The relationship work of sexual intimacy in long-term heterosexual and LGBTQ partnerships

Sex is perceived as crucial to relationship success. This article reveals how sexual intimacy is part of the relationship work that couples ordinarily complete to sustain their partnerships over time. It problematizes the binary logics of good/bad sex, female/male desire and homo/heterosexual differ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current sociology 2022-01, Vol.70 (1), p.24-41
Main Author: Gabb, Jacqui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Couples
Desire
Difficult situations
Discrepancies
Gender differences
Heterosexual relationships
Heterosexuality
Homosexuality
Humor
Inequality
Intimacy
LGBTQ people
Openness
Partnerships
Reflexivity
Scripts
Sexuality
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sex is perceived as crucial to relationship success. This article reveals how sexual intimacy is part of the relationship work that couples ordinarily complete to sustain their partnerships over time. It problematizes the binary logics of good/bad sex, female/male desire and homo/heterosexual difference and shows how fluctuations of desire and sexual capacity are managed by couples through intimate knowledge. Findings presented here derive from a multiple methods study with 50 long-term heterosexual and LGBTQ partnerships. The article demonstrates how the absence of normative sexual scripts enables queer couples to more readily manage sexual discrepancies. Gendered differences and inequalities persist within many heterosexual relationships while reflexivity and increased openness characterize queer coupledom. Women and LGBTQ couples are more inclined to deploy humour to diffuse difficult situations and in this context gay men are akin to women more so than heterosexual men.
ISSN:0011-3921
1461-7064
DOI:10.1177/0011392119826619