Sexual Dominance/Submission, Gender and Sex-Role Identification

Sexual dominance/submission has commonly been depicted in bipolar constellations of dominance, male gender, and masculinity as opposed to submission, female gender, and femininity. The present study questioned these sex-typed clusters by exploring the relationship between sexual dominance/submission, gender, and sex-role identification as measured by the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. The subjects were 30 male dominants, 30 female dominants, 30 male submissives, and 30 female submissives, all self-identified and heterosexual. An interaction between sexual status and gender was significant using femininity as the dependent variable, and approached significance with masculinity as the dependent variable. In specific comparisons dominant persons were more masculine than submissive ones, but dominant males were also more feminine than dominant females and did not differ in femininity from submissive males. Submissive females were more feminine than dominant females. Submissive males and females did not differ in masculinity or femininity. Support is indicated for a model of interacting factors of sexual dominance/submission, gender, and masculinity/femininity, with different patterns for dominance and submission.