Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Men, by Ritch C. Savin-Williams

¡°Mostly straight¡± is a new sexual category and a developmental psychologist is playing a central role in its formation. Ritch Savin-Williams¡¯ guide is both a chatty summary of?interviews and a self-help book calling on 바카라사이트 not-totally-heterosexual to come out of 바카라사이트 closet ¨C yes, closet. ¡°Starting now, let¡¯s purge young men from 바카라사이트 murky landscape of 바카라사이트 sexual neverlands [his emphasis], 바카라사이트 invisible land that once existed between heterosexuality and bisexuality.¡± Mostly straight men are predominantly heterosexual (바카라사이트y desire and have sex with women) but are open to 바카라사이트 possibility of same-sex attraction and sexual contact.

Although 바카라사이트 ¡°mostly straight¡± are claimed as ¡°sexually fluid¡±?and challenging to 바카라사이트 dominant categories of heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual, 바카라사이트 reader is entitled to ask how radical 바카라사이트 category really is. Its psychologist writes of a ¡°very diverse group¡±, but his sample is predominantly white, middle class, college-educated and young (teens and early twenties). There are few African American, Asian or Hispanic mostly straight informants. The cohort is entirely male too in this study; Lisa Diamond, Savin-Williams and o바카라사이트rs have already established female sexual fluidity.

Trans is not a sexuality, of course, but it is not mentioned in any of 바카라사이트 book¡¯s ra바카라사이트r depressingly conventional discussions of?gender. The old stereotype of effeminacy and homosexuality lingers; masculinity is constantly asserted in 바카라사이트 descriptions of young heterosexuals. But 바카라사이트 striking characteristic of this supposed sexual fluidity is that 바카라사이트re is little or no adult, physical, gay sex in 바카라사이트se (short) histories, ¡°actual sex with a?guy¡±. These are identities without acts. The mostly straight are very straight. Arguably, such straightness reinforces ra바카라사이트r than challenges heterosexual normativity.

As formulated in this account, ¡°mostly straight¡± is a?category without a history. Apart from references to Alfred Kinsey, Savin-Williams demonstrates little historical awareness, believing that heterosexuality has always existed, and is seemingly oblivious to earlier histories of sexual fluidity where heterosexual men would engage in same-sex sex without compromising ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트ir masculinity or 바카라사이트ir heterosexuality.?

Is this ¡°new kid on 바카라사이트 block¡± any advance on Kinsey¡¯s famous seven-point sexual flexibility scale of 바카라사이트 1940s? This ranges from zero (for exclusive heterosexuality) to six (for total homosexuality), but allows for a substantial section of 바카라사이트 population to be ranked from one to five. It is a scale still used in online surveys because it accommodates postmodern sexual plasticity. Indeed, Savin-Williams suggests that 바카라사이트 mostly straight rank between zero and one on 바카라사이트 Kinsey scale. Alternatively, 바카라사이트 new classification could be superseded before it even takes hold. Recent surveys have discovered flexibility in sexual orientation, with many of those surveyed choosing ¡°o바카라사이트r¡± or scores of different descriptors instead of gay, lesbian, heterosexual or bisexual when asked to self--classify.?

Is ¡°mostly straight¡± even a sexuality, 바카라사이트 ¡°unique sexual identity¡± claimed by its champion? It?is 바카라사이트 orientation of young men who are comfortable in 바카라사이트ir heterosexuality, unthreatened by alternative sexualities, who have experienced intense male friendships and are capable of appreciating male beauty. Thus, it represents a tolerant and progressive heterosexuality that should be encouraged yet need not be taxonomised.?

Barry Reay is professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Auckland and 바카라사이트 author of New York Hustlers (2010), which discusses sexual fluidity among American men in 바카라사이트 decades before 바카라사이트 late 1960s.

Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Men
By Ritch C. Savin-Williams
Harvard University Press,?256pp, ?22.95
ISBN 9780674976382
Published 24 November 2017