Why Women Are More Likely to Be Bisexual
By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer | June 28, 2013 10:45am ET
Women may be more "hetero-flexible," or be primarily attracted to men with some same sex attraction, because same-sex behavior allowed women to raise their children with other women, a new study has proposed.
The hypothesis, published this April in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, suggests that more fluid female sexuality may have evolved because it benefited women's offspring. Some women who were raped or fathered children with absentee or deceased dads formed sexual relationships with other women, which may have made it easier to raise children together, according to the theory.
"Being born with the ability to [be attracted to men and women] may have been beneficial to ancestral women," said study co-author Barry X. Kuhle, a psychologist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. [5 Myths About Polyamory Debunked]
Not everyone agrees with Kuhle's hypothesis, pointing to the lack of evidence to support it and suggesting perhaps women's more fluid sexual boundaries may just be a byproduct of some other evolutionary change. There may be no evolutionary reason for the hetero-flexibility, they say.
More fluid
Several studies have shown that women are much more likely than men to report attraction to and physical contact with same-sex partners. Women also show similar genital arousal when viewing images of both sexes in erotic situations.
But exactly why has been a puzzle. Researchers have proposed that women's sexual fluidity enabled women to bond with sister wives in polygamous marriages. Still others have argued that it's a byproduct of the fact that women have weaker sex drives that are therefore easier to channel to different objects of attraction, Kuhle wrote in the paper.
To better understand women's sexuality, Kuhle looked to other animals for clues. The Laysan albatross's ability to form same-sex bonds may help them alloparent, or raise young that are not their own. Other studies suggest bonobos, which share more than 98 percent of their DNA with humans, often help rear other apes' offspring and cement social bonds by having sex with other troop members — both male and female. (In general, bonobos have a lot of sex).
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by DevilsAdvocate
Connect With Us