of sexual activity among gay men (masculine sexuality times
two), and the lowest rates among lesbians (feminine sexuality
times two). Gay men have an average of over 30 partners dur-
ing their lifetime, while lesbians have fewer than three. Gay men
have the lowest rates of long-term committed relationships,
straight men the next, then straight women, and finally, lesbians
have the highest rates. Thus, it appears that men—gay or
straight—place sexuality at the center of their lives, and that
women—gay or straight—are more interested in affection and
caring in the context of a long-term love relationship.
In recent years, there has been increased convergence in
women’s and men’s sexual attitudes and behaviors. Women’s
sexuality is becoming increasingly similar to men’s; in fact we
might even speak of a “masculinization” of sex. The masculinization of sexincludes
the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, the increased attention to orgasm, increased
numbers of sexual partners, the interest in sexual experimentation, and the separa-
tion of sexual behavior from love. These are partly the result of the technological trans-
formation of sexuality (from birth control to the Internet) and partly the result of
the sexual revolution’s promise of greater sexual freedom with fewer emotional and
physical consequences (see Rubin, 1990; Schwartz and Rutter, 1998).
Sexual behaviors have grown increasingly similar. Among teenage boys, sexual
experience has remained virtually the same since the mid-1940s, with about 70 per-
cent of all high-school-aged boys having had a sexual experience (the rates were about
50 percent for those who went to high school in the late 1920s). But the rates for high
school girls have changed dramatically, up from 5 percent in the 1920s to 20 percent
in the late 1940s to 55 percent in 1982 and 60 percent in 1991 to 63.3 percent in- About one in five teenagers has had a sexual experience before age 15 (Figure
10.4). And the age of the first sexual experience has steadily declined for both boys
and girls (Centers for Disease Control, 2005; Finer, 2007; Lewin, 2003; Rubin, 1990;
Schwartz and Rutter, 1998).
Similarly, although the rates of not having sex have
declined for both girls and boys, they have declined more rap-
idly for girls. The number of teenagers who have had more
than five different sexual partners by their eighteenth birthday
has increased for both sexes; the rate of increase is greater for
girls as well. (Centers for Disease Control, 2005; Lewin, 2003).
Convergence on Campus: Hooking Up
One place where one can observe the political ramifications
of the gender convergence in sexual behavior is on campus,
where a culture of “hooking up” has virtually erased the older
pattern of “rating-dating-mating” observed by sociologist
Willard Waller decades ago.
Hooking upis a deliberately vague blanket term; one set
of researchers defines it as “a sexual encounter which may
nor may not include sexual intercourse, usually occurring on
only one occasion between two people who are strangers or
brief acquaintances” (Lambert, 2003, p. 129). While that
seems to cover most cases, it fails to include those heterosex-
uals who hook up more than once or twice, or “sex buddies”
(acquaintances who meet regularly for sex but rarely if ever332 CHAPTER 10SEXUALITYJIn the United States,
women’s and men’s sexualities
are increasingly similar. On
the popular television show,
Sex and the City(1998–2004),
all four gal pals were depicted
as sexually active, and one,
Samantha, at left, was as
predatory as any male.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
PROPORTION WHO EVER HAD INTERCOURSE 0
1925–1930 1945–1950 1982 1991
ERA WHEN SUBJECTS WERE IN HIGH SCHOOLMen WomenFIGURE 10.4Trends in Heterosexual
Experience among Teens
Source:“Trends in Heterosexual Experience among Teens” from The Gender
of Sexuality: Sexual Possibilitiesby Pepper Schwartz, 1998. Used by
permission of Alta Mira Press.