Gender Difference #1: How you "do" sexual orientation?
Lisa Diamond (Psychology and Gender Studies, Univ. Utah) made news this week with her research demonstrating that women with a bisexual identity did not identify as heterosexual or lesbian after ten years (EurekaAlert 2008, links to full article.) However, the news stories don't mention that Diamond's work is published in a special issue of the journal Developmental Psychology all about "sexual orientation across the lifespan."
However, Diamond's work is extremely specific to women. J. Michael Bailey suggests that Diamond's work corroborates his own findings that "women don't do sexual orientation the same way men do" (ABC news, 2008). Diamond is quoted in the same article as saying: "this is not to say that bisexual men 'don't exist' -- a claim that some researchers have made, but with which I disagree -- but simply to say that we need separate studies of male bisexuality in order to determine its own unique features."
Diamond spoke in favor of the penile plethysmograph study in Benedict Carey's infamous "Gay, Straight, or Lying" article (NYT 2005), which is enough to get her a spot on the Dan4th "enemies list". Except that I'm not finding the hole in these studies (pun intended). While I don't particularly like the results, I haven't found a problem with the methodology that would explain the incredibly consistent findings that women's sexuality is just different than men's. I have no argument against these studies except for "your statistics fail to match my experience." Which is (a) not an argument and (b) not entirely true. However, I startled the hell out of my sleepy boyfriend this morning by musing out loud that "I can't imagine all those guys sucking dick just to get girls."
However, Diamond's work is extremely specific to women. J. Michael Bailey suggests that Diamond's work corroborates his own findings that "women don't do sexual orientation the same way men do" (ABC news, 2008). Diamond is quoted in the same article as saying: "this is not to say that bisexual men 'don't exist' -- a claim that some researchers have made, but with which I disagree -- but simply to say that we need separate studies of male bisexuality in order to determine its own unique features."
Diamond spoke in favor of the penile plethysmograph study in Benedict Carey's infamous "Gay, Straight, or Lying" article (NYT 2005), which is enough to get her a spot on the Dan4th "enemies list". Except that I'm not finding the hole in these studies (pun intended). While I don't particularly like the results, I haven't found a problem with the methodology that would explain the incredibly consistent findings that women's sexuality is just different than men's. I have no argument against these studies except for "your statistics fail to match my experience." Which is (a) not an argument and (b) not entirely true. However, I startled the hell out of my sleepy boyfriend this morning by musing out loud that "I can't imagine all those guys sucking dick just to get girls."