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Sexual Fluidity in Male and Females

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Sexual Fluidity in Male and Females Author's personal copy Curr Sex Health Rep DOI 10.1007/s11930-016-0092-z CURRENT CONTROVERSIES (P KLEINPLATZ AND C MOSER, SECTION EDITORS) Sexual Fluidity in Male and Females Lisa M. Diamond1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2016 Abstract Sexual fluidity has been defined as a capacity for possessing both same-sex and other-sex attractions), its core situation-dependent flexibility in sexual responsiveness, assumptions regarding the fixed and categorical nature of sex- which allows individuals to experience changes in same-sex ual orientation have continuedtoholdsway.Assummarizedin or other-sex desire across both short-term and long-term time a recent Institute of Medicine report (which represents current periods. I review recent evidence for sexual fluidity and con- scientific thinking on the topic), sexual orientation is Ban en- sider the extent of gender differences in sexual fluidity by during pattern of or disposition to experience sexual or romantic examining the prevalence of three phenomena: nonexclusive desires for, and relationships with, people of one’ssamesex,the (bisexual) patterns of attraction, longitudinal change in sexual other sex, or both sexes^ [1,p.27]. attractions, and inconsistencies among sexual attraction, be- This model of sexual orientation ably characterizes the expe- havior, and identity. All three of these phenomena appear to be riences of many men and women, but not all of them. Over the widespread across a large body of independent, representative past several decades, researchers have documented numerous studies conducted in numerous countries, supporting an cases in which individuals report unexpected changes—some- emerging understanding of sexuality as fluid rather than rigid times transient and sometimes lasting—in their sexual attractions, and categorical. These studies also provide evidence for gen- identities, and/or behaviors. The capacity for such change is de- der differences in sexual fluidity, but the extent and cause of noted sexual fluidity [reviewed in 2••, 3•], and researchers are these gender differences remain unclear and are an important actively investigating and debating its prevalence, causes, and topic for future research. implications. One of the most significant unanswered questions regarding sexual fluidity concerns gender differences. Although Keywords Sexual orientation . Gender differences . early studies of sexual fluidity suggested that it was more com- Bisexuality . Sexual fluidity . Same-sex attraction moninwomenthaninmen[4•, 5], recent studies have begun to challenge this view. The goal of the present analysis is to review and synthesize the current empirical evidence on this question. Historically, the dominant model of sexual orientation has been Only by comprehensively comparing different manifestations of a categorical one, positing the existence of two fundamentally sexual fluidity in men and women can we move toward more different types of people (homosexuals and heterosexuals)char- accurate scientific understandings of female and male sexual acterized by two fundamentally different types of sexual attrac- orientation more generally. tion (same-sex versus other-sex). Although this model has been Sexual fluidity is defined as a capacity for situation- revised to accommodate a third type of individual (bisexuals, dependent flexibility in sexual responsiveness, which allows individuals to experience changes in same-sex or other-sex This article is part of the Topical Collection on Current Controversies desire, over both short-term and long-term time periods. The existence of sexual fluidity does not imply that Beveryone is * Lisa M. Diamond [email protected] bisexual,^ or that sexual orientation does not exist. Rather, it indicates that sexual orientation does not rigidly predict each 1 Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East, and every desire an individual will experience over the rm 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA lifespan: Some gay men and lesbians experience periodic Author's personal copy Curr Sex Health Rep other-sex attractions, just as some heterosexuals experience possibilities, it is still useful and informative to examine the periodic same-sex attraction. The word some is used because current evidence regarding the population prevalence of non- sexual fluidity appears to vary from person to person. Hence, exclusive versus exclusive same-sex attractions and whether certain individuals show very stable patterns of same-sex or these prevalence estimates differ for men versus women. other-sex sexual attraction over the lifespan, whereas others Figure 1 summarizes the most reliable international data on show variations in sexual attractions. this question from 16 studies published between 2010 and 2016, There is no direct way to measure an individual’scapacity each of which used a representative probability sample of adults, for sexual fluidity or its prevalence within a specific popula- with sample sizes ranging from several thousand to several mil- tion. Yet we can indirectly assess sexual fluidity by looking for lion participants (specific sample sizes are listed below). Each the following three phenomena, which are its most common column shows the percentage of same-sex attracted individuals manifestations: (1) nonexclusive (i.e., bisexual) sexual attrac- in the survey who reported exclusive attractions versus nonex- tions, (2) change in sexual attractions over time, and (3) in- clusive attractions. Separate graphs are presented for men versus consistencies among sexual attraction, behavior, and identity. women to illustrate the consistently higher rates of nonexclusive Below, we review recent research on each of these phenomena attractions among women than among men. Data are presented in men and women. from left to right according to year of publication, and the char- acteristics of each study are as follows: (a) the Integrated Household Survey, N = 340,000, UK [6]; (b) the Nonexclusive Sexual Attractions Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys, 2001–2008, N =67,359,USA[7]; (c) Norway’s Survey of One of the most common questions about sexual fluidity is Living Conditions, N = 6238, Norway [8]; (d) the 2006–2008 BHow does it differ from bisexuality?^ After all, both sexual National Survey of Family Growth, N = 13,496, USA [9]; (e) the fluidity and bisexuality produce the same phenomenological National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, N = 5865, USA result: sexual attractions for both men and women (although [10]; (f) the New Zealand Mental Health Survey, N = 12,992, not always concurrently). The primary difference between sex- New Zealand [11]; (g) Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic ual fluidity and bisexuality is that the latter is conceptualized as Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions, N = 34,653, USA a stable sexual predisposition giving rise to consistent experi- [12]; (h) Sexual Health in the Netherlands, N = 4289, ences of nonexclusive desires (i.e., desires for both men and Netherlands [13]; (i) Wave 4 of the National Longitudinal women) over the life course. In contrast, sexual fluidity is con- Study of Adolescent Health, N = 14,421, USA [14]; (j) the ceptualized as a capacity for change in erotic responsiveness. 2008 General Social Survey, N = 3559, USA [15]; (k) the For some individuals, this capacity may never be expressed. National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, Others may only encounter one or two circumstances over their N = 15,162, UK [16]; (l) the Context of Sexuality in France, lifespan which give rise to changes in sexual feelings. Hence, N = 9872, France [17]; (m) the Australian Study of Health and although both bisexuality and sexual fluidity can produce non- Relationships, N = 20,094, Australia [18]; (n) the National Health exclusive sexual attractions, such attractions are expected to be Interview Survey, N =120,186,USA[19]; (o) the English a regular feature in the lives of bisexually oriented individuals, General Practice Patient Survey, N = 2,169,718, UK [20]; (p) whereas they may prove more sporadic and/or context-specific the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System across 7 differ- for individuals who are highly sexually fluid. ent states, 2005–2010, N = 405,145 [21]; (q) the 2011–2013 Of course, the exact boundary between Bregular^ and National Survey of Family Growth, N = 9175, USA [22•]. Bsporadic^ patterns of sexual attraction is unknown, and These data show that nonexclusive patterns of same-sex hence, this distinction is more useful conceptually than empir- attraction are more common among women than among ically. The main point is to emphasize that sexual fluidity men. The reasons for this gender difference are not clear. represents a context-dependent capacity for change in attrac- One possibility is that there is a basic and fundamental sex tions, whereas bisexuality represents a pattern of mixed attrac- difference rendering women more likely than men to experi- tions. They both give rise to the same observable phenome- ence bisexual arousal. This is consistent with experimental non—nonexclusive sexual attractions—but through different research showing that women (both lesbian and heterosexual) pathways. Accordingly, when individuals report experiences show similar levels of genital arousal to sexual stimuli of nonexclusive attractions, we have no way to know whether depicting their Bnon-preferred^ and their Bpreferred^ sex, such experiences stem from bisexuality or sexual fluidity. This whereas men show substantially less
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