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Concepts of Female Sexual Orientation

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Abstract

This chapter assesses the distinctive features of female same-sex sexuality and considers their implications for modeling the nature and development of female sexual orientation. After reviewing the state of current research on these directions, it outlines some of the most provocative and promising directions for future research. Of all of the preconceptions about sexual orientation that have been questioned and revised over the years, one of the most important is the presumption that female and male sexual orientation are parallel phenomena, with the same origins and outcomes. To the contrary, women's greater propensity for nonexclusive, fluid patterns of attraction suggests the possibility that the underlying determinants of female same-sex sexuality may be quite different from those for men, requiring different explanatory models.
... Such differences speak to the fact that bisexuality and homosexuality in females may have somewhat distinct biodevelopmental foundations, with the former arising from women's general tendency to be "sexually fluid", and the latter arising from neurohormonal influences that direct some women's sexual interests exclusively towards female targets (Diamond 2013). Lippa (2006Lippa ( , 2007 suggested that that higher sex drive among women is associated with heightened sexual interest in both men and women. ...
... Considering sex differences in the distribution of sexual orientations and the lack of male sexual orientation differences in sociosexuality, it is theoretically inappropriate to assume that the bio-developmental foundations of bisexuality or homosexuality are the same in men and women (e.g. Diamond 2013;Bailey 2009;Bailey et al. 2016;LeVay, 2016). For these reasons, the focus of the present study is women. ...
... The former relationship would indicate that the gynephilia of bisexual and homosexual women is underpinned by similar factors, as stepwise increases in gynephilia result in similar shifts in other traits. The latter (curvilinear) relationship, however, would indicate that the two groups differ somewhat in the bio-developmental roots of these traits, as suggested by Diamond (2013). Given that previous research shows that bisexual women report greater sociosexuality (Lippa 2006(Lippa , 2007Schmitt 2007) and lower honesty/humility (Bogaert et al. 2017) than both heterosexual and homosexual women, we predict that both sociosexuality and DT traits will have a curvilinear relationship with sexual orientation among women. ...
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Two studies examined the connection between women's sexual orientation, their sociosexuality (i.e. willingness , attitudes, and desires associated with uncommitted sexual behaviour), and Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, nar-cissism, and psychopathy). Both studies found that moderately bisexual women reported less-restricted sociosexuality, as well as higher levels of Dark Triad traits––particularly psy-chopathy. In both studies, sexual orientation differences in Dark Triad traits were mediated by sociosexuality. Study 2 confirmed that the relationship between women's sexual orientation and sociosexuality is curvilinear, with moderately bisexual women (i.e. Kinsey 1–2) reporting heightened sociosexuality compared to other groups. These results are consistent with the conclusion that moderate levels of female bisexuality may be a by-product of selection for traits that result in less restricted sociosexuality. At either end of the orientation continuum, women who report exclusive or near-exclusive homosexuality or heterosexuality report more restricted sociosexuality and lower Dark Triad scores, compared to women nearer to the middle of the continuum. As such, the aetiology of moderate bisexuality in women may be distinct from the aetiology of exclusive or near-exclusive homosexu-ality in women.
... Similarly, the average LGB woman had lower distress than the average LGB man probably because of the former's better fulfillment of social demand and thus ability to avoid its stress [83]. The average LGB woman and the facets of her sexuality, such as monogamy and sexual flexibility, tend to fit social norms and evade social stress better than her male counterpart [84]. This is particularly the case for bisexual women, who can maintain sexual relationships with men and thus conform to the heterosexual social norm (see Figure 2). ...
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Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people are likely to be at risk of distress because of social exclusion, including the feelings of resentment, resistance, and rejection they might experience from society. Nevertheless, the conditions for social exclusion leading to changes in distress are empirically unclear, especially in Chinese LGB people. To examine these conditions, this study surveyed 303 Chinese LGB people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and various places in Mainland China. For comparability with other LGB studies, the study did not explicitly identify asexual, demisexual, or pansexual people in the LGB group. Results show that the retrospective reporting of social exclusion in 2016 did not significantly and unconditionally predict levels of distress in 2017. However, the reporting of exclusion significantly predicted current distress when the retrospective report of distress in 2016 was high. These results from the stress–vulnerability model indicate that prior distress is a vulnerability condition that allows social exclusion to exert its stressful effect. This study implies the need to prevent the social exclusion of highly distressed LGB people.
... Non-exclusive vs exclusive sexual attractions (Diamond, 2013) ...
Conference Paper
Objective: Preliminary results from our study aimed at understanding sexual and romantic experiences and their implications for well-being in trans and non-binary (TNB) young adults will be presented. Current literature on the sexual experiences of TNB young adults is limited, particularly as it pertains to relationships, experiences of embodiment, emotion, and identity formation. Method: Open-ended interviews were conducted based on a convenience sample of twenty 18-to-25-year-old trans individuals who identified mainly as non-binary (n=8), agender (n=1), male (n=9) and female (n=2). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Four preliminary results were drawn from our analysis: 1) TNB young adults sexual and romantic trajectories appear to be delayed compared to cisgender persons and are often associated with multiple traumas; 2) stable romantic relationships seem to foster resilience and gender affirmation; 3) narratives on past and current sexual experiences and gender identities cannot be reconciled with the current terminologies used to describe sexuality and identity; 4) the narratives on cisgender men drawn from past sexual experiences are prevailingly negative and are often used for purposes of counter-self-identification. Conclusion: Conventional notions of sexual orientation, gender identity, so-called typical sexual scripts and trajectories ought to be reconciled with current trans-affirmative research and clinical practice.
... In our view, other important topics that could be addressed include: (i) the complexity and multidimensionality of the concept of sexual identity (Diamond, 2013;Dworkin, 2013;Parsons & Grov, 2013); (ii) the development of a lesbian or gay sexual identity and the coming-out process (e.g. Cass, 1979;Maguen et al., 2002;Savin-Williams, 2001); (iii) the LGBT family life cycle (McGoldrick et al., 2013); and (vi) how stigma affects the lives of many lesbian women and gay men (Meyer, 2003(Meyer, , 2015. ...
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Lesbian women and gay men face many barriers to accomplish a parental project, including when seeking to adopt. In Portugal, same-sex couple’s adoption was recently allowed and we sought to understand adoption professionals’ perspectives regarding this issue. We conducted two focus groups with adoption professionals using a semi-structured interview script. We aimed to explore (i) the main challenges for adoption by LGs and same-sex couples; (ii) knowledge, skills, and personal beliefs regarding about these family settings; (iii) the importance of gender (couples, child) in the matching process; and (iv) topics to address in any training for this area. The participants’ discourses oscillated between a certain awareness of the prevailing social prejudice and discrimination toward sexual minorities on one hand and a heteronormative discourse on the other hand. Challenges in working with this population and training necessities were identified. Findings point to the need for guidelines for the home study of LG applicants and cultural competency training to deal with this population in three aspects: knowledge, skills, and awareness of personal attitudes.
... 18 Stigma against sexual minorities may also result in underreporting and underestimates during surveys. Finally, sexual identity is both multidimensional and changes over time, [19][20][21] leading to difficulty with obtaining a true estimate. The most conservative estimates to date suggest that approximately 3.4% (4,007,834) of adult women in the United States identify as a sexual minority, with 1.1 to 1.5% identifying as lesbian or gay and 0.9 to 2.2% identifying as bisexual. ...
Article
The family planning needs of sexual minority women (SMW) are an understudied but growing area of research. SMW have family planning needs, both similar to and distinct from their exclusively heterosexual peers. Specifically, SMW experience unintended pregnancies at higher rates than their exclusively heterosexual peers, but factors that increase this risk are not well understood. Contraception use is not uncommon among SMW, but lesbian women are less likely to use contraception than bisexual or exclusively heterosexual women. High rates of unintended pregnancy suggest contraception is underused among SMW. Contraception counseling guidelines specific to SMW do not yet exist, but greater adoption of current best practices is likely to meet the needs of SMW. SMW may have unique needs for their planned pregnancies as well, for which obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) providers should provide care and referrals. In general, understandings of the distinct family planning needs for SMW are limited and further research is needed, with particular attention to issues of overlapping health disparities related to status as a SMW and other factors such as race/ethnicity that may add additional layers of stigma and discrimination. Clinical resources are needed to help Ob/Gyns make their practice more welcoming to the needs of SMW.
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The present study sought to investigate sex and sexual orientation differences in several traits related to sexuality and sexual behavior. Examining sexual orientation differences alongside basic sex differences to help identify correlates of sexual orientation diversity, and whether individuals with varying degrees of same-sex attraction show concurrent sex-atypical shifts in other domains. Males tend to score higher than females in the Dark Triad (DT) traits of sub-clinical narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Similarly, females tend to be more cautious than males in their attitudes and desires toward casual sex activity (i.e., sociosexuality). These sex differences may be related to the propensity for individuals to become easily sexually excited, which is higher in males, or to instead inhibit sexual arousal, which is higher in females. In a large undergraduate sample (N = 2047), we replicated expected sex differences in DT traits, sociosexuality, and sexual excitation/inhibition. We found that non-heterosexual females were “male-shifted” in some of these traits, but these shifts tended to be strongest among mostly heterosexual and bisexual individuals. Furthermore, we found that within-sex variation in sociosexuality, sexual excitation, and sexual inhibition was not related to sexual orientation in a linear fashion. Instead, sociosexuality and sexual excitation were related to sexual orientation in a curvilinear (inverted-U) fashion, especially among females. The fact that traits correlated with bisexuality and homosexuality were somewhat distinct is consistent with the idea that different developmental pathways may lead to these discrete sexual attraction patterns.
Chapter
The model of sexual orientation that dominates today suggests that we are all born either an apple or an orange and so we will remain. However, it is increasingly clear that this does not fit the realities of many women. Grounded in a feminist sociological perspective, this book explores the phenomenon of sexual fluidity (i.e., changes in sexual identity) among young women from the Millennial birth cohort. Drawing from a new, socio-genic model of sexual identity, I analyze longitudinal data to examine the patterns, predictors, and outcomes of sexual fluidity among Millennial women. I find that the sexual identities of young women are less binary and more fluid than ever before. However, women’s opportunities to adopt a queer identity remain constrained by their social contexts. In addition, the direction of women’s sexual identity trajectories can have meaningful implications for their safety and wellbeing. My findings suggest a paradox. On the one hand, young women are increasingly rejecting compulsory heterosexuality. On the other hand, there is clear evidence that heteropatriarchy continues to exert an insidious influence on young women’s lives.
Chapter
The species narrative assumes the existence of sexual “types” that are biologically determined and fixed over time. My aim in writing this book was to step outside of this narrative and contribute toward a more accurate and inclusive understanding of sexual identity among women. To achieve this, I drew on life-course and sexual landscape theories. These perspectives guided my analyses of large-scale survey data from young Millennial women. Specifically, I examined women’s sexual identities longitudinally; tested the role of historical time and social contexts in shaping women’s sexual identity trajectories; and examined how these trajectories relate to women’s risks of psychological distress and sexual violence victimization. By generating new evidence on sexual fluidity among women I addressed important gaps in scholarly knowledge. I also shed light on the continuing impacts of heteropatriarchy on young women’s lives. In this concluding chapter, I briefly revisit the motivation for my research, recap my main findings and discuss their implications across three broad domains: theoretical, methodological, and practical. I conclude by addressing the limitations of my work and commenting on promising avenues for future research.
Chapter
In this chapter, I introduce my Life Course-Sexual Landscape model, which provides a framework for understanding both the pathways to and outcomes of sexual identity change in women. According to my model, sexual identities are the product of complex, bidirectional interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors. While biological factors define the boundaries of a woman’s sexual potential, the selection of a sexual identity is an interpretative process, motivated and constrained by psychological and social factors. Many of these factors are potentially dynamic, giving rise to the possibility of sexual fluidity in some women.
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This study investigated the effects of stimuli that vary in erotic content on performance during a choice reaction time (CRT) task. Eighty subjects, 20 from each of four groups—heterosexual men, heterosexual women, gay men, and lesbian women—completed the study. Participants were required to locate the position of a dot on slides of nude and clothed men and women as well as neutral stimuli as rapidly as possible. It was hypothesized that sexual interest would influence cognitive processes and cause longer latencies to preferred‐gender stimuli. Subjects also completed an incidental learning task to determine if a relationship existed between stated sexual orientation and memory for stimuli. Results indicate that reaction times were longest with nude stimuli of the preferred gender for each group. The nude stimuli had the highest accuracy rate for correctly classifying groups based on sexual orientation with the possible exception of heterosexual women. Results for clothed stimuli on the CRT task were similar but not as strong. Results of the incidental learning task indicate that participants had the greatest memory for nude preferred‐gender stimuli. The data indicate that sexual interest in a stimulus may cause distraction during performance of a cognitive task but may facilitate memory for the stimulus during a memory task.
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Youths who question their affectional orientation are increasingly identified as a group of young people with needs for support. These questioning youths are often included in groups intended for sexual minority youths, but may be ill served by them if the groups' developers fail to conceptualize their status as developmental. Rigid social expectations about sexual identity development may further complicate the experiences of these youths in schools and communities. This article reviews definitions of sexual orientation, identity, and questioning youths and suggests implications these have for youths and programs. Recommendations are made for school programs that support the alliances among youths regardless of sexual orientation and that include both social activities and group support.
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The authors compared a small minority of college women who have had at least some homosexual experience with a majority with no homosexual experience at all. The minority with homosexual contact appears to be more heterosexually experienced in a number of ways than is true of the majority without homosexual contact, at least at this stage in their lives. There appears to be two rather different types of women who are homosexually experienced, judging from the information gleaned from this exploratory study. The first could be called sexual 'adventures'. Homosexual experience for them is simply one out of a wide range of available and viable sexual options. A certain proportion of our 16 homosexually-experienced women will discontinue or sharply curtail heterosexual intercourse and will eventually adopt a Lesbian identity, if they have not done so already. We suggest several indicators of this outcome: non-enjoyment of fellatio; the predominance of heterosexual intercourse that was felt to be loveless; homosexual contact as the source of most pleasureable orgasm; mentioning women in sexual fantasies.
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Homosexuality presents a paradox for evolutionists who explore the adaptedness of human behavior. If adaptedness is measured by reproductive success and if homosexual behavior is nonreproductive, how has it come about? Three adaptationist hypotheses are reviewed here and compared with the anthropological literature. There is little evidence that lineages gain reproductive advantage through offspring care provided by homosexual members. Therefore, there is little support for the hypothesis that homosexuality evolved by kin selection. Parents at times control children’s reproductive decisions and at times encourage children in homosexual behavior. There is therefore more support for the hypothesis of parental manipulation. Support is strongest, however, for the hypothesis that homosexual behavior comes from individual selection for reciprocal altruism. Same‐sex alliances have reproductive advantages, and sexual behavior at times maintains these alliances. Nonhuman primates, including the apes, use homosexual behavior in same‐sex alliances, and such alliances appear to have been key in the expanded distribution of human ancestors during the Pleistocene. Homosexual emotion and behavior are, in part, emergent qualities of the human propensity for same‐sex affiliation. Adaptationist explanations do not fully explain sexual behavior in humans, however; social and historical factors also play strong roles.
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Though not frequently studied for their role in sexual orientation identity development, sexual experiences within same-sex friendships may offer an opportunity for bisexual and bi-curious women to explore and define their sexual orientation. This study examined sexual self-defining memories and narratives about sexual orientation development in bisexual and bi-curious young women. Participants were 48 female college students of various ethnic backgrounds. They were selected for the study based on their primary sexual orientation identification and because they included a sexual experience with a same-sex friend as their event narrative. The event narratives were classified based on age (childhood versus adolescence) and type of same-sex friend sexual experience (sexual attraction versus sexual behavior). Themes of discovery, closeness, conflict, and defining identity emerged. Findings suggest that sexual experiences with same-sex friends can serve an important role in the emergence and definition of bisexual and bi-curious identity.
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tinct and significant studies have pointed to the age of 10 as the mean age of first sexual attrac tion?well before puberty, which is typically defined as the age when the capacity to procreate is attained (Timiras, 1972). These findings are at odds with previous
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We examined predictors of movement toward more homosexual sexual feelings among behaviorally bisexual men. Two hundred sixteen behaviorally bisexual men, recruited from diverse sources, were interviewed twice, with about one year between interviews. Predictor variables from domains of mental health, sexual behavior, demographics, and substance use were hypothesized to predict movement toward more homosexual sexual feelings. The sample as a whole moved toward the homosexual end of self‐rated sexual orientation from Time 1 to Time 2, although only about one third of the individual respondents did so. The men who moved toward homosexuality reported lower levels of depression and anxiety and higher self‐esteem at Time 1 than men who did not move. Sexual behavior with women but not with men was predictive of movement; men who shifted toward homosexuality reported fewer current and lifetime female sexual partners and a later age of first heterosexual activity than men who did not shift in this direction. In addition, men who moved toward homosexuality were more likely at Time 1 to fantasize about men during masturbation and less likely to use drugs with their male partners.