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Bisexuality

Bisexuality refers to sexual or romantic attraction toward members of both sexes. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with heterosexuality and homosexuality.

According to Alfred Kinsey's research into human sexuality in the mid-20th century, most humans do not fall exclusively into heterosexual or homosexual classifications but somewhere between. The Kinsey scale measures sexual attraction and behavior on a seven-point scale ranging from 0 ("exclusively heterosexual") to 6 ("exclusively homosexual"). According to Kinsey's study, most persons fall within the range of 1 to 5 (a mixture of heterosexual and homosexual). Although Kinsey's methodology has come under criticism, the scale is still widely used in describing the phenomenon of bisexuality.

Although observed in a variety of forms in human societies and elsewhere in the animal kingdom throughout recorded history, the term bisexuality (like the terms hetero- and homosexuality) was only coined in the 19th century Bisexual people are not necessarily attracted equally to both sexes. Because bisexuality is often an ambiguous position between homosexuality and heterosexuality, those who identify, or are identified, as bisexuals form a heterogeneous group.

Others view bisexuality as more ambiguous. Some people who might be classified by others as bisexual on the basis of their sexual behavior self-identify primarily as homosexual. Equally, otherwise heterosexual people who engage in occasional homosexual behavior could be considered bisexual, but may not identify as such. For some who believe that sexuality is a distinctly defined aspect of the character, this ambiguity is problematic. On the other hand, some believe that the majority of people contain aspects of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but that the intensities of these can vary from person to person. Some people who engage in bisexual behavior may be supportive of homosexual people, but still self-identify as heterosexual; others may consider any labels irrelevant to their positions and situations. In 1995, Harvard Shakespeare professor Marjorie Garber made the academic case for bisexuality with her 600-page Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life in which she argued that most people would be bisexual if not for "repression, religion, repugnance, denial...premature specialization."

Some bisexuals make a distinction between gender and sex. Gender is defined in these situations as a social or psychological category, characterized by the common practices of men and women. For example, the fact that women wear skirts and dresses in Western society while men traditionally do not is a social gender issue. Sex in this case is defined as the biological difference between males and females, prior to any social conditioning. Bisexuals in this sense may be attracted to more than one gender but only to one sex. For example, a male bisexual may be attracted to aspects of men and masculinity, but not to the male body.

Bisexuality is often misunderstood as a form of adultery or polyamory, and a popular misconception is that bisexuals must always be in relationships with men and women simultaneously. Rather, individuals attracted to both males and females, like people of any other orientation, may live a variety of sexual lifestyles. These include lifelong monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, polyfidelity, casual sexual activity with individual partners, casual group sex, and celibacy. For those with more than one sexual partner, these may, or may not, all be of the same gender.

The term bisexual was first used in the 19th century to refer to intersexed people. By 1914 it had begun to be used in the context of sexual orientation. Some bisexuals and sex researchers are dissatisfied with the term and have developed a variety of alternative or supplementary terms to describe aspects and forms of bisexuality. Many are neologisms not widely recognized by the larger society.

* Pansexual, omnisexual, anthrosexual, and pomosexual (postmodern sexuality) are substitute terms that, rather than referring to both or "bi" sex attraction, refer to all or "omni" sex attraction and are used mainly by those who wish to express acceptance of all sex possibilities, including transgender and intersex people, not just two. Pansexuality sometimes includes an attraction for less mainstream sexual activities, such as BDSM. Some people who might otherwise identify as pansexual or omnisexual choose to self-identify as bisexual because the term bisexual is more widely known, and because they see it as an important term in identity politics.

* Bi-permissive describes someone who does not actively seek out sexual relations with a given sex, but is open to them. Such a person may self-identify as heterosexual or homosexual and engage predominantly in sexual acts with individuals of the corresponding sex, and might be rated 1 or 5 on Kinsey's scale. Near-synonyms include heteroflexible and homoflexible.

* Ambisexual indicates a primarily indiscriminate attraction to either sex. A person who self-identifies as ambisexual might be attracted with equal intensity on physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual levels to partner(s) regardless of sex or gender presentation while upholding selectivity standards in other areas. Some might experience equally intense attractions that could be triggered by sex- or gender-specific traits in the given partner or partners. A person with this orientation might fall in the 3 category on Kinsey's scale, as would some who subscribe to the 2 or 4 rating (although some individuals in these latter categories consider themselves bi-permissive).

* Bi-curious has several distinct and sometimes contradictory meanings. It is commonly found in personal ads from those who identify as heterosexual, but are interested in homosexual "experimentation." Such people are commonly suspected—not necessarily correctly—of being homosexuals or bisexuals in denial of their homosexuality. It can also be used to describe someone as being passively bi, bi-permissive, or open to indirect bisexual contact.

* Trisexual (sometimes trysexual) is either an extension of, or a pun on bisexual. In its more serious usage, it indicates an interest in transgender persons in addition to cissexual men and women. In its more humorous usage, it refers to someone who will try any sexual experience. It is used in the song "La Vie Boheme" in the Broadway musical Rent. The term was coined by porn actress Robin Byrd.
* Biphobia describes a fear or condemnation of bisexuality, usually based in a belief that only heterosexuality and homosexuality are genuine orientations and appropriate lifestyles. Bisexual persons may also be the target of homophobia from those who consider only heterosexuality appropriate. The reverse can also apply in that bisexual persons may be targets of heterophobia or discrimination by some homosexuals.
* Passively bi, aka open-minded is a non-sex specific term that describes a heterosexual/bi-curious person who is open to incidental or direct contact (typically in a group sex scenario) from a member of the same sex or a homosexual/bi-curious person who is open to contact with members of the opposite sex under the same scenario, which usually doesn't involve reciprocation.
* Actively bi is a non-sex specific term that can describe a bi-curious person who initiates direct contact with the sex opposite his or her usual identity (either hetero- or homosexual); it can also refer to a bisexual person who engages in contact with members of both sexes on a fairly regular basis.

Sigmund Freud theorized that every person has the ability to become bisexual at some time in his or her life. He based this on the idea that enjoyable experiences of sexuality with the same sex, whether sought or unsought, acting on it or being fantasized, become an attachment to his or her needs and desires in social upbringing. Prominent psychoanalyst Dr. Joseph Merlino, Senior Editor of the book, Freud at 150: 21st Century Essays on a Man of Genius stated in an interview:
“ Freud maintained that bisexuality was a normal part of development. That all of us went through a period of bisexuality and that, in the end, most of us came out heterosexual but that the bisexual phase we traversed remained on some unconscious level, and was dealt with in other ways....He did not consider it something that should be criminalized, or penalized.... Freud felt there were a number of homosexuals he encountered who did not have a variety of complex problems that homosexuality was a part of. He found people who were totally normal in every other regard except in terms of their sexual preference. In fact, he saw many of them as having higher intellects, higher aesthetic sensibilities, higher morals; those kinds of things. He did not see it as something to criminalize or penalize, or to keep from psychoanalytic training. A lot of the psychoanalytic institutes felt if you were homosexual you should not be accepted; that was not Freud's position. ”

Dr. Alfred Kinsey's 1948 work Sexual Behavior in the Human Male found that "46% of the male population had engaged in both heterosexual and homosexual activities, or "reacted to" persons of both sexes, in the course of their adult lives". The Kinsey Institute has stated that "Kinsey said in both the Male and Female volumes that it was impossible to determine the number of persons who are "homosexual" or "heterosexual". It was only possible to determine behavior at any given time". Kinsey's book, and its companion Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, have received vocal criticism for their findings and methodology. The New York Times called his research "conscientious and comprehensive" and Professor Martin Duberman called it "skillful" and "a monumental endeavor".

Despite common misconceptions, bisexuality does not require that a person be attracted equally to both sexes. In fact, people who have a distinct but not exclusive preference for one sex over the other can and often do identify as bisexual. A recent study by researchers Gerulf Rieger, Meredith L. Chivers, and J. Michael Bailey, which attracted media attention in 2005, purported to find that bisexuality is extremely rare, and perhaps nonexistent, in men. This was based on results of controversial penile plethysmograph testing when viewing pornographic material involving only men and pornography involving only women. Critics state that this study works from the assumption that a person is only truly bisexual if he or she exhibits virtually equal arousal responses to both opposite-sex and same-sex stimuli, and have consequently dismissed the self-identification of people whose arousal patterns showed even a mild preference for one sex. Some researchers say that the technique used in the study to measure genital arousal is too crude to capture the richness (erotic sensations, affection, admiration) that constitutes sexual attraction. The study, and The New York Times article which reported it, were subsequently criticized as flawed and biphobic. FAIR also criticised the study .

Dr. Fritz Klein believed that social and emotional attraction are very important elements in bisexual attraction. For example, a bisexual might be attracted to both feminine women and feminine men, but have little interest in masculine individuals. This individual, while they might be highly attracted to certain members of both sexes, would be unlikely to be attracted to most males in modern western society (who tend to be masculine). As this study employed 2-minute clips of standard heterosexual and homosexual pornography, the study would be blind to the this type of bisexual.[citation needed] One third of the men in each group showed no significant arousal. The study did not claim them to be asexual, and Rieger stated that their lack of response did not change the overall findings.

Human bisexuality has mainly been studied alongside with homosexuality. Van Wyk & Geist (1995) argue that this is a problem for sexuality research because the few studies that have observed bisexuals separately have found that bisexuals are often different from both heterosexuals and homosexuals. Furthermore, bisexuality does not always represent a halfway between the dichotomy. Research indicates that bisexuality is influenced by biological, cognitive and cultural variables in interaction, and this leads to different types of bisexuality.

There is currently a debate on the importance of biological influences on sexual orientation. Biological explanations have been put to question by social scientists, particularly by feminists who encourage women to make conscious decisions about their life and sexuality. A difference in attitude between homosexual men and women has also been reported as men are more likely to regard their sexuality as biological, "reflecting the universal male experience in this culture, not the complexities of the lesbian world." There is also evidence that women's sexuality may be more strongly affected by cultural and contextual factors.

Most of the few available scientific studies on bisexuality date from before the 1990s. Interest in bisexuality has generally grown, but research focus has lately been on sociology and gender studies as well as on bisexuals with HIV and AIDS.

There is a consensus among scholars of different faculties that cultural and social factors have an effect on human sexual behaviour. As bisexual people come from all social classes and familial backgrounds, such factors cannot independently explain why some people are bisexual.

Krafft-Ebing was the first to suggest that bisexuality is the original state of human sexuality. Freud has famously summarized on the basis of clinical observations: "[W]e have come to know that all human beings are bisexual - - and that their libido is distributed between objects of both sexes, either in a manifest or a latent form." According to Freud, people remain bisexual all their lives in a repression to monosexuality of fantasy and behaviour. This idea was taken up in the 1940s by the zoologist Alfred Kinsey who was the first to create a scale to measure the continuum of sexual orientation from hetero to homosexuality. Kinsey studied human sexuality and argued that people have the capability of being hetero or homosexual even if this trait does not present itself in the current circumstances.

From an anthropolocial perspective, there is large variation in the prevalence of bisexuality between different cultures. Among some tribes it appears to be non-existent while in others a universal, including the Sambia of New Guinea and other similar Melanesian cultures.

Even though only a small percentage of people have bisexual traits, this does not outrule the possibility of bisexual behaviour of the majority in different circumstances. Similarly, although evolutionary psychologists consider most males as promiscuous by nature, the majority of American men are faithful to their wives, appearing essentially monogamous. These traits can be explained as the result of culture constraints on evolutionary predispositions.

Several studies comparing bisexuals with hetero or homosexuals have indicated that bisexuals have higher rates of sexual activity, fantasy or erotic interest. Van Wyk and Geist (1984) found that male and female bisexuals had more heterosexual fantasy than heterosexuals. Dixon (1985) found that bisexual men had more sexual activities with women than did heterosexual men. Bisexual men masturbated more but had less happy marriages than heterosexuals. Bressler and Lavender (1986) found that bisexual women had more orgasms per week and they described them as stronger than did hetero or homosexual women. Goode and Haber (1977) found bisexual women to sexually mature earlier, masturbate and enjoy masturbation more and to be more experienced in different types of heterosexual contact.

Recent research suggests that, for most women, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to both women and men. For men, however, high sex drive is associated with increased attraction to one sex or the other, but not to both, depending on sexual orientation

More recent research, however, associates high sex drive and increased attraction to both sexes only in women. Bisexual men's pattern has been more similar to heterosexuals with a stronger correlation with high sex drive and other-sex attraction.