Macro and Micro Dynamics of Male Sexual Anxiety: Theory and Intervention

Abstract

Both traditional masculine socialization and patriarchal historical arrangements suppress men’s need for emotional connectedness and self-disclosure and limit the sexual and intimate scripts available to men in post-industrial society. In this paper, we use theory and personal narrative to examine how an experience we term “male sexual anxiety” can result from dysfunctional meanings associated with socialization into a mechanistic masculine script of toughness, competitiveness, autonomy, and hypersexuality. Male sexual anxiety, in turn, can exacerbate inadequacies in selfconceptions and intimate relationships. We propose that the underlying symptoms of male sexual anxiety include the personal and relational discomfort resulting from the constant preoccupation with sex as well as the considerable risks and expenditure of resources from sexual pursuits. We show how male sexual anxiety is linked to the alienating relations embodied in patriarchal masculine sociocultural and postindustrial economic arrangements.

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