Abstract
The degree to which bisexual-identified individuals are distinct from either heterosexual or homosexual individuals in their sexual orientation is an ongoing debate. We examined potential differences between these groups with respect to a strong correlate of sexual orientation, gender nonconformity (femininity in males, masculinity in females). Across pooled data, we compared self-reports of childhood gender nonconformity (n = 919) and adulthood gender nonconformity (n = 1265) and observer ratings of adulthood gender nonconformity (n = 915) between sexual orientations. Most analyses suggested a steady increase in gender nonconformity from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. However, in some analyses, bisexual men were closer to homosexual men than to heterosexual men in their gender nonconformity. The intermediate status of bisexual people in gender nonconformity was not due to the sample having a mixture of very gender-conforming and very gender-nonconforming individuals. In total, men and women with bisexual orientations appeared neither like heterosexual nor homosexual individuals, at least with respect to their gender-related traits.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bailey, J. M. (2009). What is sexual orientation and do women have one? In D. A. Hope (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives on lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities (Vol. 54, pp. 43–63). New York, NY: Springer.
Bailey, J. M., & Pillard, R. C. (1991). A genetic study of male sexual orientation. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 1089–1096. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1991.01810360053008.
Bailey, J. M., & Zucker, K. J. (1995). Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: A conceptual analysis and quantitative review. Developmental Psychology, 31, 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.31.1.43.
Blanchard, R. (2018). Fraternal birth order, family size, and male homosexuality: Meta-analysis of studies spanning 25 years. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1007-4.
Bogaert, A. F., Skorska, M. N., Wang, C., Gabrie, J., MacNeil, A. J., Hoffarth, M. R., … Blanchard, R. (2018). Male homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 115, 302–306. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705895114.
Burke, S. E., & LaFrance, M. (2016a). Lay conceptions of sexual minority groups. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45, 635–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0655-5.
Burke, S. E., & LaFrance, M. (2016b). Stereotypes of bisexual people: What do bisexual people themselves think? Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 3, 247–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000168.
Chivers, M. L. (2017). The specificity of women’s sexual response and its relationship with sexual orientations: A review and ten hypotheses. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 1161–1179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0897-x.
Cohen, K. M. (2002). Relationships among childhood sex-atypical behavior, spatial ability, handedness, and sexual orientation in men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31, 129–143. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014043504661.
Ellis, L., Skorska, M. N., & Bogaert, A. F. (2017). Handedness, sexual orientation, and somatic markers for prenatal androgens: Are southpaws really that gay? Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 22, 157–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2016.1151024.
Gates, G. J. (2011). How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender? The Williams Institute, Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h684X682.
Gottschalk, L. (2003). Same-sex sexuality and childhood gender non-conformity: A spurious connection. Journal of Gender Studies, 12, 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958923032000067808.
Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A. M., Miller, D. I., & Bailey, J. M. (2016). Who are gynandromorphophilic men? Characterizing men with sexual interest in transgender women. Psychological Medicine, 46, 819–827. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715002317.
Jabbour, J., Hsu, K. J., & Bailey, J. M. (2020). Sexual arousal patterns of mostly heterosexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01720-z.
Johnson, K. L., Gill, S., Reichman, V., & Tassinary, L. G. (2007). Swagger, sway, and sexuality: Judging sexual orientation from body motion and morphology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.321.
Kahn, N. F., & Halpern, C. T. (2019). Is developmental change in gender-typed behavior associated with adult sexual orientation? Developmental Psychology, 55, 855–865. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000662.
Khorashad, B. S., Zucker, K. J., Talaei, A., Rajabzadeh, F., Hamed, Z., Akbarian, P., & Blanchard, R. (2020). Birth order and sibling sex ratio in androphilic males and gynephilic females diagnosed with gender dysphoria from Iran. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 19, 1195–1202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.02.004.
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948). Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.
Lippa, R. A. (2005). Sexual orientation and personality. Annual Review of Sex Research, 16, 119–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/10532528.2005.10559831.
Lippa, R. A. (2008). Sex differences and sexual orientation differences in personality: Findings from the BBC Internet survey. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-007-9267-z.
Lippa, R. A. (2020). Interest, personality, and sexual traits that distinguish heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual individuals: Are there two dimensions that underlie variations in sexual orientation? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 607–622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01643-9.
Rieger, G., Cash, B. M., Merrill, S. M., Jones-Rounds, J., Dharmavaram, S. M., & Savin-Williams, R. C. (2015). Sexual arousal: The correspondence of eyes and genitals. Biological Psychology, 104, 56–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.11.009.
Rieger, G., Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2005). Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men. Psychological Science, 16, 579–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01578.x.
Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, J. A. W., Gygax, L., & Bailey, J. M. (2008). Sexual orientation and childhood gender nonconformity: Evidence from home videos. Developmental Psychology, 44, 46–58. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.46.
Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, J. A. W., Gygax, L., Garcia, S. C., & Bailey, J. M. (2010). Dissecting “gaydar”: Accuracy and the role of masculinity-femininity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 124–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9405-2.
Rieger, G., Savin-Williams, R. C., Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2016). Sexual arousal and masculinity-femininity of women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 265–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000077.
Rosenthal, A. M., Sylva, D., Safron, A., & Bailey, J. M. (2012). The male bisexuality debate revisited: Some bisexual men have bisexual arousal patterns. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9881-7.
Savin-Williams, R. C., Cash, B. M., McCormack, M., & Rieger, G. (2017). Gay, mostly gay, or bisexual leaning gay? An exploratory study distinguishing gay sexual orientations among young men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0848-6.
Savin-Williams, R. C., Joyner, K., & Rieger, G. (2012). Prevalence and stability of self-reported sexual orientation identity during young adulthood. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 103–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9913-y.
Savin-Williams, R. C., Rieger, G., & Rosenthal, A. M. (2013). Physiological evidence for a mostly heterosexual orientation among men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 697–699. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0093-1.
Savin-Williams, R. C., & Vrangalova, Z. (2013). Mostly heterosexual as a distinct sexual orientation group: A systematic review of the empirical evidence. Developmental Review, 33, 58–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2013.01.001.
Semon, T. L., Hsu, K. J., Rosenthal, A. M., & Bailey, J. M. (2017). Bisexual phenomena among gay-identified men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0849-5.
Slettevold, E., Holmes, L., Gruia, D., Nyssen, C. P., Watts-Overall, T. M., & Rieger, G. (2019). Bisexual men with bisexual and monosexual genital arousal patterns. Biological Psychology, 148, 107763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107763.
Swift-Gallant, A., Coome, L. A., Aitken, M., Monks, D. A., & VanderLaan, D. P. (2019). Evidence for distinct biodevelopmental influences on male sexual orientation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 116, 12787–12792. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809920116.
Tskhay, K. O., & Rule, N. O. (2013). Accuracy in categorizing perceptually ambiguous groups: A review and meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17, 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868312461308.
Vrangalova, Z., & Savin-Williams, R. (2012). Mostly heterosexual and mostly gay/lesbian: Evidence for new sexual orientation identities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9921-y.
Xu, Y., Norton, S., & Rahman, Q. (2019). Early life conditions and adolescent sexual orientation: A prospective birth cohort study. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1226–1243. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000704.
Zucker, K. J. (2005). Commentary on Gottschalk’s (2003) ‘Same-sex sexuality and childhood gender non-conformity: A spurious connection’. Journal of Gender Studies, 14, 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958923042000331498.
Funding
This research was funded by the American Institute of Bisexuality (RSC1466) and the University of Essex (DG00832).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Ethical Standard
The University of Essex’s Ethics Committee approved this study (GR1303).
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rieger, G., Holmes, L., Watts-Overall, T.M. et al. Gender Nonconformity of Bisexual Men and Women. Arch Sex Behav 49, 2481–2495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01766-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01766-z