Do Deaf Individuals’ Dating Scripts Follow the Traditional Sexual Script?

Abstract

The current study investigated Deaf individuals' dating expectations. Prior research on dating expectations has identified three common scenes: initiation/ meeting, activities, and outcomes/conclusions. Participants were asked to report their expectations for each scene on a typical date. Talking was the most frequently occurring initiation activity. Dinner and a movie were among the top date activities in the activities scene. Activities were often reported as group gatherings. Dating outcomes included a good night kiss and making plans for another date. These expectations do not match prior research with hearing participants where the Traditional Sexual Script could be identified. Comparisons and suggestions for future research are discussed.The pioneering work of Gagnon and Simon (Gagnon 1990;Gagnon and Simon 1973) proposed that sexual behavior is profoundly social; that is, through socialization processes we learn the expectations of the who, what, when, and how that guides our behavior within sexual situations. It is well established that people develop these expectations, or scripts, for the various social interactions that comprise sexual interactions, such as flirting, dating, and sexual intimacy (Bartoli and Clark 2006;Krahé et al. 2007;McCormick 1987; Frieze 1989, 1993). Traditional dating scripts involve the man picking up the woman, going to dinner and a movie, and end with the man taking the woman home and giving her a good night kiss (Bartoli andThe use of a capital D in Deaf denotes that these individuals are members of the Deaf culture.

A Glimpse at American Deaf Women’s Sexuality

“…Our results indicated that these participants did not conform to the TSS (Byers, 1996), which was also found in previous research studying the TSS with Deaf women (Gilbert et al, 2012). These differences appear to be cultural and this study begins to expand some of these differences in sexual desire, sexual satisfaction, and even sexual expectations.…”

“…These behaviors are part of the Traditional Sexual Script (TSS) that is culturally transmitted (Clark, Carroll, Bartoli, & Taylor, 2009). In a parallel study, Deaf college students shared their dating expectations, which differed from those found in Bartoli and Clark. Deaf and hard of hearing participants' expectations did not include the TSS; rather they focused more on group dating, did not mention sexual limiting by the woman, and infrequently discussed intercourse as part of a typical date (Gilbert, Clark, & Anderson, 2012). These results are in contrast to the hearing college students' responses where all of the older students' expectations for a typical date focused on a one-on-one event between a man and a woman.…”

“…This view is likely related to Rohleder and Swartz's (Rohleder & Swartz, 2011) comment that discussing sexuality for disabled individuals makes educators and people without a disability anxious. Interestingly enough, this work related to Deaf sexual education came from the 1970s, (Fitz-Gerald & Fitz-Gerald, 1976, 1978Neff, 1979;Robinson, 1979), 80s (Fitz-Gerald & Fitz-Gerald, 1985), and 90s (Glannon, 1998;Joseph, Sawyer, & Desmont, 1995;Swartz, 1993). Most of this research focused on Deaf sexual education as disseminated by educators and hearing parents.…”

“…Additionally, understanding similarities and differences between deaf and hearing sexuality is important. As noted in Anderson and Leigh (2011), Barnett et al (2011), Gilbert et al (2012), and Pollard et al (2013), there are important differences among deaf individuals-some of which are extremely dangerous to the health of d/Deaf women. IPV rates must be understood to reduce this health problem and the women in this study seemed aware of the need for open dialogue and honest educational information.…”

Sexualidade e Surdez: uma Revisão Sistemática

“…No Quadro 1 são apresentados os autores, título, ano de publicação, instituição e objetivos de cada estudo analisado. Portanto, foi possível identificar que, quanto aos temas estudados, seis pesquisas abordaram a sexualidade através das experiências sexuais, dos mitos e relacionamentos (Gilbert, Clark, & Anderson, 2012;Gomez, 2011;Joharchi & Clark, 2014;Jhai, 2017;Lehane, Dammeyer, Hovaldt, & Elsass, 2017;Wienholz, Seidel, Michel, Haeussler-Sczepan, & Riedel-Heller, 2016); cinco versaram sobre violência e/ou abuso sexual (Anderson & Leigh, 2011;Anderson & Pezzarossi, 2012Porter & Williams, 2011;Powers et al, 2009); três destacaram a saúde sexual (Aldana, 2012;Pacher, Costa, Nascimento, Moura, & Passos, 2015;Umoren & Adejumo, 2014); e uma se referiu à homossexualidade (Abreu, Silva, & Zuchiwschi, 2015 ...continuação…”