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Bisexuality
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Bisexuality has been a controversial subject within lesbian circles, and the place of bisexual women within "women's communities" has often generated heated debates. Some lesbians believe that all women who have the potential to love other women have an obligation to do so, and a political obligation to identify as lesbian and cease interacting with men. Others believe that the compulsory nature of heterosexuality in our cultures precludes the possibility of a woman freely "choosing" a heterosexual relationship, some going so far as to believe that due to the negative pressures on people in same sex relationships, and the positive benefits attached to opposite sex relationships, a bisexual woman will inevitably end up leaving a woman partner for one of the other sex. As a result of these lines of thought, bisexually-identified women have often had their integrity and their commitment to feminism questioned. A study conducted in the late 1980s by sociologist Paula Rust found that most lesbian respondents held far more negative than positive view of bisexuality, though she emphasizes that lesbians are by no means unanimous in their views, with some holding positive opinions about bisexual women. Political shifts in the 1990s have doubtless shifted the landscape of opinion toward a greater acceptance of bisexuality.
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Bisexuality is defined as sexual interest in and attraction to members of one's own and the opposite sex. A bisexual is a person with both heterosexual and homosexual desires. Research suggests that a significant number of people experience bisexual desires and engage in bisexual activity. As homosexuality has become increasingly more accepted in the new millennium, the number of people identifying themselves as bisexual has increased. (Encyclopedia Britannica Online 2004)
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Bisexuality has a universal heritage. Most societies in the past exhibited various degrees of bisexuality, and most of what passes for homosexuality in previous cultures is in effect bisexuality. Starting with homosexual relationships in Ancient Greece, where most men ... had wives, ancient Rome, Arab countries up to and including the present, China and Japan, all exhibit patterns of bisexual behaviour. Perhaps the most famous and militaristic example is Alexander the Great who had many wives, but also a sexual relationship with his close friend Hephaestion, but the same could be said of almost all the Roman emperors, the shoguns of Japan, the Chinese emperor, and people great and small in every country and every age.
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Bisexuality comes in a full spectrum of options. There are those who dip into their gender pool on every occasion they can, while others may only venture in after too many cocktails! By definition the main distinction between Bi and Hetero/Homo lifestyles is that at some point members of this group will experience “the alternate” gender from time to time. This leads many to believe that bisexuality is simply a margarita mix of homosexual and heterosexual tendencies, but other theorists define it less in a binary way (black or white) and tend to see it as an ‘aesthetic attraction’ to people without regard for gender.
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Bisexuality makes accurate, high-quality information about the subject available to professionals and students in lesbian/gay studies, gender studies, sociology, family studies, and human sexuality. The volume ... brings current clinical perspectives together in a user-friendly volume for practitioners in social work and clinical/counseling psychology.
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Bisexuality is often misunderstood as a form of adultery or polyamory, and a popular misconception is that bisexuals must always be in relationships with men and women simultaneously. Rather, individuals attracted to both males and females, like people of any other orientation, may live a variety of sexual lifestyles. These include lifelong monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, polyfidelity, casual sexual activity with individual partners, casual group sex, and celibacy. For those with more than one sexual partner, these may or may not all be of the same gender.
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