Are We Past the Heterosexual Script? A Content Analysis of Contextual Cues Within the Heterosexual Script in Tween, Teen, and Young Adult Television Programs

ABSTRACT

In light of recent research establishing the prevalence of the heterosexual script on television (Aubrey et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2007), the present study investigated the context of the heterosexual script in 182 episodes of tween, teen, and young adult television programs. The following scripts were assessed: sex as masculinity (masculinity is achieved through sexuality), good girls (women are sexual gatekeepers), male commitment (men avoid commitment), and female commitment (women seek commitment). Results revealed that depictions of the heterosexual script varied with sexual behavior, sexual talk, and the composition of gender in conversation dyads but not with the gender of sexual initiators. Sex as masculinity was most likely to occur with intimate touching, talk about sexual interests, and mostly discussed within female-female dyads. The good girls script was most likely to occur with instances of intimate touching and talk about sexual advice, whereas male commitment was most likely to occur in portrayals of intercourse and talk about sexual experiences. Lastly, female commitment was most likely to occur in talk toward sex and in male-male dyads.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Melissa Curran for her feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript and Dr. Janna Kim and her co-authors for providing their original heterosexual script codebook to us.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Larissa Terán

Larissa Terán (M.A., University of Nevada, Las Vegas) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona.

Lindsay Roberts

Lindsay Roberts (M.A., University of Arizona) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis.

Kun Yan

Kun Yan (M.A., University of Arizona) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona.

Jennifer Stevens Aubrey

Jennifer Stevens Aubrey (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a professor of communication at the University of Arizona.

To contact the authors, please e-mail them at the following e-mail addresses:

Lindsay Roberts: [email protected].

Kun Yan: [email protected].

Jennifer Stevens Aubrey: [email protected].