sexuality

[desh]

Inspired by today's Gene Weingarten chat and by talking to a few friends of mine, here's a poll:


But first, to define some terminology: "Gal" is what I'm saying since neither "woman" nor "girl" is as age-nonspecific as "guy". Please ignore whatever patronizing connotation you may think "gal" has.

If "gay", "straight", and "bi" aren't specific enough for you, then consider "gay" to be kinsey 5-6, "bi" to be kinsey 2-4, and "straight" to be kinsey 0-1.

There are limits to the number of choices any poll can give (especially on LJ), but not limits to the number of different answers that are actually possible, especially with a charged question like this. Please, wherever possible, choose the closest answer even if it's not perfect. Feel free to elaborate in comments.

Now, then:
[Poll #1104392]
(As always, LJ lets you edit your poll results if you misclicked or something.)

Comments

[zorkian]

For my opinion, speaking of social norms:

It is less acceptable for a guy to be bisexual or gay than it is for a woman to do so. Because of this, if a guy actually identifies as bisexual, I believe that he more than likely is. By the same token, if he is, I think he would probably identify as straight until he figures out whether the group is actually good or not.

However, I've seen instances of women who self-identify as bisexual simply because they find it helps them to attract men. Not that they actually are. Even though they may play at it, when it comes down to it, they don't see themselves as ever being able to love another woman.

That's sort of my two cents.

[nnaylime.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the male side, but not necessarily on the female side.

Maybe I don't get out enough, but I've not known any women to self-identify as bi simply because it makes them more attractive to other men. That said, I do think women are more likely to do so--but I think it's more because a fluid sexuality is more socially acceptable in women than it is in men - and perhaps because of that, women may be more likely to experiment (e.g., I've seen women label themselves as "bi-curious" but I've never seen a man do so).

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I don't know about "because it makes them more attractive to men", but I've definitely seen girls (I say 'girls' because it seems to be far more prevalent in the late-teens/early-20s crowd) identify as bi just to seem cooler or more hardcore (and possibly more attractive to guys, who knows) and not out of any more "serious" reason.

[peneli.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of women are more comfortable with some level of sexual interest with the same gender, even if they're not as interested as they are with guys. Whereas for many guys I think the boundaries seem much stronger -- if you're at all interested in other guys, suddenly you're gay, and so that little bit of interest if they're primarily straight doesn't get acknowledged.