Dual Attraction: Understanding Bisexuality

• Publisher:   Oxford University Press, USA
• Number Of Pages:   448
• Publication Date:   1995-06-01
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0195098412
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780195098419

NOTE: AUTHORS WANT THE FOLLOWING LINE IN ALL CATALOG AND ADVERTISING COPY:

Based on extensive research on gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals, Dual Attraction provides the first major study of bisexuality.

Overall, this `study', is an incredibly thoughtful work. This is much more detailed look at human sexuality, with all of its variations, feelings, and ranges than even Kinsey was able to offer. It was well thought out work, by a group of well-educated, caring people. This book is really an affirmation that Love is different but unifying for us all.

i read 2 sections so far and am impressed with the research, presentation and conclusion. what i've read was educationally confirming of bisexuals and bisexuality. i highly recommend it. i am a self-identified bisexual and have neither considered myself out or actively coming out: i feel there is no need. i am who i am and am confident of my sexuality. if i choose to disclose my bisexuality, i will. it's my business and i share with those who care about me. i know my outlook on it may not be the same as everyone, and some may not feel supportive by others to come out. i feel i am lucky to have this "open sex schema." it is true that i look for the person, not the gender nor the sexual preference, which take the backseat. i hope those who have "always felt it inside" will find a way to accept it within themselves and by others in a healthy way. being bisexual is like being a diplomat, bridging the gap for the plethora of sexual preferences and behaviors in people. one new thing i've learn from this book is that i have a better understand of what a transsexual person goes through and has to live with. my heart goes out the you. i wish you find relationship happiness and sexual fulfillment.

For people who are trying to make sense of their bisexual drives, or for people who are trying to be considerate of people they love who have bisexual drives, this book provides considerate feedback. I really appreciated the work that went into gathering the data for this book. The authors genuinely cared about the ethical, health, and life-affecting characteristics of bisexual behavior. The authors didn't just "mail it in". They moved in to the Bisexual Center in San Francisco, engendered the trust of the bi-sexual survey respondents and asked many significant questions. The book sets out to "show that sexual preference is a more complex, fluid, and emergent outcome than today's biological determinism dictates." They note that Kinsey reported that the direction of a person's sexual attraction or behavior does not necessarily remain stable: a considerable number of people change the heterosexual and homosexual mix in their sexuality during their lives." The authors' data & interviews appear to support that finding. The book uses "the term 'sexual preference' to emphasize that people take an active part in construcitng their sexuality, as opposed to 'sexual orientation', which suggest that sexual preference is established at birth or fixed thereafter." The book is about 300 pages long, but there are about 150 additional pages of notes, citations, and table data. Browsing through the easy to read tables, showing the bi-sexual respondents answers to relationship questions, is fascinating. An easy critique of that data is the statistical sampling is way too small - but something is better than nothing. The book also seems to imply that the AIDS crisis strongly changed bisexuals' behavior - making this reviewer wonder if bisexuality may have become a larger trend, but for the AIDS virus. The book does not wax positive on bisexuality. I don't think people who read this book will walk away thinking: that sounds interesting & fun. Rather, as the book states "Bi-sexuals found it impossible to make sense of their sexuality by adopting either a heterosexual or homeosexual identity."

Perhaps, considering a 2003 survey published in the Journal of Sex Research that concluded "heterosexuals dislike bisexuals more than gays, lesbians and most religous or enthnic groups," and that women tended to feel negative towards bisexual or gay men and women alike while men were more prone to rate bixsexual or gay men lower than they would bisexual or lesbian women. The earlier "Dual Attraction ..." coincidentally hints of similar findings, but goes significantly further than the more recent survey. Most notably, a distinction is made between the bisexual and gay male although both seem mostly to be lumped together in social and research terms. Maybe because of that, any serious study of bisexuality in particular is sparse. The bisexual male, then, is somewhat "invisible," accounting for the fact that most clinicial and social discussion and advocacy come from the bisexual female. And, consistent with the more recent study, the Indiana University sociologists behind "Dual Attraction ..." also come up with a reason that the bisexual male is apparently regarded beneath the gay male and lesbian and bisexual woman. The bisexual man, unlike the gay male, so the theory goes, is self-focused, preoccupied with sex and so sexually experienced with both genders that he feels superior to all, even the straight man. Add to that the apparent belief that bisexual men gave AIDS to the straight community, and the bisexual's social position plummets. Of course, the conclusions in "Dual Attraction ..." are pre-suppositioned on the hotly disputed Masters and Johnson opinion years earlier that sexual orientation is a choice rather than a biological pre-determinant. Even discarding that idea, however, "Dual Attraction ..." still comes out as something of a pioneering effort in acknowledging the existence and explaining the dynamics behind bisexuality. Perhaps no other published work has gone so far as this research. But is it relevant? Quite possibly, considering various surveys put between 25 percent and 75 percent the number of men in America having sex with other men.

This is, without a doubt, the BEST work I've ever seen on bisexuality. Kudos to Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor. Finally ... someone who understands.

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