Wikipedia: Bisexuality/Talk

The first sentence did say "A bisexual person is one who can become romantically involved with persons of either sex." I've changed it into something which is much more unweildy and which I like less, but which I think is more accurate. The way the sentence was did not take into account people who are in a heterosexual relationship for a length of time (unhappily, one presumes) before leaving their partners and announcing that they are gay or lesbian. --KQ

The article says:

: According to modern sexological ideas, the majority of people are to some degree bisexual. Most people have some attraction to either sex, although usually one sex is preferred. Only a minority (5-10%) can be considered fully heterosexual or homosexual.

What a load of tripe! I'll contain my comments on this page,though, until I can find some evidence to cite that this is junk science. <>< tbc

: I suggest taking it out and moving it to here to the talk page until whoever wrote that can back up this rather bizzarely bold assertion with some references. --AV

: I agree.

The source of that information is probably the Kinsey Reports on Sexuality in the Human Male and Female. Kinsey et al got that figure by creating a 7-point scale. 0 was purely heterosexual, 3 was 50-50 bisexual, 6 was purely homosexual. The point the above author is trying to get across is correct according to Kinsey's research, though maybe you've misinterpreted. It's not saying that most people are 50-50 bisexual, it is saying that most people are predominatly heterosexual or homosexual with some degree of bisexuality. Kinsey et al claimed that most people aren't totally devoid of feelings for the sex other than the preferred one, its just that these feelings are a lot less strong than those for the preferred sex.

Like most things Kinsey said, this is pretty controversial; but I have never actually seen any *scientific* refutation of the idea of the scale (though since I've read hardly any sexology, there may well be scientific refutations somewhere out there.) All I've ever seen are conservative authors (e.g. Judith Reisman, Kinsey's archnemesis) who argue that the idea of sexuality being a continuum has no scientific basis. But they don't have any evidence that it has no scientific basis, I'd say it a priori makes sense, that many conservative authors (with their ideas of homosexuality being a choice and of homosexuality being "curable") themselves presume it, and that when Kinsey et al showed people the scale and asked them where they fitted they didn't all choose 0, 3 or 6, which is what you'd expect if the scale didn't reflect reality to some extent.

On the other hand, maybe his numbers as to the percentage of the population at each point on the scale are biased. Reisman argues that Kinsey's sample was biased towards prisoners and the college-educated, and that self-selection resulted in an excess of people with 'unconventional' sexual interests. Maybe she is right. I don't know if she is; and I don't know how the figures in this instance would be affected if she is right. -- SJK

The following isn't NPOV. -- SJK

It is my opinion, after many years of research and personal experience, that bi-sexuality in women is more prevalent than most people realize, and FAR more prevalent than the previous paragraph indicates. I do not have any "concrete" research figures to draw any percentage figures from, but I think the following five paragraphs will perhaps lead to a more realistic examination of the everyday evidence regarding bi-sexuality; at least the bi-sexuality of women.

Female to female relationships. Girls will, from a very early age, sit together on a bench at school, or on the grass in a park, or on stairs, or on the curb and talk for hours. They sit or stand around with their arms linked, or with their arm around their friend's shoulder or waist. They walk along holding hands, laughing and talking as if they are the only two people in the world. They do these things because they want and need close personal contact and intimate conversations with their 'girlfriends.' They bond together, especially in the case of 'best friends,' often for the rest of their lives in a relationship so strong that few men can understand it. This is normal social behavior for females. This same close intimacy sometimes leads to sexual activities. It is simply an extension of the need (or desire) for close physical intimacy in the friendship.

This closeness, and the desire to share sexually oriented contact, is also experienced by quite a large number of women (who are beyond 'girlhood') when they are in a private situation with a woman friend. This is a normal attraction and a normal desire for women who need the intimate contact with another female that their basic sexual nature calls for. Women who experience these feelings towards other women, but who also have intimate relationships with a man (or men) are considered to be, according to the most accepted social definition, "bi-sexual." They are, however, simply women who are aware of their natural basic sexual orientation.

This feeling of need (or desire) for close physical contact by one woman for another is not wrong, or "dirty" or perverted. It is normal. It is not understood by most people in our society, and that is really too bad, because shared intimacy when it is mutually desired is a truly beautiful thing. Unfortunately, many women deny themselves this intimate sharing because they feel that others will think that they are "lesbians."

A woman who likes both men and women is not a lesbian, according to the present-day generally accepted definition. A woman who enjoys the intimacy of close physical contact with another woman, but also likes men, is a normal woman who is correctly classified as "bi-sexual" and she has no reason to be afraid or ashamed of her desire for sexual contact with another woman to whom she is attracted.

Conversely, women who never feel these sexual attractions toward other women are just as normal as are women with bi-sexual feelings. They are simply located on a different part of the sexuality curve upon which all humans are located. The X-Y chromosome definition was, for a while, considered to be an adequate factor upon which to classify human sexual orientation. We now know that this is only one step above the 'male-or-female' classification.

TWW