Study Questions Existence Of Bisexuality

TORONTO -- A new study by a team of psychologists in Chicago and Toronto suggests that the estimated 1.7 percent of men who identify themselves as bisexual may not be truly attracted to both sexes.

Senior author Michael Bailey, from Northwestern University in Chicago, said: "Bisexual male behavior certainly exists, but the study suggests that a bisexual orientation, an actual sexual preference for both men and women, does not exist in men. If such men exist, they are certainly very rare and we didn't find them."

Researchers recruited 101 young adult men, 33 identifying themselves as bisexual, 30 straight and 38 homosexual.

They were questioned at length about their sexuality before being seated alone in a laboratory to watch erotic films while their arousal levels were monitored by a sensor.

Gay men were aroused by images of men, while heterosexual men were aroused by women. But psychologists said those claiming to be bisexual were only aroused by one or the other - 75per cent by men and the rest by women.

Dr Bailey said some men claim to be bisexual as it is easier than admitting to being gay, while others might consider it some kind of achievement and be proud to swing both ways

Other researchers criticized the technique used as too crude to capture the complexity of sexual attraction.

"To claim on the basis of this study that there's no such thing as male bisexuality is overstepping, it seems to me," said Dr. Gilbert Herdt, director of the National Sexuality Resource Center in San Francisco. "It may be that there is a lot less true male bisexuality than we think, but if that's true then why in the world are there so many movies, novels and TV shows that have this as a theme -- is it collective fantasy, merely a projection? I don't think so."