What are we to make of new survey results showing that the number of young people in the UK who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) tripled between 2014 and 2023? Currently, more than a tenth of Britons aged 16-24 identify as LGB, while almost 10% of young women identify as bisexual.
One conclusion which should not be drawn here is that these findings represent actual changes in sexual feelings. Fundamental psychological traits are unlikely to shift in less than one generation. However, the words we use to describe ourselves — and even how we think about ourselves — can change rapidly. And young people, especially young women, may be especially susceptible.
Large surveys conducted in North America before 2014 showed that a large majority of people identified as “completely heterosexual”, but that a significant minority rated themselves as “mostly heterosexual”. The most common non-heterosexual identity was “mostly heterosexual”, which included around 10% of women and 4% of men.
In contrast, only 0.6% of women and 1.4% of men in these older studies identified as bisexual, which was explained to respondents as an equal attraction to men and women. The new UK survey only asked how respondents identified their sexual orientation, without providing any guidance as to how they should understand “bisexuality”. There was no “mostly heterosexual” choice. It would therefore not be surprising if a number of people with “mostly heterosexual” feelings identified as “bisexual” in the UK survey. Consistent with this possibility, research from elsewhere finds that LGB identification is about twice as common as actually engaging in same-sex sexual behaviour.
This presents a couple of questions. Firstly, why are women especially likely to identify as bisexual? Secondly, why has their rate of bisexual identification increased in the UK in such a short time?
Women’s higher rate of bisexual identification may reflect a fundamental sex difference in the expression of sexual orientation that I have studied in my laboratory. In our studies, we recruit heterosexual and homosexual adults of both sexes. We show them audiovisual pornography featuring either male actors or female actors but not both. We measure both their subjective response, by asking them how aroused they are, and their physiological arousal, measuring their genital response. Men’s subjective and genital response patterns match their sexual orientations. Gay men get much more aroused by male videos, and heterosexual men get more aroused by female videos. Men with bisexual arousal patterns exist, but are less common than even gay men.
Women show a different pattern. Lesbians like the female videos much more, but their genital response is only slightly higher to the female stimuli than to the male stimuli. And heterosexual women show no preference — subjective or genital — for either male or female videos. Their arousal patterns might be described as bisexual, or at least indifferent. Heterosexual women, unlike most men, are unburdened by an arousal pattern that directs them towards one sex or the other. Without this constraint, bisexual identification may be easier for them.
Another reason why men are less likely than women to identify as bisexual may be the consequences for their respective desirability. Women tend not to like bisexual men, romantically at least. Conversely, men tend to be fine with bisexual women.
But why has it become more common for women to call themselves bisexual? Other research suggests that bisexual identification is concentrated among politically liberal young women. Progressives have recently been especially fond of embracing identity politics and marginalised groups, and rejecting traditional norms. To some, bisexual identity could be a badge promoting these ideas.
Women are also susceptible to certain kinds of social influences. When harmful, such as rapid-onset gender dysphoria, these might be called “socially contagious epidemics”. I don’t see bisexual identification as destructive, but its increase may reflect a similar dynamic.
Will these changes persist, or even grow? Really, it seems likely that they will recede, representing more a meme than a movement. But if 20% of young British women are bisexual in 2033, I’ll be glad to admit my error.
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SubscribeI think these claims are down to fashion and impressing your peers for being edgy, a bit different, and ‘cool’. Claiming bisexuality rather than homo gives them an opt out clause.
What a curious experiment. “I’m now going to show you some porn and, if you get an erection I’m going to measure it”. Don’t think that would be very arousing. Is the idea of the observer influencing the results a consideration?
Most men are simple enough to measure quite easily
Men typically respond more to visual stimulus than women. An interesting experiment would be to have heterosexual women read romantic/ erotica material featuring same sex vs opposite sex couples and gauge response.
I suspect this is it. Even things like self-harming and anorexia can become trendy. More benign things, like the current obsession with having a big butt just seem to appear out of nowhere, and suddenly every woman in the gym is doing tons of hip thrusts.
A similar thing happened during the heyday of second wave feminism. Significant numbers of heterosexual women adopted dress codes associated with butch lesbians. It was just cooler than being straight.
“Political lesbianism” meant they didn’t actually have to be attracted to other women. Julie Bindel has written extensively about it in The Guardian when she was still persona grata there.
Yes, though many were neither lesbian nor especially political. Some were radical feminists. And it always seemed to be a phenomena squeezed between adolescence and early adulthood. Then there was also the LUG phenomena: lesbian until graduation.
A lot of this “identification” nonsense starts at University and is no more than a social fad, along with the 57 genders crap.
They’ll grow out if it. The error is in taking it seriously.
It is a bit studenty. And of course far more women than men are now students.
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I think so too, though I think the theme of sexual ambiguity and non conformity will recur.
Hard not to wonder if the increase in women identifying as trans is part of the same trend. Gender non conformity is having something of a moment right now.
From what I’ve read previously, this breadth of sexual taste goes well beyond mere gender. Women, it seems, show physical arousal to all sorts of stimuli, including other species having sex! I’m not sure whether this is limited only to certain species.
‘Heterosexual women show no preference for either male or female videos.’ This is really because women don’t respond to visual stimuli such as pornography (I don’t) – but they might to a real man!
Regarding the bisexual young women – I think some will dress and act butch to avoid being voyeured or harrassed by men, for example on public transport.
But I’m not sure this would carry over into a survey.
I have noticed this “dress to be unattractive to men trend” on YouTube. But the odd thing is that the women involved are still dressing in a way that is attractive to men, just not like bimbos.
This seems to vary a great deal from woman to woman – and their tastes in visual stimulus are generally a bit more refined. Also perhaps women prefer to be the object of sexual interest themselves, rather than make someone else the object. This can be reproduced far more easily in literature than film, where the reader can more easily identify with a character.
Some data to shine a bit more light on this topic:
A study published in the Journal of Sex Research found that approximately 72% of men and 28% of women reported viewing online pornography in the past month.
Also this:
“Despite industry-leading platform Pornhub reporting the largest audience in May 2023, women and men were engaging with the adult websites at different rates: Pornhub audience reach among UK male users was at 26 percent, three times more than what was recorded among female users. Similarly, live performer platform Chaturbate reported a reach of four percent among women, while engagement stood at 14 percent for adult men. For young people, accessing online sexual representations and adult material has become part of a shared online experience that encompasses all genders. In 2022, around 20 percent of male users aged between 16 and 21 reported a weekly frequency of watching online pornography, while 14 percent of female young users accessed online porn at the same rate.”
Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/12525/online-pornography-in-the-uk/
Make of it what you will.
No-one should take a blind bit of surveys like this because if they didn’t reflect the agenda of the organisation commissioning them they wouldn’t be published.
For example, Best for Britain, a Soros financed remainer pressure group, just published extensive research showing that most Brits want to rejoin the EU. Does anyone apart from the BBC, who covered it extensively, believe that such an organisation would publish a survey concluding otherwise? Of course not.
Social attitude surveys are mostly propaganda.
It’s surprising to realise that 10% of women aged 18 to 24 are having sexual relations with other women.
Pleasant as that might be to imagine, it may simply not be true. I think the point of the article is that they might be identifying as bisexual for no other reason than that it is trendy to do so.
Yes, they are bisexual but they would never dream of having sex with another woman.
I’m not an expert, but I haven’t seen many adverts for women to women dating sites, making me suspect either that there is not much of a market, or that the advertising algorithms know that I would be more tempted by adverts for stairlifts.
They might fantasize about having sex with other women, without actually doing it. It is a common enough fantasy for women.
Women to women dating sites have been `invaded’ by faux women with penises identifying as lesbians. There have been several articles about this. It could be rather than have to face angry men (& their angrier allies) and social condemnation for not wanting them on their dating sites, they are doing this the old fashioned way, word of mouth.
Not sure if that is the case. Sure I saw some survey saying something like 74% of lesbians have only had male sexual partners in the past 5 years.
Hmm, seems J Michael Bailey that women are just not interested in your research. Where are all the female Unherded rushing to comment?
Well since I wrote that some women have made thoughtful and helpful posts. Thank you.
Such false identification is destructive if mildly in the case of young progressives. That is people should be who and what they are and to aspire to be so confidently. It should be so if they happen to be gay or naturally bi, so just the same if they happen to be heterosexual… Playing with identity is fine for late teenagers but for god sakes at some point grow up and be who you are and get on with it…
Those rainbow crossings are a blight on the landscape, vivid totems of our infantilised culture.
I also feel they are misleading – you expect to see a black and white pedestrian crossing, but what is a few stripes of rainbow paint on the road? Is that a crossing or not?
What’s even more annoying is that rainbows, a beautiful natural phenomenon of refracted light, have been coopted and politicized for a ridiculous forced agenda of a false unity of groups that have little if anything in common.
This presents a couple of questions. Firstly, why are women especially likely to identify as bisexual? Secondly, why has their rate of bisexual identification increased in the UK in such a short time? I suspect that the answer to the first question is that they are drawn to having sex with other women, and the answer to the second is that bisexuality is now almost entirely acceptable (whereas it wasn’t always so).
Gay man here (for what it’s worth). Back in my 20s & 30s, largely out of randy self-interest, I used to believe Kinsey’s claim that 10% of the population was gay. In fact the percentage of actual homosexuals is probably around an optimistic 2-3%.The rest of those claiming an ‘edgy’ sexuality (which in fact is no more or less interesting than heterosexuality) are tiresome progressive identity tourists who’d run a mile at the sight of the same genitalia as their own in an actual erotic encounter and of course don’t have to go through all the difficulties many real gay people do/did. In my experience, heterosexual men are far more straightforward and trustworthy in these matters: I far prefer a straight guy saying ‘hey mate I don’t care where you stick it as long as it’s not up my @rse. Buy you a pint?’ than some cloying, liberal, ‘progressive’, middle class chick attempting to emote with me with tales of her hypothetical, imagined ‘bisexuality’.
I’m not sure that the percentages are the same for women though.
Bulls**t.
My own personal experience suggests not only that the percentages are higher for women, but that more women are inclined to “experiment”.
Top comments Derek. So nice to hear it ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’.
Young women are invariably vulnerable around their emerging sexuality. Blossoming body parts, hormonal shifts, and unexpected emissions are unnerving. The first reaction is to try to repress biology – in my day this was epitomised by stealing Dad’s 5 sizes too large jumpers and wearing Doc Martins (shoes are indicators of sexual availability according to the literature). So obfuscation is a well trodden path.
If you then conflate that with a cultural desire to differentiate and label (ideally both in the hyper-individualised woke world), where maturation is delayed, and sex work is promoted as empowerment by certain branches of the sisterhood, then bisexuality may become a very helpful place to land oneself, whether one is bisexual or not.
I suspect this is a story as old as time dressed up in tough, and often contradictory, cultural trends. As an older woman, I feel for them. Remembered as a difficult time to navigate.
As an older bisexual woman, it doesn’t surprise me that more young women identify as bisexual, as the definitions around sexuality, alongside gender (which is a different issue), have become more relaxed and less judged in recent years. I found in my younger years that saying you were bisexual was frowned upon by lesbians and gay men, with the conviction that you were not 100% faithful to the cause and letting the side down. If you wanted to feel included, it was better to say you were a lesbian – for me this didn’t feel authentic. Nowadays, there is a lot less prejudice within the gay/queer community itself towards bisexuality, meaning that more women may feel that it is safe and acceptable to identify as bisexual. At the same time, people who are heterosexual generally prefer to label you as lesbian. I’ve always identified as bisexual, but most people around me identify me as lesbian, especially as I have been in a relationship with the same woman for over 25 years, with whom I have two children – nobody talks about bisexual parenting for example. Aside from all this, the author’s research sounds quite sketchy…
‘Queer’ is a slur.
Not when somebody in the gay community uses it.
uh huh … my clearest recollection of the term ‘queer’ was when a group of queer-bashers shouted it at me as they tried to beat & kick me to death when I left a gay bar in the 90s. It was a slur then and remains so now despite claims by a few to have ‘reclaimed’ it.
Unfortunately, the word is now bandied around as a badge of honour among the young. I’ve heard people in heterosexual relationships refer to themselves as ‘queer’. What these muppets actually mean by that is anyone’s guess. I imagine you find this extremely annoying. It gets up my nose and I’m not even gay.
As old women in Scotland are wont to say, ‘it fair rips ma knittin’!’.
It generally now means, ‘I’m an inadequate straight person with neon hair dye in search of oppression points and some interesting personality features – look at me!’.
None of this is to suggest that the vast majority of straight people subscribe to any of this crap.
Yep, nailed it there. Said individuals did indeed have hair the colour of various lavatory cleaning fluids.
More and more, I agree with Freud that homosexuality represents incomplete development.
Likely many are not that into sex- most studies shows that women’s sex drive is only a fraction of that of men, but into having a relationship. Perhaps biromantic demisexual or politically driven biromantic demisexual would be a more accurate description. The software that we run includes the female version in which unwanted pregnancy (avoid) and wanting to be loved and understood are contrasting pulls. This is one modern solution.
Maybe, they are less inclined to take the risk with men. Hardly surprising, these days. It’s doubtful that laboratory research on reactions to porn are going to be very reliable.
Seems oddly out of touch.
First, you keep describing these women as “susceptible”, betraying your own biases.
Secondly, you miss the point that your surveys are a form of conversation. The respondents who seem confused to you are actually just telling you “I can be who I want to be”; which, of course is a basic tenet of any healthy modern ego.
Compassion is the ability to feel what others feel, literally “shared feeling.”
Women are more compassionate than men. Even if they don’t have the same sexual feelings, they are more likely to identify with the social feelings of others.
This preoccupation with sexuality is incredibly boring!
I suspect that Queer philosophy, and by extension the Queer culture introduced to young people in American colleges, has gained much of its power from the ‘educated, bohemian’ instinct of liberal women to be sexually flexible. I think we see this in the history of the American Left.
Among other reasons for women trending more toward bisexuality has to be a flight to safety and affirmation. Tinder, and its ilk, favor casual encounters without commitment. Based upon living 70 years, I’m well aware that–whatever is au courant today–women are much more interested in relationships that include an emotional component. Tinder is precisely the opposite.
Is it any wonder that women today who see more and more misandry in media, and are constantly reminded they are at risk from a host of testosterone-laden predators, would choose safety in the company of relationships with other women?
I didn’t bother reading the article. The answer is females have been taught for 50 plus years to hate men.
Stupid Unherd. We aren’t remotely interested in this. It should be obvious young people do not read Unherd. They have better things to do. We deserve better.
I think the rest of us deserve better than your automatic responses. I really don’t know why you bother to subscribe.