Search

In the study reported here, data from implicit and behavioral choice measures did not support sexual economics theory’s (SET’s) central tenet that women view female sexuality as a commodity. Instead, men endorsed sexual exchange more than women did, which supports the idea that SET is a vestige of patriarchy. Further, men’s sexual advice, more than women’s, enforced the sexual double standard (i.e., men encouraged men more than women to have casual sex)—a gender difference that was mediated by hostile sexism, but also by men’s greater implicit investment in sexual economics. That is, men were more likely to suppress female sexuality because they resisted female empowerment and automatically associated sex with money more than women did. It appears that women are not invested in sexual economics, but rather, men are invested in patriarchy, even when it means raising the price of sexual relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors summarize how their research undermines the central tenets of sexual economics theory (SET) namely that women are responsible for suppressing female sexuality because women are more invested in sexual exchange than men and that men like sex more than women giving women a bargaining chip. They cite their findings that men were more likely to discriminate against women when giving sexual advice, choose jewelry advertisement promoting sexual exchange and endorse hostile sexism.