Bisexuality Is A Lie?

[Lee]

A new study by a team of psychologists in Chicago and Toronto suggests that the estimated 1.7 percent of men who identify themselves as bisexual may not be truly attracted to both sexes.

Psychologists at Northwestern University and the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto recruited their subjects through advertisements in gay and alternative newspapers. Out of the 101 young adult men they selected, 33 identified themselves as bisexual, 30 as heterosexual and 38 as homosexual.

The men were then seated alone in a laboratory with a device to measure their genital arousal pattern while they watched a series of erotic movies. Some of the pornography involved only women. Others involved only men.

The monitors showed that only men aroused gay men, and only women aroused straight men. But bisexuals were a different story.

Instead of being aroused by both men and women, about three-quarters of the group identified as bisexual were aroused only by men. The remaining bi-identified men were aroused only by women.

"Regardless of whether the men were gay, straight or bisexual, they showed about four times more arousal" to one sex or the other, said Gerulf Rieger, a graduate psychology student at Northwestern University and the study's lead author in a quote published by the New York Times.

Dr. J. Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern and the new study's senior author, added, "I'm not denying that bisexual behavior exists, but I am saying that in men there's no hint that true bisexual arousal exists, and that for men arousal is orientation."

Other researchers criticized the technique used as too crude to capture the complexity of sexual attraction.

"To claim on the basis of this study that there's no such thing as male bisexuality is overstepping, it seems to me," said Dr. Gilbert Herdt, director of the National Sexuality Resource Center in San Francisco. "It may be that there is a lot less true male bisexuality than we think, but if that's true then why in the world are there so many movies, novels and TV shows that have this as a theme -- is it collective fantasy, merely a projection? I don't think so."

When asked if there would be political implications over this study, Steven Fisher, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, said, "The American people don't care if the person who discovers the cure for cancer is gay, straight, transgender or bisexual. No matter what, no one should be discriminated against because of who they are."

http://www.gay.com/news/article.html...07/05/1&page=1

Interesting stuff for sure, ive see numerous posts on message boards by both gay and straight webmasters saying that bisexuality 'doesnt exist' and that you are either gay or straight, what do you folks think of this new study?

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

it's a very small study, and the choice of movies might change the results.

i am bisexual, but i have very definite types i am attracted to for either sex. anyone else just doesn't register on my meter. also situation can be part of it. i am much more dominant with women, and so a dominant woman rarely (if ever) gets my motor running.

i love a sweet, submissive girl - my first female crushes were mary ann on gilligan's island and barbarella. show me a tough, butch babe and my response is nill. likewise pornstar types and your average model types.

so the choice of movies would make a big difference in their findings. seems like interviews with the subjects regarding this type of preference, plus what situations they fantasize about for either sex, would create the ability to show them movies that would show bisexual response.

[curiousbunny]

well i think bisexuality does exist but you can only fall in love with one person @ a time. I've dated (if u want to call it that) LOL 3 bisexual guys that have struggled cuz they are attracted to both sexes. The term bisexual should still exist. It is not just gay or straight. I think some guys are affraid of the "bisexual" label and are just in denial and say they are str8. One of the guys I dated was "straight" (yes i laughed inside) ok and now outloud. Fear is a big factor they are just affraid they might b "outted". Regardless as I said before bisesxuality is not a life. :light:

[curiousbunny]

Regardless as I said before bisesxuality is not a life.

Correction i meant Lie not life

[curiousbunny]

so the choice of movies would make a big difference in their findings.

I agree. I think alot of bisexuals are very particular about who they pick about the same sex. I have a friend that was str8 and she kept telling me that I didn't know what I was missing. Well she met this girl at a club once and fell in love with her LOL. They have been together for 7 years now. I think if the right person comes along it can make str8 people curious to try.

[Xstr8guy]

so the choice of movies would make a big difference in their findings. seems like interviews with the subjects regarding this type of preference, plus what situations they fantasize about for either sex, would create the ability to show them movies that would show bisexual response.

You hit the nail on the head! I am gay but if you showed me a movie of 2 twinks having sex, I would have zero sexual response. And if you showed me a movie of a hairy daddy screwing a sexy blonde woman, then you definitely get a sexual response... and it wouldn't be because of the sexy blonde.

[DonMike]

I think social stigma has a lot to do with it also. There's a great part in Chasing Amy where the lesbian tells all her lesbian friends that she's falled in love with a guy and they all act like they've lost some sort of battle and that she's no longer the same person anymore. And of course there's the stigma of a guy who is supposedly straight and he experiments with another guy, his straight friends don't think it's cool, they get on his case.

I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that a lot of gay people use bi-sexuality as a way to deal with the fact that they are gay. I did it. I remember telling people I was bi because it seemed to be more exotic and didn't carry the same weight as being gay did (in my own mind). Then a friend of mine tried to set me up with a girl and was totally not interested. I think a lot of us go through that and so when we hear someone say they are bi it makes us think of the most unpleasant phase of our sexual developement and we tend to think they are simply in denial. Which may not be the case.

But Xstr8guy is correct in his post about the study. There are lots of guys I'm totally not attracted to. And vanilla porn bores me to tears. I would need to be watching some hot S&M scene for it to get a response from me, or it would have to contain a model that had some sort of fetish interest of mine or be of a certain look or attitude. But whatever that response would be, there would be none if you were showing me videos of women. So I can pretty much honestly say I'm not bi. LOL!