Giami, Alain <br/><br/>
Introduction to Sexual Script Theory (John Gagnon) 

 -  2023.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> This article aims to revisit the Sexual Script Theory formulated by American sociologists John Gagnon and William Simon in the 1970s and 1980s. It begins with a biography of John Gagnon, before tracing the intellectual and political origins of the theory, and positioning it in relation to the work of Michel Foucault. We recall the key principles, before describing the three levels of understanding that frame this approach: “cultural scripts,” which refer to general representations of sexuality as developed in the public sphere, and include both scholarly knowledge and common sense; “interpersonal scripts,” which guide and codify relations between individuals in different contexts, in particular interactions between sexual partners; and “intra-psychic scripts,” which refer to forms of internalization and subjective appropriation of cultural scripts. This theory can also be applied to the understanding of other types of behavior.