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Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 56, No. 2, 2000, pp. 283–296
Becoming a Heterosexual Adult:
The Experiences of Young Women
Janet Shibley Hyde* and Sara R. Jaffee
University of Wisconsin
Adolescence brings new pressures on girls to adopt traditional gender roles and to
become heterosexual adults in ways defined as appropriate by their peer group,
their family, and the culture more broadly. We first review descriptive data on adolescent girls’ early experiences with heterosexuality, including first intercourse
and the experience of desire. Within a theoretical framework of cognitive social
learning theory, we examine messages conveyed to girls by peers, parents, the
mass media, and the schools. All four sources convey antigay attitudes while
making homosexuality invisible; they also encourage traditional gender roles, an
important component of which is heterosexuality.
Adolescence brings new pressures on girls to adopt traditional gender roles
and to become heterosexual adults in ways defined as appropriate by their peer
group, their family, and the culture more broadly. During this important developmental period, interrelated issues concerning femininity, sexuality, and sexual
orientation become prominent. This article reviews research about this transition
from adolescent to adult heterosexuality and emphasizes the influence of messages
about sexuality from peers, parents, the schools, and the media.
Several limitations are imposed on this review by limitations in the existing
data and conceptualizations in the field, and we would be remiss not to note them
from the outset. First, essentially no theories have been proposed to explain heterosexuality (for an exception, see Kitzinger & Wilkinson, 1993), nor have many
studies been conducted on the question. Homosexuality has been understood as the
phenomenon in need of explanation, with dozens of theories and countless
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Janet Hyde, Department of
Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 1202 W. Johnson St., Madison, WI 53705 [e-mail: jshyde@
facstaff.wisc.edu].
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empirical studies dedicated to it. More recently, theorists and researchers have
come to understand that sexual orientation, whether heterosexual or homosexual,
is in need of explanation. Yet even in this work, heterosexuality itself is rarely
explained except as a counterpart to homosexuality (for an exception see D. Bem,
1996). Thus as we seek to understand how and why girls become heterosexual
adults, we face a conceptual and empirical gap of major proportions.
Second, most research and theory, not to mention lay understandings, assume
that sexual orientation is dichotomously categorical. Yet as early as the 1940s,
Kinsey recognized that sexual orientation was better conceptualized as ranging
along a continuum. We adopt the latter view and elaborate the point in more detail
in a later section. Most of the research reviewed here, however, rests on the categorical model.
What do we mean when we say that a woman “is heterosexual” or “has a
heterosexual orientation”? These definitions are contested in the field, the debates
focusing on whether heterosexuality should be defined by behavior (e.g., certain
genital acts), by identity (thinking of oneself as heterosexual), or by the direction of
erotic attraction. Here we define heterosexuality as a person’s erotic and emotional
orientation toward members of the other gender (Hyde & DeLamater, 1997).
The underlying theoretical assumptions of this article are derived from cognitive social learning theory (Bussey & Bandura, 1999) and social role theory (Eagly,
1987). That is, we assume that reinforcements, punishments, and modeling, as well
as gender roles, are all powerful forces that shape behavior and attraction, in this
case heterosexual behavior and attraction.
Our focus on adolescence in this article is not meant to imply that influences
on girls’ sexuality are absent before that time. Clearly girls absorb media messages
and observe their heterosexual parents (if they grow up in a traditional family)
beginning in the preschool years. A full consideration of those earlier years, however, would be beyond the scope and length limitations of this article.
In the first section of this article, we review descriptive data on the heterosexual experiences of adolescent girls. The second section briefly reviews data
on the biological substrates of sexual desire. In the third section we consider four
powerful forces shaping girls into heterosexual adults: the peer group, parents, the
mass media, and the schools.
Data on Female Sexuality in Adolescence and Young Adulthood
Early Experiences With Sexual Arousal
In early adolescence, girls and boys typically have different experiences with
sexual arousal. Most boys begin masturbating between the ages of 12 and 15
(Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948). Thus their earliest experiences involve turning themselves on and learning that orgasm quickly and easily follows arousal.
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These sexual experiences occur in the absence of a relationship because the boy is
likely to be either by himself or with a group of boys. Girls, in contrast, are less
likely to masturbate and, if they do so, they begin at later ages (Gagnon & Simon,
1973). Thus their earliest experiences of arousal are much more likely to occur in a
heterosexual dating situation. They don’t learn to turn themselves on; rather, they
learn that boys turn them on and that arousal occurs in the context of a relationship.
Moreover, because many women and girls have difficulty having orgasms from
heterosexual intercourse, girls are less likely to have early experiences in which
orgasm occurs quickly and easily following arousal.
First Intercourse
The first experience of heterosexual, vaginal intercourse is laden with meaning for most girls and women. For the adolescent girl, multiple meanings are
attached to virginity: her own personal beliefs about its meaning, broader societal
beliefs, family beliefs, and beliefs held by the peer group. First intercourse may
evoke emotional reactions ranging from extremely positive (it may be viewed as a
transition to adulthood or a euphoric expression of love) to disappointment (Weis,
1983) or even anger or shame in the case of forced sex.
Research indicates a marked average difference between males and females in
the experiential aspects of first intercourse. Sprecher, Barbee, and Schwartz (1995)
analyzed the emotional reactions to first coitus reported by 1,600 college students.
Women reported significantly less pleasure and significantly more guilt than men.
Women, for example, rated it only a 2.95 on a pleasure scale that ranged from 1 (not
at all) to 7 (a great deal). Indeed, one researcher used the term “Peggy Lee
Syndrome” (named for her song “Is That All There Is?”) to describe adolescent
girls’ reactions to first intercourse (Weis, 1983). Despite, or perhaps because of,
our culture’s romanticized expectations that first intercourse be a combination
of fireworks on the 4th of July and the ground moving beneath, adolescent girls
typically find it disappointing.
Thompson’s book Going All the Way (1995), based on in-depth interviews
with more than 400 teenage girls, provides qualitative insight into the extent to
which teenage girls want sex, including first intercourse, to be associated with
romance. One of her respondents, Tracy, turned down sexual offers from several
boyfriends in order to maintain her virginity and because she wanted a real relationship with the person with whom she first had intercourse. About the boy with
whom she finally had intercourse, she said,
I wanted him to be my first. I thought maybe it would make things better if I did. Make the
relationship stronger. Like he was a good talker and I was head over heels in love with him,
so I did. (Thompson, 1995, p. 29)
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One should also remember that the experience of first intercourse sometimes
occurs not because it was wanted but because it was forced. In one well-sampled
national survey, 71% of women reported that their first intercourse was wanted,
another 25% reported that it was not wanted but was not forced, and 4% reported
that it was forced (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994). Among those
whose first intercourse was wanted, 48% of the women (compared with 25% of the
men) reported that the main reason for first intercourse was affection for the partner
(Laumann et al., 1994). In contrast, 51% of the men reported the main reason
was curiosity and a feeling that they were ready for sex (compared with 24%
for women). Thus the motivation and affect that teens bring to the experience
is considerably different for girls and boys—girls bringing affection and boys
bringing curiosity.
The Experience of Desire
Missing from most research on adolescent girls’ sexuality is recognition of the
girls’ honest experience of sexual desire (Fine, 1988; Tolman, 1999). For example,
in Tolman’s (1999) research with urban and suburban girls who were juniors in
high school, all described an “erotic voice,” that is, a clear knowledge of powerful
sexual feelings in their bodies. They used phrases such as “when my body says yes
yes yes yes” and “an overwhelming longing” to describe this experience of desire.
At the same time, they described their desire as a dilemma between thinking of
themselves and having others know them to be good, acceptable, and normal, and
at the same time acknowledging and acting on their own sexual desire.
Summary
Girls’ first experiences with sexual arousal are less likely, compared with
boys, to occur during masturbation and far more likely to occur with a partner of
the other gender. Numerous studies document the phenomenon that, compared
with boys, girls’ motives for intercourse are far more likely to involve relationship
and romance. At the same time, most girls have a strong sense of their own sexual
desire.
Biological Substrates
Traditionally scientists have thought that the strong upsurge in sex drive
occurred during and as a result of puberty, and specifically as a result of
gonadarche, the maturation of the ovaries and testes, which creates a marked
increase in the production of the gonadal hormones estrogen, progesterone, and
testosterone. Gonadarche occurs around age 12 for girls and age 14 for boys
(Boxer, Levinson, & Petersen, 1989). Yet when adults recall their first sexual
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attractions and fantasies, they typically report that they occurred around age 10,
well before gonadarche (McClintock & Herdt, 1996). It appears that a crucial
though neglected process is adrenarche, the maturation of the adrenal glands,
which manufacture the androgen DHEA in both males and females, which in turn
metabolizes into testosterone and estradiol. In short, it seems likely that the
upsurge in adrenal androgens around age 10 in both girls and boys produces a
marked sexual interest beginning at that time (McClintock & Herdt, 1996).
Adrenal androgens provide the fuel for the sex drive but they do not provide
the direction, that is, sexual orientation, which is determined by other factors.
Research has repeatedly demonstrated the finding that there are no differences
between gays and straights in levels of sex hormones such as testosterone (Banks &
Gartrell, 1995). Therefore, we turn our attention to sociocultural factors that shape
the direction of desire.
Ensuring Heterosexuality: Forces in Adolescence and Young Adulthood
Many forces, we believe, channel girls in a heterosexual direction. Before
we consider those forces, though, we should examine the assumptions underlying any discussion of sexual orientation. Two contrasting views are (a) an
assumption of inherent heterosexuality and (b) an assumption of inherent
bisexuality. Many traditional theories and research on sexual orientation rest on
an underlying and generally unstated assumption of normative, inherent heterosexuality, that is, that individuals are born heterosexual and become gay or
lesbian only because of some deviant biological or environmental event. A small
number of theories and studies rest on an assumption of inherent bisexuality: that
infants are born sexual, capable of sexual response to members of their own
gender and members of the other gender (e.g., Hyde & DeLamater, 1997). Only
through experience are they channeled toward heterosexuality, homosexuality,
or bisexuality. Both assumptions are consistent with the finding that, in American society, the great majority of adults are heterosexual. Under the assumption
of inherent heterosexuality, this occurs because few “accidents” occur in development, and most people follow their “natural” heterosexual tendencies. Under
the assumption of inherent bisexuality, the great majority of adults are heterosexual because of overwhelming cultural pressures toward heterosexuality. Here
we work under the assumption of inherent bisexuality because we reject the
assumption of normative heterosexuality and because the data show that women
are able to move between heterosexual, lesbian, and bisexual patterns at many
times in adulthood (Peplau, Spalding, Conley, & Veniegas, 2000).
Perhaps the most powerful of these forces shaping girls into heterosexual
adults is the assumption—pervasive among peers, parents, the media, and teachers
—that everyone is heterosexual unless proven otherwise. In a classic essay,
Adrienne Rich (1980) wrote eloquently about compulsory heterosexuality. Given
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the nature of self-fulling prophecies (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968), it comes as no
surprise that the great majority of children grow up thinking they are heterosexual
unless some disconfirming events occur.
Here we argue that all four sources of cultural influence—peers, parents, the
media, and the schools—shape girls into heterosexual adults through three processes: (a) displaying overtly antigay or homophobic attitudes, leading adolescents
to believe that homosexuality is wrong, disgusting, and abnormal; (b) making
homosexuality and homosexual persons invisible; and (c) encouraging traditional
gender roles, a strong component of which is heterosexuality. Below we investigate these sources of influence and processes in greater detail.
The Peer Group
A number of studies, including very recent ones, have documented the existence of antigay prejudice among adolescents. In a study of college freshmen,
D’Augelli and Rose (1990) reported that 50% felt gay men were disgusting,
thought homosexual behavior was wrong, and were indifferent to the problems of
gays and lesbians. Of the participants, 30% reported that they would prefer to go to
college only with heterosexuals. Nelson and Krieger (1997) administered the
Attitudes toward Homosexuality Scale (MacDonald & Games, 1974) to 190
college students and found that males expressed more negative attitudes toward
homosexuals than females did. Baker and Fishbein (1998) administered the Homosexuality Attitudes Scale—Revised (Milham, San Miguel, & Kellog, 1976) to 276
adolescents in grades 7, 9, and 11. They, too, found that female adolescents showed
less prejudice toward gay and lesbian targets than males did. In addition, prejudice
toward gay and lesbian targets increased between grades 9 and 11 for males,
whereas for females, prejudice decreased across those grades.
At the extreme end of the spectrum, adolescent peers may exert pressures
toward heterosexuality through antigay victimization. In a national survey, 15- to
21-year-old lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths reported having been the victims of
the following hate crimes: verbal insults, 80%; threats of attack, 44%; property
damage, 23%; objects thrown at them, 33%; being chased or followed, 30%; being
spat on, 13%; physical assault, 17%; assault with a weapon, 10%; and sexual
assault, 22% (Hershberger & D’Augelli, 1995). Even on relatively peaceful
college campuses, things are no better. A survey of gay, lesbian, and bisexual
students at the Pennsylvania State University showed a similar pattern of harassment on campus (D’Augelli, 1992).
An adolescent girl does not personally have to have been the object of
antigay victimization for it to influence her sexuality. High-profile cases of such
victimization occur every year and receive much publicity in the mass media.
Any adolescent reflecting on her own sexual orientation will certainly know that
it is inconvenient at best and fatal at worst to walk a lesbian or bisexual pathway.
In their sample of first-year college students, D’Augelli and Rose (1990)
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reported that 98% of the respondents had heard disparaging comments on
campus about gays and lesbians, and nearly all expected the average lesbian or
gay man to be harassed on campus.
Ironically, given the pervasiveness and virulence of antigay prejudice, gays
and lesbians are at the same time invisible as positive role models for their younger
peers, and there is a dearth of positive and accurate information about gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. In part, the lack of positive role models among the peer group is
a result of antigay prejudice. In a study of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the
South, Sears (1991) reported that 97% of the young adult respondents recalled that
their classmates held negative attitudes, and more than half feared harassment if
they came out in high school. Consequently, most “passed” as heterosexuals until
after they graduated. Moreover, there is little opportunity for gay and lesbian
adolescents to participate in the larger gay subculture, as its activities are usually
geared toward adults (Gonsiorek, 1988; Zera, 1992). Without other support
networks or alternative sources of information about homosexuality, the antigay
and homophobic norms and values of the peer group become powerful influences
on adolescent identity development (Savin-Williams, 1994).
Particularly in early adolescence, peers are fundamentalists about gender role
conformity and view heterosexuality as a key component of the female role
(Herek, 1990). This equation is rarely made explicit. Rather, homosexuality is
perceived as a violation of normal gender roles, as in the stereotype of the butch
lesbian or the effeminate gay man (Garnets, 1996). It is only when individuals defy
gender role expectations that the relationship between sexual orientation and
gender roles becomes clear (Herek, 1990).
We do not mean to suggest that peer influences toward heterosexuality are all
negative, such as fear of antigay victimization or of gender role violations. Adolescent girls doubtless experience most of the forces as positive. Having a boyfriend is
a sign of popularity and social success. Femininity and conformity to the female
role mean that one is a “good girl,” in a way that suggests moral virtuousness.
As one example of these positive forces, adolescent girls socialize each other
into norms about the feelings associated with romantic love (Simon, Eder, &
Evans, 1992). Their discourse with each other contains much information about
romantic love. These norms include the following: (a) romantic relationships
should be important, but not everything in life; and (b) one should have romantic
feelings only for someone of the other gender. Heterosexuality, again, is an
unstated assumption. In Simon and colleagues’ study (1992) these norms had
emerged by seventh or eighth grade.
Parents
Parents, like other adults in American culture, often hold antigay attitudes and
communicate these to their children. Moreover, most parents assume that their
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adolescent children are heterosexual; believing that, it is therefore unnecessary
for them to provide accurate information about homosexuality or the lesbian/gay
community (Herdt, 1989). Consequently, homosexuality is invisible in parentchild communications.
At the same time that parents convey antigay attitudes or make gays and
lesbians invisible, they also convey numerous messages that their children are or
will be heterosexual. Comments such as “When you grow up and get married . . .”
are powerful. They carry the definitive quality of a statement such as “When it’s
summer . . .” These messages are so clear that, by about the age of 5, children have
formed a concept of marriage and know that a member of the other gender is the
appropriate marriage partner (Broderick, 1966a, 1966b).
The Mass Media
The media abound with models of heterosexuality and messages that heterosexuality can bring about popularity, power, and pleasure. At the same time, the
media promote antigay prejudice in two ways. First, by generally making gays and
lesbians invisible, they imply that heterosexuality is normal and positive. Second,
when gays and lesbians are visible in the media, they are frequently portrayed as
villains or victims (Gross, 1991). Traditionally, stories involving gays or lesbians
are geared toward straight audiences and deal with the struggles that heterosexual
characters face in accepting homosexual characters (e.g., Philadelphia) or include
gay characters for comic relief (e.g., The Birdcage). Media depictions of sexuality,
then, promote heterosexuality as normative. When homosexuality is depicted
at all, it is portrayed as problematic, dangerous, or comic (Gross, 1991). A few
exceptions have occurred in very recent years, in which gays and lesbians are
portrayed as positive and multidimensional characters (e.g., My So-Called Life,
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love). It remains to be seen what
impact these images will have.
Teen magazines, too, assume heterosexuality and relegate homosexuality to
invisibility. Although these magazines abound with advice regarding dating and
sexual behavior, the advice is geared toward White, middle-class readers and
assumes heterosexuality (Carpenter, 1998). In a content analysis of teen magazines
published between 1988 and 1989, including Seventeen, Young Miss (which has
now transformed its YM initials to Young & Modern), and Sassy, Evans, Rutberg,
Sather, and Turner (1991) reported that articles dealing with interpersonal relationships appeared more frequently than articles dealing with issues of self-esteem,
education and career, special problems, or ideology. Despite this focus on
romance, sex, and friendship, only one explicit article about gay lifestyles
appeared across all issues. Indeed, teen magazines are actively discouraged from
presenting “controversial” material. For instance, soon after it was launched, Sassy
(intended to be the teen version of Ms.) was forced to remove content dealing with
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homosexuality, birth control, incest, and explicit information about sex when a
reader/advertiser boycott threatened to shut down the magazine permanently
(Larsen, 1990).
Carpenter (1998) conducted a content analysis to evaluate 244 articles written
between 1974 and 1994 on sexuality and romance from Seventeen magazine.
Although there was an increased recognition of homosexuality over this period, the
editors remained ambivalent toward gays and lesbians, affirming the acceptability
of same-gender activity while at the same time reassuring readers that engaging in
same-sex behavior did not necessarily imply that one was gay. Clearly the editors
of teen magazines do not attach such caveats to heterosexual behavior. Can you
imagine them reassuring the reader that, even though she had engaged in some
heterosexual behavior, it did not necessarily mean that she was heterosexual?
Scientific reports may fail to convey the embeddedness of heterosexuality in
these magazines. Consider the following examples:
[From a beauty advice column in Seventeen] Designer Giorgio Armani’s new Emporio
Armani For Her delivers a sexy, spicy-citrusy aroma thanks to a yummy concoction
of vanilla, musk and mandarin. P.S. There’s a matching guys scent for your boy du jour.
(Seventeen, July 1999, p. 32)
YM (Young & Modern) has a regular feature entitled “Romance,” featuring readers’ contributions. The instructions read
Share your love stories! What has your boy done for you in the name of love? Has he spent
Saturday night with you baby-sitting your little bro? . . . (YM, July 1999, p. 36)
The first excerpt clearly assumes that the person to be attracted with sexy perfume
is a boy. The text most certainly does not helpfully point out “There’s a matching
guys scent for your boy du jour, or, if you prefer girls, just have your girl du jour
wear the same scent as yours.” The second excerpt concerns romantic love. Again,
the unstated assumption is that the love partner for the female reader is a boy, and
the instructions do not specify “What has your boyfriend or girlfriend done for you
in the name of love?”
In 1971 Sandra and Daryl Bem wrote about the nonconscious ideology of
gender roles that relegates women to an inferior status. Just as the fish does not
know that it lives in a wet environment (it has never experienced anything else), so
most people are not aware of these gender ideologies: They are nonconscious. The
same is true for the ideology of heterosexuality: It is assumed so pervasively that it
is nonconscious and therefore never questioned. We doubt that the writers of the
instructions to contributors for the romance column above consciously reasoned
that 90% to 95% of their readers were heterosexual and therefore the instructions
would assume that boys were the romantic partners. Instead, with a female readership, they automatically thought that romance involves boys.
Finally, the mass media promote heterosexuality in part by encouraging traditional gender roles. Focusing again on teen magazines for girls, they promote a
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concern with appearance, the goal being to be attractive to an assumed male
viewer, that is, to be heterosexually attractive (McRobbie, 1991).
Some may argue that the media have become more broad-minded in the last
decade and that the stereotyping and assumptions of heterosexuality are a thing of
the past. Two points should be considered in responding to this argument. First,
with cable television, a proliferation of oldies stations has occurred, so that one can
have instant access to Kojak, The Brady Bunch, or I Dream of Jeannie and all the
traditional stereotypes found in those shows (Douglas, 1994). Second, systematic
content analyses show only small trends away from traditional stereotyping. For
example, an analysis of popular television situation comedies from the 1950s to the
1990s found that The Cosby Show of the late 1980s earned the highest scores for
equality of gender roles, but the 1990s series Home Improvement earned the lowest
scores—lower even than the Father Knows Best series of the 1950s (Olson &
Douglas, 1997).
Finally, we should note that, although the mass media clearly promote heterosexuality, they promote an ambivalent attitude toward women’s heterosexuality
and have done so for decades (Douglas, 1994). Women’s sexuality (heterosexuality) is portrayed simultaneously as the road to romance and love and perhaps
even great pleasure and liberation, while at the same time it is portrayed as leading
to unwanted teen pregnancy, the shackles of infant care, sexually transmitted
diseases, and loss of reputation. As media expert Susan Douglas observed,
We get the bends as we escape into the schizophrenic landscape of Glamour or Vogue, in
which editorials, advice columns, and articles urge us to be assertive, strong, no-nonsense
feminists while the fashion and beauty layouts insist that we be passive, anorexic spectacles
whose only function is to attract men and who should spend our leisure time mastering the
art of the pedicure. (Douglas, 1994, p. 271)
The Schools
The schools exert influences on adolescent girls’ sexuality through many
agents, including peers, teachers, and the curriculum. The role of peers was
reviewed in an earlier section. Here we focus on explicit teaching about sexuality
as found in sex education curricula.
A behind-the-scenes war is being waged in the United States today over the
nature and content of sexuality education in the schools. Many school districts
have opted to play Switzerland and provide no sexuality education beyond a
one-hour session on menstruation with fifth-grade girls. A few have adopted model
sexuality education programs developed by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS, 1991). Still others have adopted one of
several available conservative, abstinence-only curricula such as Sex Respect.
The development of Sex Respect was federally funded, and the curriculum is
targeted at middle-school children. Its major goal is to teach that abstinence is the
only approach that is moral and safe. The curriculum uses cartoons and other
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attention-grabbing techniques. Children chant catchy slogans in class, such as
“Don’t be a louse, wait for your spouse!” and “Pet your dog, not your date!”
Students take a chastity pledge in class.
Sex Respect is, in fact, very antiheterosexual, at least in regard to premarital
sexual expression. At the same time, it presents the two-parent, married, heterosexual couple as the sole model of a healthy, “real” family. The message to the
adolescent girl is that she must commit herself to preserving her virginity and fighting off sexually voracious boys. Embedded in Sex Respect are clearly articulated
gender stereotypes in which boys are characterized as “sexual aggressors” and girls
as “virginity protectors.” The curriculum implicitly promotes heterosexuality,
albeit only within marriage.
Limitations
Limitations are imposed on this review by the scope of existing research and
theories. In particular, little research has been done on ethnic-group variations in
the United States in regard to diversity in cultural messages regarding sexuality. In
traditional Latin American cultures, for example, gender roles are relatively rigidly
defined (Comas-Diaz, 1987). Boys are given greater freedom and are encouraged
in sexual exploits, whereas girls are expected to be passive, obedient, and virginal.
Empirical data provide evidence of ethnic-group variations in sexuality. For example, among White Americans, 67% of men and 44% of women report masturbating
in the previous year (Laumann et al., 1994). The comparable statistics are substantially lower for African Americans: 40% and 32%, respectively. And the data
from Latinos are similar for men (67%) but markedly lower for women (35%),
creating a larger gender gap for Latinos.
Certainly the sources of sexual messages are the same for all ethnic groups:
peers, parents, the mass media, and schools. But the content of the messages is
likely to vary across different cultural groups, whether within the United States or
cross-nationally.
Conclusion
Girls traverse the teen years with a complex array of forces shuttling them
toward heterosexuality. By as early as age 10 or 12, they may experience sexual
arousal or sexual desire, stimulated by an increase in production of adrenal androgens at adrenarche. Peer relations become intense and exert a powerful pull toward
gender role conformity and a desire for popularity, heterosexuality being crucial to
both. Parents, the mass media, and the school curriculum all add their gravitational
pull toward heterosexuality by rendering homosexuality invisible, expressing
antigay prejudice, and assuming heterosexuality.
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Research on children’s and adolescents’ sexuality has been so suppressed in
the United States that we know very little about these topics today. Added to this is
the tendency of researchers to focus on explaining homosexuality rather than heterosexuality, leaving a research and theory vacuum of major proportions. There is
much that we need to know about how and why girls grow up to be heterosexual.
For example, when do girls experience their first heterosexual fantasies and what is
the content of those fantasies? If parents were more open in discussing sexuality,
would girls still be less likely to masturbate than boys? We will not truly understand human sexuality until we understand female sexuality.
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JANET SHIBLEY HYDE is Chair of the Department of Psychology and Helen
Thompson Woolley Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Her research interests are the psychology of women, gender,
and human sexuality. She is the author of two undergraduate textbooks, Half the
Human Experience: The Psychology of Women (5th ed., 1996) and Understanding
Human Sexuality (7th ed., 2000). She is also the author of numerous articles on the
psychology of women and gender, including a meta-analysis of gender differences
in sexuality (Psychological Bulletin, 1993) and two recent articles on sexuality
during pregnancy and the year postpartum (Journal of Sex Research) and sexuality
and the dual-earner couple (Journal of Family Psychology).
SARA JAFFEE is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the
University of Wisconsin. She specializes in both social and developmental
psychology and focuses particularly on links between antisocial behavior, the
transition to parenthood, and subsequent parenting.