Via Dearest Jonathan we have this post from The American Scene the CDC's sexual behavior data. The relevant bit:

{...}But it's a significant phenomenon nonetheless - and if you broke it out by age and class, I'm sure that bisexuality would be even more common (and increasingly so) among upper-middle-class young people. If the experience of human history shows anything, it's that a large percentage of any given population will experiment with opportunistic homosexuality if the taboos against it are lifted - and at least in our country's more exclusive circles, the lesbian-experimentation taboo is dead and the gay-experimentation taboo is weakening. Ancient Greece, here we come . . .{...}

To which Jonathan adds:

I don't have anything to add to serious discussions about human sexuality, although comments like this one make me wonder if the trend is liberation, or just another instance of women going out of their way to attract male attention by any means:

Ashley, 20, a student at Northern Arizona University, agrees. "It's become this totally hot thing," she says. "And the reason why is that it promises this sexual experimentation to guys. They think, 'She'll kiss another girl; she's gotta be pretty wild.'"

Ashley hasn't made out with that many girls: "I've only done it like a dozen times." It's been fun, she says, but mostly because of the titillation: "There's people watching it, and that makes me feel good. The first time I did it at a party, I thought, 'So this is what it takes to get the guys' attention.'"

You decide if this is benign or a case of women desperate for male affection. (You know you're old when you read Ashley's quote and instead of thinking, Hot!, you worry that she didn't have a capable, present father while she was growing up and hope that she'll spend some time working on her sense of self-confidence and self-worth.)

In any case, what interests me most is the proximate causes of what destroyed the "taboo" against LUGiness in the first place.{...}

{Ed. LUG=Lesbian until graduation. Amazingly enough during college I lived in an all-girls dorm and a sorority and I never saw anyone getting it on with their best friend or their roommate. It never happened. Really and truly. And if something like that WAS going on, believe you me, everyone would have known about it because a. girls are catty creatures and b. close quarters means gossip spreads like wildfire. So, I will admit I believe this whole LUG thing is an urban myth perpetrated by pr0n writers and men who really would like to think that living in a sorority house is all pillow fights and sapphic experimentation.}

Jonathan ultimately places the blame on Friends with Monica and Rachel making out in front of Chandler and Joey to get their apartment back. I think Jonathan's partially correct: Friends showed two women making out. What he misses, however, is that these two female characters were making out not because they were hot for one another but because they were trying to get what they wanted (their apartment) from men. That's when the taboo died: when it became cool to use said bisexuality to lure men into handing over what women wanted. Female bisexuality became a tool to manipulate men. Everyone knows that hetero men adore it when women get busy with one another. There's nothing new in that bit of information. What is interesting in all of this, however, is the lengths women feel they need to go to to get what they want. If making out with a woman will get them something, well, they'll do that.

The thing I find curious about the CDC's results is that, apparently, they did not take into account "The Threesome Factor" when asking women about their relations with other women. They did not ask how that coupling came about or if it took place with another partner present---in this example, a man who'd actually worked up the nerve and asked, "Would you consider being with another woman for me?" I'd be curious to know if this overall trend toward female bisexuality is the result of women actually wanting to love women or if it's just women trying to please their men.

I'd wager it's the latter.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:32 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 722 words, total size 4 kb.

1 I've had a few younger friends who were LUGs. Though in one case it was "lesbian till she met a guy and got married" .

Posted by: Ith at September 16, 2005 02:09 PM (LCvAk)

2 Enjoy the search engine traffic this post's title will bring your way. I have a feeling they may be a wee bit let down, no offense to your post.

Posted by: Doug at September 16, 2005 07:46 PM (7P5xE)

3 yeah, I chummed the google waters real good with this post

Posted by: Kathy at September 16, 2005 11:24 PM (yBAYg)

4 Wow. Way to puncture all my preconceptions, Kathy. Next you're going to tell me that the Easter Bunny isn't really laying eggs all over my yard the day after Good Friday. I'm going to use my faith & just assume that YOUR sorority was just an abberation in the "experimentation & pillow fight" department.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at September 18, 2005 12:43 AM (6krEN)

5 I'd wager it's the latter. I'll wager that it's a little bit of both. Or so I've heard.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at September 19, 2005 08:21 PM (GLJdf)

6 And here is a little science to back up my assertion: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030613075252.htm Women are more naturally bisexual than men. PS - I have it on good authority that the sorority hook-ups, pillow fights, etc are all true.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at September 19, 2005 08:25 PM (GLJdf)

7 I take your point, Bill, but just because someone likey the pictures, doesn't mean they're going to run right out and have sex with another chick, ya dig? Until someone measures the threesome factor, I will consider the information lacking.

Posted by: Kathy at September 20, 2005 12:16 AM (yBAYg)

8 I take your point, Bill, but just because someone likey the pictures, doesn't mean they're going to run right out and have sex with another chick, ya dig? Certainly. But it would also support the idea that women are more predisposed to the idea than men are to men, and in a reasonable number of cases not just doing it as a form of male manipulation. (though I don't disagree that manipulation/attention-seeking is prevalent - and to no small extent, eye-rollingly annoying) Until someone measures the threesome factor, I will consider the information lacking. I've heard a reasonable number of stories from college of women coupling with women when nary a man was in sight (no, not in Penthouse Forum). As it is, I will endeavor to conduct further primary research into this weighty matter, so that I might proffer a more informed, experiential and scientific opinion. This will of course require watching hours and hours of anthropolgical footage before venturing out into the field.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at September 20, 2005 08:44 AM (yZMsp)

9 PS - It's also pretty apparent that this entire post is just a wild, diversionary overcompensation for the lustfully secret sapphic crush that you have on Rosie O'Donnell.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at September 20, 2005 08:46 AM (yZMsp)

10 Well, Google messed up the relevancy of this page

Posted by: threesome at November 13, 2005 03:41 AM (AqDGi)

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