SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER X: FUTURE RESEARCH INTO HUMAN SEX-SCRIPTS
The sex-script hypothesis itself is a program
for future research.
We have only informal observations supporting sex-script theory.
But sex-researchers and other thinkers inspired by this new key for
sexology
can now organize their thinking, experience, recollections, &
research
so as to confirm, refute, or modify the sex-script hypothesis.
The basic research will consist of collecting
and analyzing
thousands of sex-scripts as understood by the people who have them.
And we should avoid several
possibly-distorting influences
that could affect the conclusions of such research,
such as the political agendas of the researchers, their own sex-scripts,
& the dogmatism of established schools of sexology.
Open-minded research will explore all
plausible hypotheses.
Genetics offers one especially serious challenge to sex-script theory:
If sex-scripts are transmitted from generation to generation
the way the sexual behavior of animals is passed on—thru DNA—
then the hypothesis of sexual imprinting will be disconfirmed.
Will prostitutes tell us about the sex-scripts
of their customers?
And what about popular books about sexual fantasies?
Childhood seems to be the usual time for
imprinting sexual fantasies.
What opens a child's sex-file? What closes it?
Why does new sexual imprinting seem to end after age 20?
Even tho we should never do sexual experiments on children,
we can record unplanned incidents that might have imprinted a child’s
sex-file.
Or we—in our adult years—can try to remember childhood sexual events.
Sex-script theory provides a new approach for
rape research.
Why are some men inclined toward rape—whereas others are not?
Pornography might also be a useful avenue for
sex-script research.
We might find that certain types of pornography correlate well
with the prevalence of similar imprinted sexual fantasies in the
population.
Sex-script theory might help untangle multiple
personalities:
Is each personality formed around an imprinted sexual fantasy?
When adults impose sexual experiences on
children,
such events might be sexually-imprinting events for the children.
And adults’ urges to have sex with children might have arisen
because those adults were sexually abused when they were children.
Hundreds of questions about human sexuality
remain unanswered.
Sexology has made a good start; the horizon is beginning to open up.
Chapter
X
RESEARCHING HUMAN
SEX-SCRIPTS
by JAMES
PARK
129
Created
3-16-2008; Revised