Robust but Plastic: Gender Differences in Emotional Responses to Sexual Debut

Data reported by Sprecher (2014) indicate that gender differences in emotional responses to sexual debut should be included among the handful of exceptions to Hyde's (2005) gender similarities hypothesis, which states that men and women are similar on most but not all psychological variables. While these gender differences have been relatively robust over the three decades of data collection reported by Sprecher (2014), the evidence of historical change in the magnitude of these gender differences indicates that they are still plastic. The experience of first intercourse has become generally more positive over that time, with more pleasure and less guilt among women and less anxiety among men. In this commentary, gender differences in pleasure, anxiety, and guilt in response to first intercourse are discussed in connection with the system of compulsory heterosexuality.