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Monday, July 25, 2005

Bisexual men, awake! 

This story has been going round for a while now. According to a study conducted by the psychology department at Northwestern University, bisexual men don't exist. Self-styled bisexual men who were shown erotic films of both men and women under test conditions were found to be aroused only by one gender, 75% by men and 25% by women. Dr. Bailey, who was conducting the test, concluded that the majority of bisexual men must therefore be gay and not want to admit it for some reason, while the other straight men think of bisexuality as a "badge of honour".

An obvious point of criticism here is that the study only used a very small sample - 33 "bisexual" men - yet Bailey thinks this is enough to make his claims. But more importantly, even if the results obtained were proven to hold over a much larger sample, Bailey has no basis for drawing the conclusions that he does - that these men are either in denial or trying to be cool - since the only stimulus he uses is cinematic porn; he has made no attempt to examine properly-embodied human interaction, in which erotic stimulation can be much more subtle.

Procedural quibbles aside, Bailey's study is more fundamentally flawed for the reason that it ignores sexuality surrounding transgenderism. The attraction that many men and women feel for people whose gender is specifically ambiguous would belie any claims that they must be attracted solely to one gender. Actually, I've never met any men who've been attracted to someone transgendered, so I can't ask them whether they're only attracted to such people (which would reinforce Bailey's findings, but on a broader scale), but from the experience I have of women in these relationships it seems very unlikely, and I'd say that any study which ignores the range of human sexuality beyond three constrictive categories is invalid from the very start.

On the other hand, maybe it's true. I don't know whether I have any bisexual male readers (or indeed any male bisexual acquaintances, since all the men I know are either terminally single or in presumably monogamous long-term relationships (boring folk)) but if I do, you must defend yourselves - you're being studied out of existence!

Comments:
Interesting study....and I have to admit that this is my first ever reply to a blog..what a topic. I found this blog by searching bisexual men in google.
I am 47, married and bisexual. I get turned on by both men and women, though with men I have to admit it is an attraction just to their "private parts" (thought I would be polite) and not particulary to the "rest" of the guy...girls are different, I enjoy women on other levels....(I am learning about myself as I write this I might ad) I am not sure that I would respond the same to gay porn, since for the most part it doesn't interest me. I do enjoy watching both nude men and women on a beach or at a nude resort, and I know I am aroused on occassion to either one or both.
When I have fantasies they can be about either, but again, with guys it is much more specific..usually a very specific act.
Now I am wondering what these science types would say about me????
By the way, I don't have a blogger id yet, so if anyone wants to contact me or discuss this further, write me at sob1958@gmail.com  
you should consider having a labotomy to cure your same sex abnormal desires and focus on the women you so claim to love. hey you are from michigan and you are into beaver.  
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