By the late 1970s, sexology had become a recognized professional field with many textbooks and several journals and professional organizations. How had disciplinary diversity fared? In a handbook of sexology, Geer and O’Donohue (1987) presented 14 theoretical perspectives on sexuality iden­tified with particular academic disciplines: psychology, physiology, theology, anthropology, and so forth. They propose that […]

Sex research is what is recognized and acknowledged as sex research by those who write textbooks, publish journals, award research money, hire and quote experts, and so forth. In terms of cultural authority, who does the research, who publishes and disseminates it and to whom, who does the teaching, where and to whom—these are all […]

A bird’s-eye view of sexuality theories, research programs, and sex education in the 20th century industrialized world highlights certain themes and assumptions I call “the sexological model of sexuality.” Ten of its most obvious tenets are: [4] sexual interests and experiences of women and men, but the desire for sexual arousal and orgasm is built […]

Authority, then, refers to the probability that particular definitions of reality and judgments of meaning and value will prevail as valid and true. (Starr, 1982, p. 13) Authority on sexual matters within dominant culture has been in­creasingly conferred by mass media and the public on experts with medical or health perspectives. Sexuality is not alone […]

LEONORE TIEFER Ideology works precisely by making us believe that what is socially created, and therefore subject to change, is really natural, and therefore immutable. (Weeks, 1995, p. 34) The guiding metaphor of scientific nativism, that the body and its natural processes provide a “base” or “foundation” which determines the superstructure of social relations, in […]

Sexual fantasies were not reviewed by Oliver and Hyde (1993). This was due in large part to the fact that many studies focus on the content of males’ and females’ fantasies, while at the same time there is no standard method of categorizing sexual fantasies, making it difficult if not impossible to cumulate findings across […]

Mate Selection Recent theorizing and research, particularly among evolutionary psy­chologists, has focused a great deal on mate selection (i. e., on the features that most influence men and women in their choice of sexual partners and marriage partners). Much of social psychologists’ research on mate selection preferences has been conducted in the laboratory using samples […]

Although there has been much theorizing about gender differences in sexuality, and many scattered empirical studies, there was a need to integrate this theorizing and research in a systematic manner. To meet this need, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies reporting data on gender differences in sexual behaviors and attitudes (Oliver & Hyde, 1993). We […]

The theories reviewed here, although operating under considerably different assumptions, actually make predictions that are more similar than different. All predict, for example, that women will be more disapproving of casual sex than men. The theories differ greatly in their understanding of some key constructs, particularly the sexual double standard. Evolution­ary theorists see the sexual […]

Feminist theory is multifaceted and diverse (see, e. g., Tong, 1989). It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide a comprehensive review. Many feminist theorists focus on gender roles and socialization, using role theory and script theory, discussed earlier. Here we will focus on another important aspect of feminist theory, power. The concept […]