Questioning Fluid Sexuality

Sexuality has been a topic hotly debated by scholars for over 2,000 years. Questions of love, passions and relationship roles interacting with genders, cultures and social mores has spanned literature, the philosophies, the sciences and even the arts over that time. At no time has the questions of sexuality been more critically examined than in the last century. Pop culture has thrust the lesbianism of Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O'Donnell into the spotlight. James Dean was called bisexual post-mortem, and Lance Bass of NSYNC is confirmed gay male through and through.

However, what mystifies the masses are situations like Anne Heche, who identified as heterosexual, then lesbian while with Ellen and somehow straight again afterward. Numerous accounts of heterosexuals, mainly women, suddenly "going gay" and sometimes even going back to heterosexual again abound inciting debates over "fluid sexuality" on almost every discussion board of every social networking or chat site on the internet.

When looked at historically, it would seem to be a more common event than the public may realize. Historical scholar Bruce Thornton found that it was common for same-sex relations to occur until the thirties, in which the man was then expected to choose a wife and raise a citizen heir (1997). This arises from his studies of Greek literary remains from around 700-100B.C. Adolescent teen males were commonly the purview of young adult males, who were considered responsible for teaching the adolescents how to be a good citizen (Percy, 1996). Greece quickly gave way to the Romans, who adapted more than the religions of the conquered peoples.

Bryn Mawr classical scholar Richard Hooper stated that Roman men would use anyone sexually they thought inferior to them, regardless of sex (2000). He makes it clear that anyone inferior was "penetrable"; male or female, free, slave, prostitute or wife made no difference to them in the act of sexual gratification. This is yet another historical example of sexuality not necessarily seen as strictly hetero or homosexual.

Even the middle ages didn't seem to lack for examples of people that blurred the lines of gender preference when it came to sex. Claude Summers, in his study of renaissance and enlightened England found much that pointed to same sex encounters for both Kings Richard I, called Lionhearted, and Edward II (1992). However, what is lacking in these historical texts is any indications of how involved in same sex activities these men were. Could they have been strictly bisexual? Were there changes in their sexual desires for those of the same sex or those toward the opposite sex?

Sigmund Freud is well known for his theory of innate bisexuality which through development is converted to monosexuality (1920). This theory suggests that attraction to both sexes is possible, but that one is more common for each sex. He explains that homosexual attraction may be the result of a traumatic episode disrupting the normal development of an attraction for the opposite sex. This theory may have been the first that left room to consider the possibility of varying degrees of sexuality.

First to create a scale to represent this possibility was sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (1948). Kinsey's research into human sexuality led to the Kinsey Scale; a measurement of sexuality from 0-6. A zero measurement represented total heterosexuality, a one represented mostly heterosexuality with only incidental homosexuality, a two was seen as mostly heterosexual with more than incidental homosexuality, a three was a clear 50/50 division between hetero and homosexuality, a four was mostly homosexual with more than incidental heterosexuality and so forth (Kinsey,1953). Despite discussion on adolescent same-sex "experimentation" which did affect placement on the Kinsey scale, what was not really discussed in depth was whether sexuality could change over time, such as from a two to a four, for example.

This was addressed as the terms fluidity or plasticity surfaced in articles and media when discussing abrupt sexual changes such as that Anne Heche experienced. However, the research community seems to be accepting widely varied definitions for these terms. This has become a major problem, especially in regards to adolescents, as evidenced in the term "Questioning" added as a label in queer identity.

The proper way of denoting the major labels of sexuality today is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning or GLBTQ. The GLBTQ community has slowly adapted this new addition as more and more people refuse to accept a label when they are unsure of where they truly stand. This suggests that possibly there are changes that are going on that make their sexuality harder to define for them, changes which may be termed or due to fluid sexuality. To assist adolescents in attempting to define and measure sexual orientation, Sell created a measure assessing frequency and intensity of sexual interest in a particular sex by asking seven questions answered in terms of attractions, fantasies, or sexual arousal (Friedman, Silvestre, Gold, Markovic, Savin-Williams, Huggins and Sell, 2004). This was intended to help identify all the permutations of sexual attractions among adolescents irrespective of sexual self-identification or activity. An assessment of this type might be very useful in identifying a greater spectrum of sexuality in developing adolescents, but it will not address the issues of plasticity by itself.

Exhaustive research makes it apparent that if fluid sexuality were to exist, it must first be clearly defined for study purposes. For example, in Baumeister's study looking at explanations for erotic plasticity, there is no clearly defined standard set for the term "erotic plasticity", though his studies seemed to focus on biological and cultural reasons a male or female may have had sexual contact with someone of the same sex (2000). Hyde and Durik followed his study by proposing a multifactor sociocultural model for erotic plasticity, yet also failed to operationalize this term (2000). Also their survey was directed only towards those who have had same sex experiences. Both studies seem to imply that cultural factors seem to provide opportunities for sexual malleability, and it is the taking advantage of opportunity that makes ones sexuality plastic. Yet if there is a biological component as well, as Baumeister suggests, then that would suggest a plasticity from birth. This also presupposes that these researchers consider erotic plasticity and fluid sexuality to be one and the same.

Some researchers do indeed think these are the same thing. Carla Golden's study on women's sexuality uses the terms fluid sexuality and plasticity almost interchangeably (2003). Interestingly, she also points out that another problem in these studies is the standpoint one takes when looking at this topic; is sexuality determined or is it a choice? In her work, Golden interviews several women who claim to experience sexuality as a choice. This would seem to make sexuality a lot more than plastic, more like clay. Yet fluid and plastic were terms she seemed comfortable using.

Lisa Diamond's well-known study stating female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality would strongly contradict Goldens definition (2003). She made clear that fluid sexuality was not to be confused with deliberately changing one's sexuality; rather it instead reflects the uneven dynamics of sexual development. She again re-asserts this position in her later research (2008). This study published results of a 10-year study that found women experiencing contradiction with their sexual identity often resolve this confusion by adopting the label bisexual. Therefore, the bisexual label was applied as a result of changes from a fluid sexuality, not a chosen change, and not a label that arose from an actual fixed state of sexual attraction- a permanent 3 on the Kinsey scale.

Using this as a template, I propose to operationally define fluid sexuality as the ungoverned change of sexual attractions towards gender over time. This will distinguish fluid sexuality from bisexual which is a fixed state of attraction- a specific sexual orientation that is usually a 2-4 on the Kinsey scale. Using attraction as a guideline will also take situational sexual activity, such as prison inmate homosexuality, out of consideration for use in fluid sexuality studies. It will also remove from consideration study of those who feel that their sexuality is a choice, which deserve to have their own study performed to look at this emerging behavior. However, the first step for all this is to simply find support for the existence of fluid sexuality in accordance with this definition. Where can research look to for this?

Beginning with puberty, an adolescent goes through many changes. We know that along with physical development of the body, the brain itself continues to make rapid changes until early in the second decade of life. Besides the mood swings, growing pains, and the certainty that parents don't understand, sexual desires begin to form. It is during early adolescence that masturbation and self pleasure are discovered, and may lead to close friendships involving sexual experimentation with same sex peers out of curiosity (Hilgard, 1971). This being so, adolescence seems like the ideal place to determine the existence of fluid sexuality, and what factors may affect the development of it. I hope research of this type is done in the future, so we may one day settle the question of whether sexuality is truly fluid.

Work Cited

Baumeister, R. (2000). Nature, culture and explanations for erotic plasticity. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 385-389.

Bruce, S. T. (1997). Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Diamond, L. M. (2003). Was it a phase? Young women's relinquishment of lesbian/bisexual identities over a 5-year period. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 352-364.

Diamond, L. M. (2008) Female bisexuality from adolescence to adulthood: Results from a 10-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 44, 5-14.

Freud, S. (1920). Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex

Golden, C. (2003). Improbable possibilities. Psychoanalytic Inquiries, 23, 624-641.

Higard, E.R. (1971). Introduction to Psychology, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Hooper, R.W. (1999). The Priapus Poems. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Hyde, J. & Durik, A. (2000). Gender differences in erotic plasticity- evolutionary or cultural forces? Psychological Bulletin 126, p375-379.

Kinsey, A. C. (1948/1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Indiana University Press. pp. p178-180

Kinsey, A. C. (1953/1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; Bloomington: Indiana U. Press.

Percy III, W.A. (1996). Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Summers, C. (1992). Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment England: Literary Representations in Historical Context. Hawthorne Press