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The Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females' Sexuality in Puerto Rico

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The Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females' Sexuality in Puerto Rico The Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females' Sexuality in Puerto Rico. by María Isabel Martinó Villanueva Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Family and Child Development APPROVED: ___________________________ Michael J. Sporakowski, Chair __________________________ __________________________ Katherine R. Allen Mark J. Benson ___________________________ ___________________________ Rosemary Blieszner Jay A. Mancini May, 1997 Blacksburg, Virginia Key Words: Sexuality, Puerto Rico, Women, Sexual Discourses, Sexual Scripts, Female Sexuality, Ambivalence The Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females' Sexuality in Puerto Rico by María Isabel Martinó Villanueva Michael J. Sporakowski, Committee Chair Department of Family and Child Development Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (ABSTRACT) A qualitative study on a sample of 12 Puerto Rican women was conducted in Puerto Rico. The purpose of this study was to explore the various ways in which sexual meanings are created, changed, and modified as the nature of social discourse and personal experience changes. The two theoretical frameworks that guided the methodology and analysis of the data were social constructionism and feminism. I assumed that sexuality is socially constructed, shaped by social, political, and economic influences, and modified throughout life. Feminist theories assisted in documenting the ways in which females' sexuality in Puerto Rico is shaped by culture and by institutions that disadvantage females and other oppressed groups by silencing their voices. The theories guided the discussion of the contradicting messages about women's sexualities and their experiences, as these women fought, conformed to, and even colluded with their oppression. Analysis of the participants' written and oral narratives produced the overarching theme of sexual meanings/scripts, along with three interrelated sub-themes: sources and nature of sexual scripts, determining experiences, and social discourses of female sexuality. Participants reported three institutional sources of sexual messages: family, religion-culture, and institutions of education. Their determining experiences follow a common thread that weaves a common story line: the life-long struggle with the incongruencies between the social constructions of female sexuality and the realities of these women's sexual experiences. Sexuality is defined as being challenged and modified through the participants' lives. Four social discourses of female sexuality emerged from the analysis of the data: source of guilt and shame, vulnerability and sexual victimization, ambivalence, and empowerment. A theory of ambivalence was developed from the data as a means to understand the participants' process of developing the paradigms for their own sexuality. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I must thank my parents, Suso y Marisa, for their love, nurture, support, and especially for letting me be... "Es por ustedes que hoy soy quien soy" (It is because of you that I am who I am today). Therefore this dissertation is also yours. To the rest of my family and friends, thank you all for believing in me all along. I did it! To my husband, also a graduate student, I have to say thank you for sharing and supporting this complicated period of time with me, for ignoring my temper when stress was high, and for always believing in me. When we finish our degrees, life will be normal again. Will it? Finally, I have to acknowledge Taína, for her unconditional love and companionship on all those endless nights in front of the computer. To the twelve women who participated in this study: Yeidi, Nydia, Wanda, Ebel, Hilda, Sandra, Virginia, Lydia, Gelisa, Monica, Carmita, and Aura, "Gracias mil", I am indebted to you forever. Thank you for so selflessly sharing your lives with me. It is my only hope that I was successful in bringing your voices out through my analysis and that I was careful and accurate in portraying your life stories. Allowing me to enter your lives has challenged me professionally and personally, and has changed me forever. In this same way, this study will enrich many more lives. To my committee, Mike Sporakowski, Katherine Allen, Mark Benson, Rosemary Blieszner, and Jay Mancini, thank you for your time and support. Thanks Mike, for being my chair, for all those hours of proofreadings and meetings; your belief and confidence in me, and your support was invaluable. Thanks Katherine for your example, for believing in me at a time when I was doubtful, and for giving me the confidence to trust my inner voice and allow the participants' voices to speak through the presentation of the data. Thanks Mark, for your revisions and your constructive advice. Thanks Rosemary, all that time spent editing my manuscript and for your supportive advice. And thanks Jay, for challenging my assumptions and allowing me to reinforce my views and open my understanding to others' points of view. Thank you all for encouraging me to produce this work. DEDICATION With love, to my parents, Jesús F. Martinó Trilla and Maria I. Villanueva Pérez, and the twelve women who unselfishly shared their lives in order for me to conduct this study. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Overview and Purpose of the Study 1 Rationale for the Study 2 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE Overview 6 An Historical Account of Research on Female Sexuality 6 Theoretical Frameworks 9 Feminist Perspectives 9 Social Construction Theory 10 A Brief Historical Account of Puerto Rico: 13 Ethnic and Cultural Backgrounds The Puerto Rican Culture 14 Sexual Customs 14 Sexual Symbols 15 Women and Their Sexuality 16 Operational Definitions of Concepts 16 Sexuality 16 Sexual Scripts 18 Sexual Agency 19 Sexual Pressure 19 Unwanted Sexual Activity 19 Coercive Sexual Activity 20 Scripted Refusal/Token Resistance to Sex 22 Sexual Victimization: Child Abuse and Rape 22 Religion 23 Summary 25 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY Overview of the Research Design 26 Research Questions 27 Sample Description and Sample Selection 27 Instrumentation 28 Pilot Study 29 Validity 29 Data Collection Procedures 30 Data Analysis Process 31 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS Overview 33 Sexual Scripts: The Meanings of Sexuality 34 Determining Experiences: The Stories 34 Yeidi 34 Nydia 36 Wanda 38 Ebel 39 Hilda 42 Sandra 46 Virginia 50 Lydia 54 Gelisa 58 Monica 62 Carmita 65 Aura 68 Summary 72 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Research Questions 74 Sources and Nature of Sexual Messages 74 Family 74 Religion and Culture as One 75 Educational Institutions 76 Determining Experiences 77 Discourses of Female Sexuality 77 Source of Shame and Self-Blame 77 Vulnerability and Sexual Victimization 78 Ambivalence 78 Empowerment 79 Summary 79 An Ever Present "Vaivén": A Theory of Ambivalence 80 Double Messages: The Contradictions 80 On being a "Señorita" 80 Whose Sexuality? 81 Women's Sexual Decisions? 81 Women's Desire 82 Men's Desires and Needs 82 Forced Choices 82 Deception 84 Women's Invisibleness 86 How Women Make Sense of Their Experiences 86 Reconciling the Contradictions: 86 Is There a Way Out? The Development of Sexual Agency 86 Summary 86 Links to Family Theories 86 Symbolic Interactionism 86 Exchange and Resource Theories 89 Life Course Perspective 91 Human Development 92 Moral Thinking 92 Summary 93 Future Research Endeavors 94 Concluding Remarks 95 REFERENCES 96 APPENDICES 102 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Overview and Purpose of the Study The present study explored the cultural, societal, and personal sexual beliefs of Puerto Rican women, their experiences and expectations, and how these influenced the ways in which Puerto Rican women perceive, feel, and experience their own sexualities. In this study I investigated the social construction of sexuality in the Puerto Rican culture, the various ways in which sexual meanings are created and modified as the nature of social discourse and personal experience varies (Foucault, 1978). Several authors have found that both socialization and sexual experience help shape sexuality and affect the process of developing personal sexual meanings (Daniluk, 1993; Sprecher, Barbee, & Schwartz, 1995; Ward & Wyatt, 1994). Parents' communication about sex with their children may be an important influence. In a study by Ward and Wyatt (1994), White women who recalled negative verbal messages from childhood engaged in riskier sexual behavior than those who recalled positive/ instructional verbal messages. Risky sexual behavior was not related to the kind of messages received by Black women. Ethnic group differences though were found in the content and prevalence of the messages that were recalled (Ward & Wyatt, 1994). For example, African-American women recalled a greater number of television influences with larger a proportion of non- traditional messages than did White women, suggesting that Black and White women identify themselves with different characters or roles. Early sexual experience may also affect the ways in which women experience their sexuality. When giving accounts of first sexual intercourse experiences, women reported feeling less pleasure than men and stronger feelings of guilt than of pleasure (Sprecher, Barbee, & Schwartz, 1995). Women also reported a great degree of guilt especially when they had their first sexual experience
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