Sexual Scripts

Sexual Scripts are ideas of how males and females are supposed to interact with each other, including how each gender should behave in sexual or romantic situations. Like a script for a TV show or movie, a sexual script is a mental story detailing specific events and assigning certain roles (parts that each actor plays in the story).

For example, if a male asks a female out to the movies, the sexual script suggests that he is expected to pay for both his ticket and his date’s ticket. If he does not, then he is violating the traditional sexual script for a date. If his date subscribes to the traditional version of this script then he might fail to meet her expectations, with the possible consequence that she will not go out with him again. Sexual scripts are based on shared cultural ideals and social norms. They are learned from and reinforced by our family, friends, church, the media, and other people around us.