B Montemurro
Biographic Data
| ID | 5851 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Montemurro |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Montemurro |
| SIGNATURE | MONTEMURRO B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0686-1250 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 188 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Erotic capital and erotic dividends
Sexualities scholars have developed the idea of erotic capital, that is the characteristics that make someone sexually desirable in specific contexts. While much of the literature focuses on those who either possess or lack erotic capital, and how erotic capital manifests within sexual and dating situations, few studies pursue what happens after erotic capital is used to attract a partner or how individuals feel about others’ interpretations of t…
Well-Primed for Qualitative Research
“If you could just see me”
Part of identity development involves the construction of a sexual self. Sexual selves are constructed based on interactions with others. Based on in-depth interviews with 59 heterosexual men between the ages of 30 and 59, I look at the way research participants defined heterosexual men’s desirability through their framing of their sexual selves. I show how participants’ stories revealed a link between desirability and masculinity for heterosexua…
Exploring the Impact of Age and Relationship Status on Heterosexual Men’s Discussion of Sexuality
Something Old, Something Bold
Weddings in the United States are often extravagant, highly ritualized, and costly affairs. In this book, Beth Montemurro takes a fresh look at the wedding process, offering a perspective not likely to be found in the many planning books and magazines readily available to the modern bride. Montemurro draws upon years of ethnographic research to explore what prenuptial events mean to women participants and what they tell us about the complexity an…
Vibrator Nation
Ready and Waiting
Recent sexualities scholarship generally frames men as adhering to narratives of sexual assertion and constructions of hegemonic masculinity. However, research on masculinities notes scripts are changing and providing mixed messages regarding the expression of sexualities for heterosexual men. Given this, we look closely at sexual scripts in initiation of sexual intimacy as a means of exploring transformation in sexualities and understanding men'…
Unscripted
Images of sexually active women beyond the age of 50 are lacking in popular culture and in particular on television. Dominant sexual scripts depict older women as generally asexual. The television program Hot in Cleveland features unpartnered midlife and older women as main characters. In this article, based on analysis of four seasons of Hot in Cleveland, we look closely at portrayals of sexual activity to see whether they underscore dominant se…
The Way That I Look at Things [Is] Different Because It's Me
Many gender scholars have abandoned the notion that we can explore women's experiences without attention to other identities such as race, class, and/or sexual orientation. Until now, the ways race influences the development of sexual selves has been underexplored. In this paper, I focus on heterosexual women's accounts of the interplay of race, gender, and sexualities. Based on in-depth interviews with sixty-two white and African American hetero…
Aging “Hot”
Hung out to dry
Humor can be a means of social control and establishing boundaries between social groups. Disparagement humor, which is belittling and degrading while laughing at a target, is such a means of social control. Through the use of disparagement humor, people establish in-groups and out-groups and audiences of disparagement can enjoy vicarious superiority, as long as they are not members of the targeted out-group. In this paper, we look at the way dis…
Let’s (Not) Talk about Sex
Getting Married, Breaking up, and Making Up for Lost Time
Transitioning from single to married or married to divorced has notable effects on women's sexuality. In some cases, transitions lead to greater sexual subjectivity by enhancing women's sexual confidence and sense of entitlement to pleasure. In others, transitions inhibit women's sexual agency and women feel disconnected from their sexual selves. In this paper, I explore how marriage and divorce function as turning points in women's construction …
Wrinkles and Sagging Flesh
In American society, the sexually desirable woman is young and thin. Changes associated with aging such as wrinkled skin or weight gain often bring women further from societal ideals of attractiveness. As physical appearance is very much related to desirability, we explore sexual body image and the way that it changes as women age. Based on in-depth interviews with 95 women aged 20-68, we find women's sexuality and feelings of desirability are in…
Cougars on the prowl? New perceptions of older women's sexuality
MILFS and Matrons
Teaching & Learning Guide for
Reality shows cast relatively diverse groups with the intention of seeing whether conflict or harmony will result. Success in reality competitions is often achieved through the development of alliances and strategic relationships and the process by which these unions form can be sociologically fascinating to watch. Yet, sociology, in method and theory, has rarely been applied to the analysis of reality television. This is not to say that reality …
Toward a Sociology of Reality Television
Reality television has become a standard genre of programming in the twenty‐first century. The popularity of these unscripted programs merits investigation. Reality shows can be seen as significant cultural objects whose production and consumption reflect and reveal norms and ideologies of contemporary culture. Although what is currently conceived as the reality television genre is perceived as novel, this type of programming has a long history, …
Two Aspirins and a Comedy
Changing Gender Norms for Alcohol Consumption
Add Men, Don't Stir
The bridal shower is a ritual that dates back to sixteenth-century Western Europe. Traditionally, the bridal shower was a gendered ritual, organized by women, for women. Evidence suggests that the gender barrier for showers may be disintegrating as "couples" or "coed" showers make their way into the prewedding routine. However, it is unclear whether the presence of men at wedding showers is indicative of gender convergence or if couples showers r…
Sex symbols
Not a Laughing Matter
Ladies Night Out
Patrons of male strip clubs have not been studied in much depth. Thus, this article provides a description and analysis of the different types of patrons of the male strip club. Looking specifically at the influence of gender in this sexualized atmosphere, we identify and describe the manifest diverse reasons that motivate attendance as well as various patterns of behavior. Based on more than 30 hours of participant observation at an urban male s…
You Go 'Cause You Have to
Getting married is one of the most celebrated and revered transitions in a woman's life. Therefore, many rituals and events exist to prepare a woman to become a wife. The bridal shower is one of those that is most steeped in tradition. It may be viewed as an event in which women friends and family members must participate. Women often attend bridal showers out of 'duty.' Interestingly, many women find them boring, socially awkward, or otherwise u…
Let’s (Not) Talk about Sex
Cougars on the prowl? New perceptions of older women's sexuality
Ladies Night Out
Patrons of male strip clubs have not been studied in much depth. Thus, this article provides a description and analysis of the different types of patrons of the male strip club. Looking specifically at the influence of gender in this sexualized atmosphere, we identify and describe the manifest diverse reasons that motivate attendance as well as various patterns of behavior. Based on more than 30 hours of participant observation at an urban male s…
Strippers and Screamers
This article explores the emergence of social control in a specific, noninstitutionalized setting: the male strip club. While male strippers have been around for the past two decades, clubs in which men strip are still few and far between and remain places where few regulars and many club "virgins" frequent. Thus, the norms of interaction are not by any means established or institutionalized. Based on existing literature on exotic dancers, as wel…
Changing Gender Norms for Alcohol Consumption
Not a Laughing Matter
MILFS and Matrons
Toward a Sociology of Reality Television
Reality television has become a standard genre of programming in the twenty‐first century. The popularity of these unscripted programs merits investigation. Reality shows can be seen as significant cultural objects whose production and consumption reflect and reveal norms and ideologies of contemporary culture. Although what is currently conceived as the reality television genre is perceived as novel, this type of programming has a long history, …
You Go 'Cause You Have to
Getting married is one of the most celebrated and revered transitions in a woman's life. Therefore, many rituals and events exist to prepare a woman to become a wife. The bridal shower is one of those that is most steeped in tradition. It may be viewed as an event in which women friends and family members must participate. Women often attend bridal showers out of 'duty.' Interestingly, many women find them boring, socially awkward, or otherwise u…
Ready and Waiting
Recent sexualities scholarship generally frames men as adhering to narratives of sexual assertion and constructions of hegemonic masculinity. However, research on masculinities notes scripts are changing and providing mixed messages regarding the expression of sexualities for heterosexual men. Given this, we look closely at sexual scripts in initiation of sexual intimacy as a means of exploring transformation in sexualities and understanding men'…
Aging “Hot”
Social Order through a Prism
Although color has rarely been examined as a sociological topic, the meaning of color is linked to numerous social domains and serves as a collective representation. Color contributes to social meanings in institutional orders, stratification systems, and identity. While color has some meaning separate from its linkage to particular objects, in most cases colors are situated. We perceive not color, but colored objects. Any given color has multipl…
Getting Married, Breaking up, and Making Up for Lost Time
Transitioning from single to married or married to divorced has notable effects on women's sexuality. In some cases, transitions lead to greater sexual subjectivity by enhancing women's sexual confidence and sense of entitlement to pleasure. In others, transitions inhibit women's sexual agency and women feel disconnected from their sexual selves. In this paper, I explore how marriage and divorce function as turning points in women's construction …
Sex symbols
The Way That I Look at Things [Is] Different Because It's Me
Many gender scholars have abandoned the notion that we can explore women's experiences without attention to other identities such as race, class, and/or sexual orientation. Until now, the ways race influences the development of sexual selves has been underexplored. In this paper, I focus on heterosexual women's accounts of the interplay of race, gender, and sexualities. Based on in-depth interviews with sixty-two white and African American hetero…
Add Men, Don't Stir
The bridal shower is a ritual that dates back to sixteenth-century Western Europe. Traditionally, the bridal shower was a gendered ritual, organized by women, for women. Evidence suggests that the gender barrier for showers may be disintegrating as "couples" or "coed" showers make their way into the prewedding routine. However, it is unclear whether the presence of men at wedding showers is indicative of gender convergence or if couples showers r…
Social Order through a Prism
Although color has rarely been examined as a sociological topic, the meaning of color is linked to numerous social domains and serves as a collective representation. Color contributes to social meanings in institutional orders, stratification systems, and identity. While color has some meaning separate from its linkage to particular objects, in most cases colors are situated. We perceive not color, but colored objects. Any given color has multipl…
Strippers and Screamers
This article explores the emergence of social control in a specific, noninstitutionalized setting: the male strip club. While male strippers have been around for the past two decades, clubs in which men strip are still few and far between and remain places where few regulars and many club "virgins" frequent. Thus, the norms of interaction are not by any means established or institutionalized. Based on existing literature on exotic dancers, as wel…
You Go 'Cause You Have to
Getting married is one of the most celebrated and revered transitions in a woman's life. Therefore, many rituals and events exist to prepare a woman to become a wife. The bridal shower is one of those that is most steeped in tradition. It may be viewed as an event in which women friends and family members must participate. Women often attend bridal showers out of 'duty.' Interestingly, many women find them boring, socially awkward, or otherwise u…
Sex symbols
Not a Laughing Matter
Ladies Night Out
Patrons of male strip clubs have not been studied in much depth. Thus, this article provides a description and analysis of the different types of patrons of the male strip club. Looking specifically at the influence of gender in this sexualized atmosphere, we identify and describe the manifest diverse reasons that motivate attendance as well as various patterns of behavior. Based on more than 30 hours of participant observation at an urban male s…
Changing Gender Norms for Alcohol Consumption
Add Men, Don't Stir
The bridal shower is a ritual that dates back to sixteenth-century Western Europe. Traditionally, the bridal shower was a gendered ritual, organized by women, for women. Evidence suggests that the gender barrier for showers may be disintegrating as "couples" or "coed" showers make their way into the prewedding routine. However, it is unclear whether the presence of men at wedding showers is indicative of gender convergence or if couples showers r…
Two Aspirins and a Comedy
Toward a Sociology of Reality Television
Reality television has become a standard genre of programming in the twenty‐first century. The popularity of these unscripted programs merits investigation. Reality shows can be seen as significant cultural objects whose production and consumption reflect and reveal norms and ideologies of contemporary culture. Although what is currently conceived as the reality television genre is perceived as novel, this type of programming has a long history, …
Teaching & Learning Guide for
Reality shows cast relatively diverse groups with the intention of seeing whether conflict or harmony will result. Success in reality competitions is often achieved through the development of alliances and strategic relationships and the process by which these unions form can be sociologically fascinating to watch. Yet, sociology, in method and theory, has rarely been applied to the analysis of reality television. This is not to say that reality …
MILFS and Matrons
Wrinkles and Sagging Flesh
In American society, the sexually desirable woman is young and thin. Changes associated with aging such as wrinkled skin or weight gain often bring women further from societal ideals of attractiveness. As physical appearance is very much related to desirability, we explore sexual body image and the way that it changes as women age. Based on in-depth interviews with 95 women aged 20-68, we find women's sexuality and feelings of desirability are in…
Cougars on the prowl? New perceptions of older women's sexuality
Let’s (Not) Talk about Sex
Getting Married, Breaking up, and Making Up for Lost Time
Transitioning from single to married or married to divorced has notable effects on women's sexuality. In some cases, transitions lead to greater sexual subjectivity by enhancing women's sexual confidence and sense of entitlement to pleasure. In others, transitions inhibit women's sexual agency and women feel disconnected from their sexual selves. In this paper, I explore how marriage and divorce function as turning points in women's construction …
Hung out to dry
Humor can be a means of social control and establishing boundaries between social groups. Disparagement humor, which is belittling and degrading while laughing at a target, is such a means of social control. Through the use of disparagement humor, people establish in-groups and out-groups and audiences of disparagement can enjoy vicarious superiority, as long as they are not members of the targeted out-group. In this paper, we look at the way dis…
Aging “Hot”
Unscripted
Images of sexually active women beyond the age of 50 are lacking in popular culture and in particular on television. Dominant sexual scripts depict older women as generally asexual. The television program Hot in Cleveland features unpartnered midlife and older women as main characters. In this article, based on analysis of four seasons of Hot in Cleveland, we look closely at portrayals of sexual activity to see whether they underscore dominant se…
The Way That I Look at Things [Is] Different Because It's Me
Many gender scholars have abandoned the notion that we can explore women's experiences without attention to other identities such as race, class, and/or sexual orientation. Until now, the ways race influences the development of sexual selves has been underexplored. In this paper, I focus on heterosexual women's accounts of the interplay of race, gender, and sexualities. Based on in-depth interviews with sixty-two white and African American hetero…
Something Old, Something Bold
Weddings in the United States are often extravagant, highly ritualized, and costly affairs. In this book, Beth Montemurro takes a fresh look at the wedding process, offering a perspective not likely to be found in the many planning books and magazines readily available to the modern bride. Montemurro draws upon years of ethnographic research to explore what prenuptial events mean to women participants and what they tell us about the complexity an…
Vibrator Nation
Ready and Waiting
Recent sexualities scholarship generally frames men as adhering to narratives of sexual assertion and constructions of hegemonic masculinity. However, research on masculinities notes scripts are changing and providing mixed messages regarding the expression of sexualities for heterosexual men. Given this, we look closely at sexual scripts in initiation of sexual intimacy as a means of exploring transformation in sexualities and understanding men'…
“If you could just see me”
Part of identity development involves the construction of a sexual self. Sexual selves are constructed based on interactions with others. Based on in-depth interviews with 59 heterosexual men between the ages of 30 and 59, I look at the way research participants defined heterosexual men’s desirability through their framing of their sexual selves. I show how participants’ stories revealed a link between desirability and masculinity for heterosexua…
Exploring the Impact of Age and Relationship Status on Heterosexual Men’s Discussion of Sexuality
Psychology (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Gender Studies (17 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (16 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Human sexuality (12 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Art (10 works) · Political science (10 works)