Love and Sexuality

1. Love and Sexuality • Love in American culture • What is love? Theoretical approaches • Sexual values and standards • Sex in marriage • Premarital sex and pregnancy • Gay and lesbian sexuality

2. Historically • Love, sex, marriage were separate • 19th century: love as pure, spiritual • Marriage as companionship • 1920’s: sexual liberation • Today: love, sex before marriage

3. Mythic (Youthful) Choice Rebellion Self-realization Sexual expression Prosaic (Mature) Commitment Attachment Self-sacrifice Restraint Cultural Views of Love(Ann Swidler)

4. What is Love? Schacter • Psychology of emotion • All emotions have 2 components • Physiological arousal • Definition of situation (labeling of emotion)

5. What is Love? Reiss: Wheel Theory Sociocultural Background Role conceptions Intimacy Needs Rapport Mutual dependency Self- revelation

6. 3 components to love relationships: What is Love? Sternberg: Triangular Theory Intimacy Passion Decision/commitment

7. Triangles can take different shapes “Match” b/t partners’ triangles is crucial I Infatuation I D/C P I Empty love P D/C Romantic love P D/C

8. What is Love? Shaver: Attachment Theory • Lover as attachment object • All love relationships are the same: • Bond depends on AO’s response • Happier if AO present • Share more with AO • Feel at one with AO

9. Three types of adult attachment • Secure (56%) • Anxious/ambivalent (19%) • Avoidant (24%)

10. Passionate love Sexually charged, early in relationship Companionate love Affection and partnership; long-lasting 2 Stages of love

11. Sexual Value Systems (Gecas and Libby) • Traditional-religious (began in colonial times) • Romantic (late 19th century) • Recreational (historically applied to men; more recently to women) • Utilitarian-predatory (probably always existed)

12. Premarital sex: acceptable for adults, not young teens Homosexuality: Divided opinions Extramarital sex: not acceptable Sexual Standards, 2002 (GSS)

13. Sex in Marriage Is monogamous Is part of wider life context Involves decisions about parenthood More likely to involve contraception

14. Contraceptive Use, 1995

15. Teenage premarital sex % of never-married teenagers who ever had intercourse, 2002

16. Race/ethnic differences in teen sex

17. Age at first intercourse Never married teens, ages 15-19, 2002

18. # of partners, last 12 months Never married teens, ages 15-19, 2002

19. % not using contraception at first intercourse Never married teens, ages 15-19, 2002

20. Percent of teen births before and after marriage, 1930-1994

21. Conclusions: Teen sexual behavior • Most teens have had sex by age 18 • Boys, minorities start earlier • Typical age is around 15-16 • Most have had 0 or 1 partners in 12 mos. • Sex is spontaneous, opportunistic, infrequent • Birth control is often overlooked • 10% of teen girls 15-19 become pregnant each year

22. The Teen Pregnancy “Problem” 1/3 of teen pregnancies end in abortion Teen pregnancy rate has declined, but Most teen births occur outside of marriage Blacks: 96% Whites, Hispanics: 72% Many teen mothers keep and raise children today

23. Giving birth as alternative entry to adulthood Maybe few other “good” choices Grandmothers willing to raise grandchildren Community accepts and supports this Lack of “eligible” husbands Alternative Life-Course Theory

24. Lower education Lower income More likely to need public assistance More likely to divorce Some of these “disadvantages” due to “selection effect” Consequences for Teenage Mothers

25. Sexual identity: self-identity as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual Research supports biological component Studies of twins, brothers May run in families Environmental factors may play a role Controversial – has political implications Gay and Lesbian Sexuality

26. Ignored until late 19th century Sexual acts divided into wrong/not wrong OK to express intimate feelings for same sex Late 1800s: anti-homosexuality campaign Defined as abnormal, mental illness Medical model stigmatized homosexuals Emergence of “Homosexuality”

27. 1948: Kinsey Report 50% of men reported erotic feeling toward other men 1/3 had one experience with another man Estimated 10% of men were exclusively homosexual More recent surveys: 4.1 % of men and 2.2 % women

28. 1950’s: Homosexuals labeled “security risks” by govt. 1960s: Civil rights, women’s movements - term “gay” emerged 2003: Supreme Court struck down laws against homosexual relations Today: Much dissent about gay marriage Consensual unions, domestic partners more accepted Late 20th Century

29. Objections to Gay Marriage • Don’t want to sanction “immoral” behavior • Seen as threat to traditional marriage • Cost of providing employee benefits to more people • already being done in many organizations • actual costs have been small

30. Why Gay Marriage? • Gives gays more acceptance, support • Provides legal rights of spouse: • Beneficiary of employee’s pension, insurance • Joint income tax return • Social Security benefits, inheritance • Joint responsibility for children • Visitation w/children after divorce • Make decisions if spouse is unable

31. Summary: Love and Sexuality • Shift from economics to emotional bond • Growth of alternatives to marriage • Result: • marriage as voluntary • marriage based on love, compatibility • sex before marriage • family as individually defined • More acceptance of homosexuality