Bisexual

The term bisexual refers to persons of both sexes (female and male) whose orientation, preferences, or sexual practices are based on bisexuality. Bisexuality in human sexual or communicative behavior is related to aesthetic, romantic, or sexual desire for people of either gender/sex. It can also be the search for emo-tional/sexual satisfaction with both sexes/genders. Sometimes, it is considered a third category together with homosexuality or heterosexuality, but for most experts, bisexuality expresses a blend of the two. Although as a form of sexual behavior it is as old as the other two commonly accepted forms (heterosexuality or homosexuality), and is recorded in reliable history and documents, bisexuality became a serious object of study only recently, beginning approximately in the first decade of the 20th century.

Bisexuality does not necessarily imply an equal attraction to both genders/sexes; bisexuals can have their own preferences, they can even feel attracted to a gender and not to a sex. Bisexuality, like other forms of sexual orientation, includes a large variety of sexual lifestyles such as monogamy, group sex, serial monogamy, polygamy, or celibacy.

The term bisexual was first used in the 19th century to refer to hermaphrodites. In 1914, it began to be used to refer to a sexual orientation, preference, practice, or feeling. Other terms recently incorporated into the context of “bi” gender attraction, and commonly used as synonyms, are pomosexual, omnisexual, or pansexual. Bisexuality was a common option in several cultures in history, for instance, in the shudo tradition in Japan or the baccha practices of central Asia. There are other cases where homosexuality is a ritual that boys have to follow before experiencing an adult heterosexual life. Among the Sambia of New Guinea, boys are separated from the rest of their people when they are 7 and are sent back once they are 10 after three years of homosexual practice. In this context, the combination [Page 257]of homosexuality and heterosexuality helps one come of age properly. Early homosexuality was mandatory for the Spartans, for men as well as for women. After developing strong emotional links among members of the same sex, every adult was prepared for assuming the responsibility of procreation. Only some monotheistic religions have privileged heterosexuality, and, therefore, other forms of sexual behavior were sup-pressed—bisexuality among them.

In The Bisexual Option by Dr. Fred Klein, he proposes a classification of bisexuality into three main categories: temporary, historical, and sequential. The category of temporary bisexuality could be applied to individuals who, after a time with bisexual behavior, finally become homosexual or heterosexual, but never both. Historical bisexuality refers to individuals who have a clear heterosexual or homosexual orientation, but who sometimes experience sexual fantasies with people of the opposite gender or sex. Sequential bisexuality concerns individuals who have, in a successive way, a relationship with a male and with a female.

Some other classical studies about sexual behavior, notably Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), have hyptothesized that all people seem to be at least somewhat bisexual. Those studies show that most people have some kind of attraction to each sex, although in practice, only one of the sexes is preferred. In fact, only between 5 and 15 percent of the entire (interviewed) population were strictly homosexual or heterosexual.

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