in rape, as illustrated in the early work of Stevi Jackson). And intra-psychic scenarios indicate the ways in which personal sexual 'turn ons' and imageries grow. Sexual scripts can be seen as providing guidelines for appropriate sexual behaviour and sexual encounters, as sexual behaviour and encounters are learned through culture and others in interactions. It can be linked to theories of sexual desire but is critical of the tendency to stress the purely biological aspects of desire.

Drawing upon conversational analysis, sexual encounters are considered to be scripted if the parties involved use any of these five linguistic devices:

Research on sexual scripts and sexual script theory have concluded that sexual scripts are organised through gender, class, ethnicity and other social vectors.

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