Bisexuality Revisited: A myth?
"Most of them seem to lean one way or the other, but that doesn't preclude them from having a relationship with the no preferred sex... You may be mostly interested in women but, hey, the guy who delivers the pizza is really hot, and what are you going to do?"
- Dr. Diamond
A recent study by Northwestern University which received some attention in today’s New York Times questions whether bisexuality is actually possible. The study is quite deficient and lacks any significant figures for proof of any claim (a total surveyed of less than 100). Yet the directives I believe the study set out under are false, as well. This study presupposes categories of human preference in regard to sexuality: Bi, Straight, Gay, and Lesbian, when in actuality many people do not fit in any category.
Bisexuality cannot be defined. In all truth homosexuality and heterosexuality are also inadequate words to describe the nature of human sexuality on the whole. Why does culture force men and women to identify themselves in these categories? I believe, with selective evidence from the research of Dr. Kinsey, that no man or woman is completely hetero, bi, or homosexual. We all fall somewhere along the spectrum and ultimately bisexuality is sometimes a term that is all encompassing.
The phenomenon of self-identification with regard to sexuality removes the excitement of exploration. Risking offense to most people, I will claim that this phenomenon results from politics of sexuality first identified by the legendary French philosopher Michel Foucault. Until somewhat recently, sexuality was rarely identified with such terms, though people often engaged in numerous exploratory encounters. According to today’s culture, in order to protect our freedom of sexuality we must sacrifice for this politics of sexuality. Attempting to make sense of ourselves, we utilize science to explain the unknowable and mysterious. I say let it be.
Article comments
1 - gonzo marx
best definition i have ever heard from a bisexual...
"it's the person i lust after, not the plumbing"
nuff said?
Excelsior!
2 - Eric Olsen
in one hole and out the other
Interesting post Paul, thanks!
3 - HW Saxton
Didn't Woody Allen once comment on the
subject to the likes of: "Bisexuality
does increase your chance for a date on
Saturday night" or something similar?
Oh well,it was funny when he said it.
4 - Silas Kain
Thank you, Paul for this post. I have often felt that sexuality could not be confined to a simple term. I think we're all sexual creatures and the manifestation of the same is as individual as the fingerprint. Somehow, along the evolution of intellect, humankind has taken something that is beautiful, pleasurable and natural and turned it into a shameful, disgusting thing that dares not to be discussed in an open forum. Today, I consider myself gay. Tomorrow I may meet a woman that totally throws me off kilter and will force me to examine my options. So am I gay? Perhaps not. Again, just as we have become mesmerized by branding and trademarks we have applied them to human frailties and instincts. Somehow we do sex and the acts thereof a disservice by reducing them to simple terms. Leave the simplicity of reproduction to the animal kingdom. Give me the complications of emotional, gut wrenching, life affirming sex any day of the week.
5 - Victor Plenty
Silas, if you met a woman you could consider as a partner, you should be free to do so without worrying about a pack of right-wing extremists trying to score political points by claiming this meant you had been "cured" of being gay.
At the same time, you shouldn't have to worry about left-wing extremists trying to claim your relationship was fake, or that in finding love with the "wrong" gender you had somehow betrayed the gay community.
Too bad the extremists lack that kind of respect for their fellow human beings.
6 - Silas Kain
So true, Victor. I even find Ann Coulter attractive. Imagine that. She makes me straight. I could make her a Democrat. Wow, I must talk to Mom about the drugs she took while carrying me.
7 - Paul Herrington
Does anyone know why the findings in the Kinsey and in this survey seem to illustrate that women are far more complex in their sexuality and less easily categorized? I feel my sexuality is just as complex and beautiful as my girlfriend's. Why am I simply reduced by society to a "horny guy" or a "fruitcake" when I explore my sexuality, while her explorations are viewed as beautiful and are often far more acceptable culturally?
8 - gonzo marx
cuz she's cuter than you
oh yes...and she has tits...can't forget that
nuff said?
Excelsior!
9 - bhw
I even find Ann Coulter attractive. Imagine that. She makes me straight.
No, I think that makes you a lesbian. Or maybe she really is just a guy in drag. ;-)
The study referenced in the post above, according to the NYT, showed that men who identified themselves as bisexual did not become sexually aroused equally by men and women. All the people in the study, no matter how they self-identified, showed a much stronger preference [as evidenced by states of arousal] for one sex.
Discuss.
10 - Silas Kain
Paul asks: "Why am I simply reduced by society to a "horny guy" or a "fruitcake" when I explore my sexuality, while her explorations are viewed as beautiful and are often far more acceptable culturally?
The answer is quite simple. A male's genitalia is far simpler than that of a female. With a male it's three shakes and off to sleep. With a female it's a hell of a lot more work and when she is satisfied it is much more emotional. We men are, by nature, quick on the draw. We have the sensuality of a plankton.
11 - Paul Herrington
Silas I would have to respectfully disagree. We cannot generalize about sexaulity in this fashion. Biology does not imply personality in direct manner. We are far more complex then that.
12 - Silas Kain
I wish it were true, Paul. Sometimes, however, I think that many men are ruled by their penis than the other way around. Somehow it is perceived that a man who is sensually sexual is a deviant - especially in the eyes of right wingers and fundamentalist Christians. You're right that we are complex but only by choice. Many men just keep it simple in order to 'fit in'. It is when a man recognizes the complexity of intimate relations that things begin to go haywire to some extent.