title: The Impact of Personal Gender-Typicality and Partner Gender-Traditionality on Taking Sexual Initiative: Investigating a Social Tuning Hypothesis.
abstract: Sexual assertiveness is an issue of interest in the context of gender equality and sexual health. This study investigated the social tuning hypothesis that encountering a gender-traditional partner would lead to stronger gender-typical behavior, i.e., respectively, higher and lower levels of taking sexual initiative among men and women. Participants (N= 271) read a vignette describing a romantic partner, who was either presented as gender-traditional or not, followed by a sexual scenario. Subsequently, participants were asked about their expectations toward their own sexual initiative taking. Results showed a significant 'target gender-traditionality × participant gender × participant gender-typicality (masculinity/femininity)' interaction meaning that less gender-typical men were more likely to initiate sexual contact in the experimental, compared to the control condition. Men low in masculine characteristics showed higher initiative taking in response to a gender-traditional target female. We conclude that less gender-typical men seem to employ more social tuning toward their sexual partner, whereas more gender-typical men seem to adhere to their gender-typical behavior regardless of perceived partner characteristics. These results were not seen among the women in the sample. These findings are a starting point for the further development of experimental investigations regarding the gendered nature of both sexual initiative taking and sexual assertiveness in general.
authors.affiliation: Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peggy M J
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Emmerink
authors.affiliation: Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Regina J J M
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Van Den Eijnden
authors.affiliation: Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tom F M
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Ter Bogt
authors.affiliation: Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht UniversityUtrecht, Netherlands; Rutgers Expert Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health and RightsUtrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ine
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vanwesenbeeck
keywords: assertiveness; experimental methods; gender identity; individual differences; social norms