"Hurts so good!": How sexual control may influence condom disuse and active barebacking in ordinary gay and bisexual men

Recent research suggests that in a subculture of gay and bisexual men (i.e., Leathermen), tendencies towards extreme sexual control (e.g., labeling as a Dominant, labeling as a Submissive) were correlated with condom disuse. However, research has not yet assessed whether sexual control relates to condom use in gay and bisexual men not identifying with any particular subculture. Ordinary men may vary in their dominance or submissiveness during sex. Such variations may translate into a deferral of choice to the partner to use/disuse condoms, or even, coercion to bareback (i.e., active and acknowledged disuse of condoms during anal intercourse). In response, we administered a survey to 899 men who claimed no affiliation to any gay or bisexual culture or subculture. We assessed HIV-status, condom use, number of bareback experiences, and measures of sexual control (e.g., When…having sex…I physically dominate my partner; 1-7). The sample followed a virtually normal distribution regarding the sexual control measure (M = 4.3, SD = 1.0). Sexual control was negatively related to consistent receptive anal condom use (β = -.30, p < .01) and consistent insertive anal condom use (β = -.28, p < .01). That is, the more dominant gay and bisexual men reported being during sex, the less likely they were to use condoms as either the receptive or insertive partner. With respect to bareback sex, sexual control was positively associated with greater numbers of bareback experiences (β = .32, p = .02); however, this relationship only was found for those who tended towards being insertive with partners. In contrast to a previous study, this current research only found domination to predict condom disuse in ordinary gay and bisexual men. The data suggest that sexual domination may contribute to domination over other (non-sexual) aspects shared between sexual partners (e.g., decision making behaviors).