Availability of romantic opportunities influences the sexual identity that women associate themselves with—but doesn’t influence men, according to a new study presented at the American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting.
The study tracked 5,018 women and 4,191 men for around ten years. The data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, and focused on the participants during three points in their lives: Wave I, where the subjects averaged 16 years old (1994-1995); Wave II, usually age 22 (2001-2002); and Wave IV, usually age 28 (2007-2008).
Romantic opportunities appear to influence women’s sexual identities, but not men’sThe subjects were asked during Wave III and Wave IV which sexual identity they associated with: 100 percent heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, bisexual, mostly homosexual, and 100 percent homosexual. Meanwhile, in all three waves, participants were asked if they had ever experienced same-sex attraction or participated in same-sex sexual activity—an important question, as the relationship between labels, actions, and attraction is often murky.
It’s all about working with what you’re given
Confirming previous research, the women were more likely than men to report bisexuality. Men were more likely to select either extreme, either identifying as “100 percent heterosexual” or “100 percent homosexual”. Moreover, women were three times more likely to change how they identified between the two waves.
“This indicates that women’s sexuality may be more flexible and adaptive than men’s,” study author Elizabeth Aura McClintock, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, explained in a press release.
The women most likely to identify as 100 percent heterosexual were those with more education or who were rated as more physically attractive by their Add Health interviewers; women who had a child by Wave III were less likely to identify as such by Wave IV.
While the exact reasons for this is unknown, McClintock speculated that women who avoided young motherhood, were physically attractive, and/or had higher levels of educations aren’t necessarily inherently heterosexual; merely, those among them who might have identified otherwise had more opportunities with male partners. In other words, their social position discouraged alternative sexual identities over the heterosexual norm.
“Women with some degree of attraction to both males and females might be drawn into heterosexuality if they have favorable options in the heterosexual partner market,” McClintock explained.
“Women who are initially successful in partnering with men, as is more traditionally expected, may never explore their attraction to other women. However, women with the same sexual attractions, but less favorable heterosexual options might have greater opportunity to experiment with same-sex partners. Women who act on same-sex attraction are more likely to incorporate same-sex sexuality into their sexual identities.”
What about men?
Interestingly, the opposite seemed to be true for men: higher education levels and lack of children made men more likely to identify as something other than 100 percent heterosexual. Physical attractiveness had no clear association with sexual identity.
“Men are less often attracted to both sexes,” McClintock said. “Men’s sexuality is, in this sense, less flexible. If a man is only attracted to one sex, romantic opportunity would little alter his sexual identity.”
McClintock added that sexual identity is a social construct. “It is important to emphasize that I am not suggesting that same-sex unions are a second-best option to heterosexual unions,” she said. “And I do not think that women are strategically selecting an advantageous sexual identity or that they can ‘choose’ whether they find men, women, or both sexually attractive. Rather, social context and romantic experience might influence how they perceive and label their sexual identity.”
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