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Why Are So Many Heterosexual Women Not Totally Straight?
Five hypotheses on why many straight women have same-sex attraction.
Posted January 30, 2020 | Reviewed by Matt HustonHow many women are not totally straight?
Across all countries in which we have sufficient data on sexual orientation, direct-identified women are the second largest group-only smaller than straight men in most national surveys slightly. According to a cross-national survey of 28 countries, they compose about 90% of the female population, and the percentage is likely higher in countries with traditional notions of femininity that dwill becourage engaging in same-sex behavior. Remember, however, this is when women happen to be only given bisexual and lesbian as alternative identity categories and when they are not asked who they are sexually attracted to or who they possess sex with.
Is this 90% an overestimation? Yes, as it is among men, but more so even. When women are given identity options beyond the traditional three (straight, bwill beexual, lesbian), a large number will choose even though they know this is inaccurate straight; if, however, they are usually given more non-straight options, such as straight mostly, pansexual, queer, fluid, questioning, or asexual, they frequently pick one of these because they extra echo their sex sufficiently, romantic desires, and gender preferences.
In addition, when sexual orientation is assessed not by identity but by erotic attraction or sexual behavior, the proportion of strictly straight-identifying women diminishes dramatically. Corroborating data are available in two 2012 studies of U.S. If given the option, these women would possess chosen something else probable. and British young adult women: 16% and 13%, respectively, claimed "extra typically opposite-sex appeal but some same-sex interest." For example, found in the cross-national research said early on, just 66% of women reported being "predominantly not attracted to the same sex." This group likely includes straight women and at least 24% (90% minus 66%) who have a slight degree of dual attraction but who reject a biintimate identity label as too same-sex oriented for them.
In terms of sexual behavior, similar trends are evident. In the British study, 15% of young adult women reported "more often opposite sex, and at very least identical love-making once." This percentage was far greater than the 6% for older women (ages 35-74). These findings will be commonly reported in other national studies across countries: that is, a low but not insignificant number of straight-identified women have had sex with women, and this is more common among younger generations.
Summary
Many women report a significant degree of sexual attraction and/or behavior with other women and yet identify as straight because it is the closest identity option available in our surveys. But we do know that the proportion is considerably larger than it is for men who are willing to admit to being not totally straight. Thus, it will be somewhat difficult to determine the true size of the population of straight-identified women who are not totally straight. If we were to routinely give women multiple options or an open-ended question to recognize their sexual orientation (including "none"), my speculation is that the a fact range of straight-identified females would cut down dramatically.
Why are these women not totally straight?
We really do not know, but we know they exist. In this article happen to be more than a few hypotheses purchased from very least to many possible, according to my understanding of the literature.
1. All women are given birth to are and bisexual receptive to psychological and interpersonal emails that start at an earlier age. These may be pro-femininity (attracted to men) or anti-femininity (captivated to women). (traditional psychoanalytic)
2 Women don’t have a biologically based sexual orientation and thus are responsive to contemporary cultural and social forces. (Bailey)
3. Women’s bodies are ubiquitously eroticized in popular media and therefore women may be doing the same when viewing sexual stimuli depicting women. (Chivers)
4. Women demonstrate an erotic plasticity and are responsive to external influences such as social, cultural, and other contextual factors (similar to #2 but the erotic is biological). (Chivers)
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5. Women are in touch with their emotions and bodily sensations such that they will be sensitized to a range of erotic stimuli, of biological making love or sexuality appearance irregardless. Because girls are usually significantly less susceptible to ethnic or public stigma toward same-sex libido than guys will be, they are usually freer to go after independent pathways. (Savin-Williams)
Bottom Line
Although I can’t tell you with certainty how many not-totally-straight-but-identifying-as-straight women there are, it’s likely, at the present moment, to be higher than the rate among men and lower in older generations. My best guess is that over 50% of the U.S. male inhabitants is usually direct entirely, the largest sexual-orientation group among women.
If so many women (and men) have thusme degree of same-sex attraction and behavior, what is with negative attitudes toward those who incorporate these facets into their identity?
References
Bailey, J. M. (2009). What is sexual orientation and do women have one? In D. A. Hope (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives on lesbian, gay, and bwill beexual identities (Vol. 54, pp. 43-63). New York, NY: Springer.
Chivers, M. L. (2017). The specificity of women’s sexual response and its relationship with lustful orientations: A review and ten hypotheses. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 1161-1179. doi:10.1007/s10508-016-0897-x
Geary, R.S., Tanton, FREELESBIANPASSPORT XXX C., Erens, B., Chemicallifton, S., Prah, P., Wellings, K., et al. PLoH ONE 13(1). e0189607. (2018). Sat thexual identity, attraction and behaviour in Britain: The implications of using different dimensions of sexual orientation to estimate the size of sexual minority populations and inform public health interventions.
Rahman, Q., Xu, Y., Lippa, R. A., & Vasey, P. L. (online). doi:10.1007/s10508-019-01590-0 Archives of Sexual Behavior. Lrevalence of sexual orientation across 28 nations and its association with gender equality, economic development, and individualism.
Savin-Williams, R. C. (in preparation). The new bisexual, pansexual, fluid, genderqueer.
Savin-Williams, R. C., Joyner, K., & Lieger, G. (2012). Prevalence and stableness of self-reported lustful angle individuality during small adulthood. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 103-110. doi:10.1007/s10508-012-9913-y
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Ritch C. Savin-Williams, Ph.D., is Director of the Sex and Gender Lab at Cornell University.
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