Bisexuality
Bisexuality is a psychological phenomenon that is still relatively inconclusive. Many people in society today are convinced that bisexuality is not even real, that bisexuality is simply a phase, and that it should not even be counted as a sexual orientation. The studies, tests, and data collected by researchers of the bisexual community have had difficulty being generalized based upon the variety and diversity of those who identify as bisexual. In early psychology, methods such as the Kinsey scale became helpful to determine a person 's sexual orientation based on a 0-6 ranking. However, the Kinsey Scale is based on sexual encounters and behavior with members of the same sex, rather than questioning the the emotional and
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Based on years of research, he developed what is now called the Kinsey scale. The Kinsey scale separates heterosexuality and homosexuality on a scale from 0 to 6 based upon one 's sexual experiences. Kinsey was the first to realize that there may be more categories than simply heterosexuality and homosexuality, and developed a system that attempted to categorize the area in between. In the center of the scale, the description is “Equally heterosexual and homosexual,” which is his description of bisexuality. The Kinsey scale however is only based upon a person 's outward behavior, and does not include the emotional or physical responses that a person may experience. This is a problem, because one may know that one is attracted to both genders, but one may still have had no encounters with either gender. The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, developed by Fritz Klein, was based of off Kinsey’s work, but included many more variables. It divides one’s sexual attraction, sexual behaviour, sexual fantasies, emotional preference, social preference, lifestyle preference, and finally, one’s own self identification into separate categories. Each one of these categories receives a rank that is based on a spectrum of more homosexual or heterosexual preference, and also includes a column to indicate a past, a present and an ideal situation. Michael D. Storms developed another system of categorizing …show more content…
Bisexuals are typically misunderstood, because they do not belong with the homosexual community or the straight community. They are commonly referred to as “fence sitters,” who are not invested in the interests of either community. In The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists, there was an example of a bisexual woman who felt that she could not even come out to the lesbian community at her college. The fact that one sexual orientation minority might actually fear another sexual minority based upon inaccurate stereotypes is a tragedy in the least. The stereotype that bisexual people are untrustworthy, and create a “wild card” of insecurity in a relationship has made them shunned by both gay and straight partners. Bisexuals are often not even taken seriously due to the assumption that they cannot maintain a monogamous relationship. In Bisexuality: The Psychology and Politics of an Invisible Minority, this stereotype was debunked
For my interview portion of this response I interviewed a friend of mine named Nicole who is a bisexual. When I asked her about her fears of coming out her she said that her only fear was being seen as some kind of pervert or sexual predator.” I came out to my friends first, some were shocked but soon it just became something that people just knew and after awhile it became just as relevant as my hair color”. She also stated that after she came out to her friends some of those friends came out to her soon after. She admitted she was treated differently by people because of the discrimination bisexuals get by both hetrosexuals and homosexuals.“People tolerate bisexuals but they are not respected” She said that many people treated her as if she was confused or like she was only pretending to like girls because they believe that would attract men. She explained that most people tend to believe that bisexuality doesn’t exist.
Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, developed by Dr. Fritz Klein, is the most recent method found in determining someone's sexual orientation. Klein realized that sexual orientation was a "dynamic, multi-variable" process. He concluded that an individual’s sexual orientation was made up of sexual and non-sexual variables that changed over time and with age. So he created a grid that made it a little bit easier to determine your own sexual orientation. Although many are modified, they almost always contain the same idea. For each person, it sets out seven component variables of sexual orientation. These variables are assessed at three different time periods, consisting of the person's past, their present, and their ideal future. The person then receives a rating from 1 to 7 for each of the 21 resulting combinations and then given a result.
This version of the Sensation Seeking Score should be considered to be revised in the future. It may be simple, and it is suggested to takers to find the best preference suited for them, but the test is best taken for people who are older with more conservative values. The test is heteronormative in that it assumes a person is straight, and that it is “high risk” to consider becoming friends with a homosexual. For some preferences the situation needs to be elaborated to make sense on what is risky because a simple artist group is not “far
As of today, there is a total of eight different types of sexual preferences including heterosexuality and homosexuality ("Overview of Sexual Orientations"). The different types of sexuality are absolutely clear to those who identify with them and have personally accepted them. What is interesting is how insignificant of a difference the multiple sexual orientations have between one another but defined as different types of preferences. The multitude of sexual orientations all acquire the same element, the attraction to another. Granted, sexual orientation is a person’s pattern of sexual attractions based only on gender ("Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity 101"). I questioned that if we removed gender from the equation could individuals look beyond a person’s preference and identify what qualities others may have in a person beside their
Alfred Kinsey was an American Professor of biology and zoology at Indiana University. During his career he decided to shift his focus from studying gull wasps to that of human subjects. He embarked on a study of human sexual behavior by doing a series of interviews consisting of 18,000 people. The first installment of nine books was “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.” This 30 year project was anything but non-controversial especially with in the realm of the FBI and the United States government. As any breakthrough research goes through, there were positive and negative critiques of his study.
Some strengths of the article would include the research and conclusions of sex reassignments found through scholarly “experts” such as the study found by Dr. Kranz. He asserts women identified as female gender to have the highest level of “diffusivity” then comes along female-to-male transsexuals, then male-to-female transsexuals, and finally the lowest of males whom identified as male gender. This research concluded that through transgender experience, there is a disparity between gender identity and physical sex where the brain is structured differently suggesting a neural basis existing on spectrum. With the range of gender identity, the research also concludes sexual orientation to be based on spectrum and thus controlling an extent of how changeable gender is and what extent one will go through to change their body and behavior to match a desired
... of what happened from the seventies to the nineties. We went from liberal ideas of ways to dress and live our lives to conservative ideas of clear defining lines between sexual categories and more conservative styles of dress; boys dressing like boys and girls dressing appropriately as girls. People of the nineties were not able to accept the fluidity of bisexuality because it does not fit in a clear-cut category; it entails all of them instead. Perhaps as we venture into a new century and millennium our society should start learning from the past so we can continue making steps forward instead of backtracking into the close-mindedness of the past. Freedom should be something embraced and not stepped over. This freedom can help us to remember, "…In the end, it is really about the simple mysterious pull between warm human bodies when the lights go out." (Newsweek, 50)
Genetics, biology, and upbringing are all key aspects in determining one’s sexual orientation. Many of the factors are combined to make up how a person feels or who he or she is attracted to. There is no definite answer to why someone has a particular orientation, but there are studies that sugge...
While researching if “Bisexuality is a phase for people.” I learned about a term called sexually fluid that has gained popularity with people. Being sexually fluid is when a person does not have a preference but feel that their sexuality is like water, it flows freely. They are attracted to everyone under the right circumstances and it does not matter if they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transgender. People that identify with sexual fluidity feel free to love whom they want but how did this type of behavior start.
Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, and how acceptable one’s relationship is determined by society’s view of gender roles. Because the majority of the population is characterized as heterosexual, those who deviate from that path are ...
Gender has been around throughout history; however, within recent years, gender has separated itself from the traditional view of sex, e.i., male or female, and has become centered on ones masculinity or femininity. Of course gender is more than just ones masculinity or femininity, gender has become a way for one to describe, he or she, in a way in which they are different from everyone else. Gender has turned into a sense of identity, a way for one to feel different and fulfilled among all of those around them. Of course gender’s sense of freedom would seem outside of structure and only affected by one’s own agency, however, structure is a key component in establishing gender. We can look into both ethnic Mexican’s culture practices regarding sexuality, children songs and games, and see that cultural traditions still heavily influence gender, creating what is masculine and what is feminine and what is the role of each gender, as well as challenging the notions that gender is solely based on agency.
The method was used in this study, half women and half men participants in the sexual orientation nonverbal test. All dyads consist of individuals of the identical sex. All homosexual participants were conscious of their own sexual
Sexual attraction is an everyday part of life that has different effects on each person. In the following paper I am going to discuss the different types of sexual attraction for adolescences ages 12-20, early adulthood ages 20-30, mature adulthood 30-65, and older adults age 65 and older. Sexual attraction: which sex are you attracted to, or are you attracted to both men and women? Then we have sexual behavior: what sex are your partners? And finally, we have sexual identity: how do you think of yourself are you gay, straight, or bisexual? Some of us develop feelings of attraction to a one type of sex before we self-label
In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...