![]() ![]() Relational Dialectics TheoryĪlthough not fully framed by the theory, RDT (Baxter, 2011 Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) provides a useful sensitizing theory alongside scripting theories that enables us to attend to different levels of discourse in intimate life. ![]() Therefore, re-examining if or how these scripts may be altered is warranted. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted much of intimate life (Alexopoulos et al., 2021 Hjálmsdóttir & Bjarnadóttir, 2021 Wignall et al., 2021), and as we will elaborate on in the next section, relational discourse, which was situated amid these dominant scripts and discourses. ![]() Scripts are important because they provide guidelines for behavior and both instructions for as well as a comparative measure to how we understand our intimate relationships. Sexual socialization through family and educational communication often mirrors and endorses these scripted expectations. Scripts differentially position cisgender men and women within a power hierarchy that sets different standards for acceptable expressions of sexuality by gender (Kim et al., 2007 Seabrook et al., 2016 Wiederman, 2005). Thus, scripts reflect heterosexism, and a hierarchy of relationships that privilege romantic over platonic relationships (Rose, 2000), thereby minimizing the importance of friendships.Īn important component of these scripts is their positioning of women as passive, both sexually and socially. Scripts are a reflection of the power dynamics embedded in cultural norms and behaviors, including the norms that privilege men over women and those that perpetuate cisnormativity, heteronormativity, and mononormativity. The heterosexual script further describes the ways that men and women (also positioned as the only genders) hold complementary but starkly unequal roles for romance and sexual interaction (Seabrook et al., 2016). Intrinsically related to the traditional sexual script (TSS), which positions men as sexual initiators and women as sexual gatekeepers who preserve a morally sanctioned version of sex (Wiederman, 2005), the heterosexual script sets heterosexual sexual activity in monogamous, opposite sex pairings as the only socially or morally sanctioned version of sex and sexuality (Kim et al., 2007). Commonly identified scripts within these frameworks include the relational scripts emphasizing that sexual activity fosters (and is often the only acceptable measure of) intimacy between romantic partners, and procreational scripts that assert sexual activity is for having children (between married, opposite sex partners Seabrook et al., 2016). ![]() Within North American culture, dominant scripts involve the heterosexual script (Kim et al., 2007) and the traditional sexual script. In a given culture, scripts provide guidelines for behaviors and tell people how to act and communicate in social situations (Simon & Gagnon, 1986). We frame the study in sexual scripts theory and relational dialectics theory. The current project treated intimacy as the forms of communication that characterize intimate relationships, which we consider as any close relationship (e.g., romantic relationships, close friends, family or kinship networks). Scholarly definitions of intimacy tend to treat it as either a relative synonym for closeness or to indicate romantic and/or sexual relationships (Parks & Floyd, 1996). As part of a larger study on communication and intimacy, the present study will explore the role of communication in maintaining, managing, and exploring new means of intimacy during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to more public disparities manifesting and worsening during the pandemic, women managed a changing landscape for their intimate lives and relationships. As the world found itself managing a chaotic new-normal during the COVID-19 pandemic, research suggests women and LGBTQ people may bear more of the burden (Craig & Churchill, 2020 Moore et al., 2021). ![]()
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