Anecdotal evidence has suggested that women have more fluid sexual identities than men, and a new study has found that some women who report only being attracted to men have a physiological response to sexual situations involving another woman.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, the new study found considerable diversity among women in their sexual attractions, despite how they identified sexually. The new study is based on past research that has found about one-fifth of women who identify as heterosexual also say they have some attraction to other women.
In the new study, researchers asked female volunteers to view short videos or listen to stories on interacting sexually with a woman or a man. Genital response of participants was assessed with a clear acrylic device that lit up the capillary bed of the vaginal wall. Volunteers also self-reported their sexual arousal.
In both parts of the study, researchers found only heterosexual women who were solely drawn to men exhibited comparable genital reactions to both female and male sexual stimuli. Heterosexual females who also report some attraction to women, however, exhibited several patterns of response; their genital reactions were higher to female stimuli—very similar to other sexually-diverse women.
“Both exclusively and predominantly androphilic women (women attracted to men) showed sexual response patterns that differed from their self-reported sexual attractions,” study author Meredith Chivers, a sexuality expert from Queens University in Canada, said in a statement. “Sexually-diverse women showed genital and self-reported arousal responses that were more similar to their self-reported sexual attractions.
Does heterosexuality even exist in women?
“As a whole, this research illustrates the complex relationship between sexual identity, sexual attraction, sexual arousal and genital responses to sexual stimuli,” Chivers added.
Some research has concluded suggest that heterosexuality doesn’t exist in women. However, the study team said their findings emphasize how this interpretation is incorrect. Women’s sexual identity, attractions, and sexual responses are not interchangeable, in a way that a woman’s sexual desires and attractions cannot be determined from her sexual response patterns, the study said.
“Instead, this research provides a window of opportunity to understand how women’s sexual response relates to her experience of sexual attraction and desire, addressing gaps in contemporary models of sexual response,” Chivers said.
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A large portion of heterosexual women report being attracted to other women, study says
Christopher Pilny
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