Bisexuality: A Contemporary Paradox for Women

The cultural construction of ‘lesbian’ and ‘heterosexual’ women in late‐nineteenth‐century European cultures created both the possibility of conceiving the “bisexual” woman and the belief that bisexuality cannot exist. Social scientists have suggested several alternatives to dichotomous constructions of sexuality to facilitate the conceptualization of, and therefore empirical research on, bisexuality. This article reviews these alternatives and summarizes the current state of researchon bisexuality, including research on ‘situational homosexuality’ (behavioral bisexuality), recent national probability studies on sexual behaviors and identities in the United States, the meanings of bisexual self‐identities among women, masculinist biases in methods of assessing and theorizing sexual self‐identities, and prejudice against bisexuals. The article concludes with suggestions for future social scientific research on bisexuality.