Study says bisexuality real, but bisexuals say "duh"
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(CBS) Is there really such a thing as bisexuality?
After decades of debate, the researchers behind a new study say yes. The study found evidence that some men are sexually aroused by both men and women.
"Someone who is bisexual might say, 'Well, duh!'" study author Dr. Allen Rosenthal, a psychology doctoral student at Northwestern University, told the New York Times. "But this will be validating to a lot of bisexual men who had heard about the earlier work and felt that scientists weren't getting them."
Rosenthal is referring to previous research, namely a 2005 Northwestern study, that showed bisexual men were only physically aroused by men.
For the new study - in the August issue of Biological Psychology - researchers looked at 100 men, 31 who identified as homosexual, 34 as heterosexual, and 35 who said they were bisexual. Only bisexual men who had at least two partners from each sex, and a romantic relationship at least three months long with a member of each sex were included in the study. The scientists showed the men a series of three-minute dirty movies while their genitals were wired with arousal-detecting electrodes to determine that bisexual men were physically aroused by both sexes.
Some advocates were not necessarily pleased by the validation.
"It's great that they've come out with affirmation that bisexuality exists," Jim Larsen, chairman of the advocacy group, the Bisexual Organizing Project, told the Times. "Having said that, they're proving what we in the community already know - it's insulting."
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I defend the bi community from biphobic attacks all over the Internet. Since "Gay, Straight, or Lying" came out it has been thrown at us as proof that bi men don't exist, and all one could do was to go through a lengthy explanation of why it was poor science (which no one ever listened to).
I have been aware of this new research for a while, and it has been wonderful to be able to counter "Gay, Striaght, or Lying?" with the fact that Bailey himself, in a better-done study, has now proved that bi men DO exist. This was the single most important thing that could have happened for bi men, to undo the single most damaging thing that ever happened to them.