“Whores” and “Man-Whores” in a Heteronormative College Hookup Space: Exploring How The Sexual Double Standard Applies to The Understudied Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) Student Community

Abstract

Hookups, a “no-strings-attached” form of sexual behavior, have become a prevalent aspect of the contemporary college campus. Extensive literature on the dominant college hookup culture has revealed the space to be a deeply gendered and heteronormative sexual terrain, where the gendered sexual script of the sexual double standard, a phenomenon in which heterosexual males and females are judged differently for their comparable sexual behavior, disproportionately stigmatizes college women. Yet, there is limited information on how lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) marginalized students navigate the largely heterosexual hookup scene as the majority of hookup research exclusively focuses on heterosexual student samples, providing a motivating gap to further explore whether the same sexual scripts influence LGB college students. This paper aims to explore how the sexual double standard may (or may not) apply to the understudied lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) student community on college campuses. Drawing from the intersection of sexual scripts and gendered scripts, applying existing theory on how LGB college students fit into the gendered sexual scripts that heterosexual students use to navigate the college hookup terrain may help unfold how the sexual double standard might influence this minority group. Subsequent research that incorporates LGB college students may help dismantle college students’ perceptions of binary sexualities and develop intervention strategies to alleviate the negative stigmatization of LGB students that may reflect scripts structured to govern heterosexual sexual behaviors.