Sexual Scripts refers to ideas regarding the way females and males are required to interact with one another. For example this includes the way each gender is supposed to behave in cultural, personal and societal situations. The concept of sexual script was first developed in 1973 in the book Sexual Conduct written by sociologists William Simon and John H. Gagnon. The idea generates a new imagery and metaphor for comprehension of human sexual encounters as learned and social interactions.
Sexual Scripts
Sexual scripts are formed by symbols and meanings that offer clues and cues to facilitate development of sexualities. These symbols and meanings are developed by cultural scenarios including social change and historical periods, interpersonal scenarios including interactions and encounters, and intra-psychic scenarios that show how personal imageries and sexual desires grow. Also, sexual scripts are constructed by adolescent stage that shapes their knowledge on sexual behavior and their sexual impulses, fantasies, and roles ( Simon, 2017).
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Sexual scripts helps people to learn social interactions on how to respond and behave in romantic or sexual situations. Also, they offer guidelines for appropriate sexual encounters and sexual behaviors because these are learned culture, social, and personal interactions. It outlines the role of humans in sexual desires, sexual orientation, sexual component of our self-definition, and sexual expression. Women and men tend to react to sexual advances based on their sexual script that allows them to reflect on such behaviors as major and resilient roles that they express in preceding relationships ( Simon, 2017). Therefore, sexual scripts play a significant role in our life in guiding us on appropriate sexual behaviors and interactions.
Sexual scripts mostly comprise of social conventions that are called into play to guide an individual sexual behavior. This especially comes into play during the break of childhood into adolescence. It helps to define sexual sensations for adolescents and teach them on socially ad culturally appropriate sexual responses during the socialization process. Adolescents are a vulnerable group who may be prone to unhealthy ideas of sexual responses and encounters ( Simon, 2017). As a result, sexual scripts can be called into play to address the abnormal or negative development among adolescents by the act of fantasy in a person’s brain and conform the unhealthy sexual ideas.
The assumptions we make about other scripts such as social scripts is that they attach appropriate behaviors and meanings to particular behaviors. The reason for this assumption is because it is assumed certain behaviors are learned during childhood and adolescent ( Simon, 2017). Thus, healthy sexuality requires scripts that offer appropriate information to an individual and eliminate development of unhealthy sexual ideas.
Sexual scripts for adolescents are changing. In the current society, adolescents are growing very fast compared to the past generations. They quickly assume adults behaviors and traits that were not agreeable in several years ago. Also, their deep romantic relationships with others and their sexual roles, are more likely to cause changes in the sexual scripts. Adolescents’ sexual scripts are currently being shaped by the unimpeachable behaviors that is widespread across the globe. Sexual scripts are considered to be an intervention for normal development in every individual. Healthy sexual scripts would lead to relatively positive behaviors while unhealthy sexual scripts are more likely to result in risky behavior to be acted out among adolescents ( Strong & Cohen, 2013) . Hence, the current ever-changing adolescents has generated change that require deep penetration and alteration of the sexual scripts to meet the changing needs.
Conclusion
Sexual scripts play a crucial role in our society. They offer guidance to us on responsible sexual behaviors and encounters. They are allow us to learn how to respond and interact in cultural, social, and personal situations. It helps to reshape the unhealthy sexual behaviors and idea especially among adolescents into healthy ideas that contribute to positive and responsible behaviors. Therefore, they are important in guiding the society on appropriate sexual relations and encounters.
References
Simon, W. (2017). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality . Routledge.
Strong, B., & Cohen, T. F. (2013). The marriage and family experience: Intimate relationships in a changing society . Cengage Learning.
