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| 23 1 Studying Gendered Sexualities over the Life Course A Conceptual Framework Laura M. Carpenter and John DeLamater From the moment we’re born, each of us begins to accumulate a wide range of physical, emotional, and intellectual experiences. Many of these experiences—from being gently caressed by a caregiver to watching one’s parents go through an acrimonious divorce to observing the depiction of same-sex and heterosexual couples on television sitcoms—contribute to the complex constellation of desires, attitudes, and behaviors that comprise our sexuality. Early events and encounters influence later ones, in sometimes straightforward and sometimes indirect ways, such that every life course is composed of an ongoing chain of interrelated experiences. Each person’s sexual life course is unique, owing in part to the specific experiences she has, the choices she makes or has foisted upon her, and the sequence in which those events and choices occur. Yet sexual life courses also tend to follow recognizable patterns. For example, no two readers of this book will have engaged in precisely the same acts with precisely the same sequence of partners, evoking an identical series of emotions and physical sensations. However, readers who approve of casual sex will likely have had sexual encounters with more partners , to whom they feel less emotionally connected, than those readers who disapprove of casual sex, decisions that, in turn, enhanced or minimized their risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and opportunities for learning new sexual techniques. When and where people are born—be it in rural Mississippi in the 1940s, Mexico City in the 1960s, or suburban Maryland in the 2000s—further determines the opportunities and constraints that give shape to the pathways that people take, as do their gender, racial/ethnic background, social class, sexual identity, and religious beliefs. How can we, as researchers and individuals, best make sense of the complex , particular yet patterned, ways in which sexuality unfolds over the life 24 | Studying Sexualities over the Life Course course? This chapter sets forth a comprehensive, general conceptual framework that can be used to investigate sexual phenomena. By providing the tools for unpacking the lifelong, cumulative chains of advantageous and disadvantageous transitions within sexual, gender, and other life trajectories , such a framework can help us make sense of the similarities and differences that coexist across individuals and groups. For example, why don’t all women who have been sexually abused as children report further unwanted encounters or little enjoyment of sex? Such a framework can also shed light on processes of change and continuity in individual sexual lives, including the means through which people select and reject sexual scripts. For instance, consider the 45-year-old man who announces to his family and close friends that he plans to transition to a feminine gender identity; the seeds of this apparently dramatic change can likely be found in childhood and adolescent experiences. Perhaps most important, such a framework can illuminate fundamental but poorly understood aspects of gendered sexuality —like sexual agency, assertiveness in intimate relationships, and sexual desire—that unfold across the entire life course. The benefits of a wide-ranging, general conceptual framework are many. Yet, although a growing number of researchers have trained a life course perspective on sexuality-related phenomena, we are the first to propose a comprehensive , transposable conceptual framework containing all the elements that are necessary for a thoroughgoing analysis of virtually any aspect of sexuality . Previous studies have typically focused on a specific event or transition (e.g., widowhood) or stage in the life course (e.g., adolescence) rather than considering paths or trajectories over life courses in their entirety. Scarcely any studies have unpacked the lifelong processes through which a person’s sexual scripts develop and change, and none have posited cumulative (dis) advantages as fundamental to understanding gendered sexuality over the life course. Few researchers have explored cohort differences that might emanate from changing sociohistorical contexts. Only a handful of works in this area have conceptualized gender in terms of power relations or social structures, and none posit gender and sexuality as jointly constructed. Our framework, which we call the gendered sexuality over the life course (GSLC) model, draws on influential approaches and recent developments from life course sociology, feminist theory, and the scripting approach to sexuality. It starts from the premise that events at different stages of life must be understood as fundamentally connected. Additionally, it conceptualizes gender and sexuality as jointly constructed within specific social-structural contexts and sexual...

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