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Sexual script theorists present sexual encounters as learned interactions that follow predictable sequences or `scripts'. Feminist research on heterosexual negotiation uses self-report data to argue that these scripts are gendered such that it is difficult for women to refuse unwanted sex. In this paper, we suggest that, notwithstanding claims made for script theory as a form of social constructionism, it incorporates individualistic and cognitive assumptions that ignore the social context in which self-report data are produced. Illustrating our argument with our own data from young women in focus group discussions talking about refusing unwanted sex, we provide an alternative theoretical perspective on this kind of self-report data, drawn from Edwards' (1995, 1997) concept of `script formulations'. In particular, we show how the `scripted' quality of sexual interaction is actively produced as part of speakers' orientation to …