Do Men or Women Have A Fluid Sexuality?

A new study revealed research showing that a woman's sexuality is more flexible than that of men. The study followed the sexuality of more than 9,000 people over 14 years and was recently presented at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting. For the study, researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and tracked 5,018 women and 4,191 men as they moved from adolescence to young adulthood. On average they were 16 years old. 

Out of three groups, each participant was asked to identify their sexuality as well as whether they've ever been attracted to a member of the same sex or has experienced same-sex sexual activity. The panel also rated the participants attractiveness. 

Researchers released findings that showed women were three times more likely to change how they labeled their sexuality between their early and late 20s and more likely to say they were bisexual than men. 

Men on the other hand were more likely to report being either 100 percent heterosexual or 100 percent homosexual. 

What's the reason for the different? 

Study author, Elizabeth Aura McClintock, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame said: "If you're attracted to both sexes, context and opportunity may have more influence on which sex you partner with. 

For women, the higher level of education they had as well as how high their rate of attractiveness was, were more likely to identify as 100 percent heterosexual. McClintock noted the higher-education finding was surprising because being more highly educated puts you in a more accepting environment. They also discovered that men with a higher level of education were less likely to identify as 100 percent heterosexual. 

Researchers did point out that women who have higher levels of education and by society's standards are more physically attractive, typically have more opportunities to date men and for those attracted to both, could influence how they label their sexuality. 

They also stressed that same-sex sexual interactions aren’t a “second choice” — it simply may be that people who are attracted to both sexes but had good relationships with the opposite sex and were single less often just never explored the option of having a sexual interaction with someone of the same sex.

They still remain unsure about why men are less likely to be attracted to both sexes but they did find that their sexual identity wasn't influenced by their level of attractiveness. 

However, sexology and close studies on sexual orientation and sexuality has noted that societal pressures on men to identify with their heterosexuality or homosexuality exist. 

Masculinity has a meaning in our society for men. There can be fear or feelings of being uncomfortable with anything outside of traditional masculine gender roles and many suffer internally because of this. 

But they also note, there is still a lot we don't know about sexual identity and why some people choose one label over another. The societal preference is to have a label for our sexual identity. Those labels are kind of silly but we have them and use them. We're just not sure why.