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The Gendered Nature Of Sexuality, Anna E. Spengen

Sociology Publications

This essay focuses on casual sex encounters, wherein the gendered nature of sexuality is thought to be most salient. Four specific areas of sexuality and its scripts are investigated as gendered within this essay: instigation, negotiation, the act of intercourse, and social repercussions of participation. These four categories are comparatively analyzed within the two dominant and competing perspectives of essentialism and social constructionism. This analysis seeks to highlight the superiority of a constructionist view in explaining the gendered nature of sexuality. The narrow minded view of essentialism, with its failure to acknowledge the influences of social and cultural factors, posits …