The Fairer Sex: Ethnocentric Explanations of Racial Differences in Sexual Behavior.

Abstract

This research examines the intersection of racial and gender discourse in beliefs about sexuality. The sexual habits of women of color have been pathologized in popular and scientific discourse. White women and the behavioral patterns of White women, by contrast, are positioned as normative. Using psychological models of social cognition, I explore how ethnocentrism permeates discourse about what normal sexuality should look like. Across three mixed-methods experimental studies, I draw particularly on the effect to be explained paradigm to explore how Black women are positioned as deviant subjects in need of explanation and intervention. Study 1 (n=156) examines the racial stereotyping and Othering evident in patterns of explanations for racial differences in sexuality. Study 2 (n=180) focuses on prescriptive norms about sexuality, demonstrating a prescriptive norm for higher frequencies of sexual activity and racialized discourse. In Study 3 (n=160), a study of perceived group mutability, participants adhere to the sexual frequency norm by anchoring the descriptive norm to a higher value, while also positioning Black women as deviant. Taken together, these studies offer a preliminary insight into the interaction between sexual norms and racialized sexual stereotypes. The results reveal a tension between neoliberal discourses about sexual expression and pathologizing racial discourse, both of which leave Black women’s sexuality in a precarious marginal space.