Sexual fluidity is one or more changes in sexuality or sexual identity (sometimes known as sexual orientation identity). Sexual orientation is stable for the vast majority of people, but some research indicates that some people may experience change in their sexual orientation, and this is more likely for women than men.*
There is no scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed through psychotherapy. Sexual identity can change throughout an individual's life, and does not have to align with biological sex, sexual behavior, or actual sexual orientation.
According to scientific consensus, sexual orientation is not a choice. Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biological theories, especially for explaining male sexual orientation. Research over several decades has demonstrated that sexual orientation can be at any point along a continuum, from exclusive attraction to the opposite sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex.
Use of the term sexual fluidity has been attributed to psychologist Lisa M. Diamond, who observed that many women's attractions towards women and men changed over time, although changes were modest (1 Kinsey scale point, on average). The results of a large-scale, longitudinal study by Savin-Williams, Joyner, and Rieger (2012) indicated that stability of sexual orientation identity over a six-year period was more common than change, and that stability was greatest among men and those identifying as heterosexual. While stability is more common than change, change in sexual orientation identity does occur and the vast majority of research indicates that female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality. This could be attributed to females' higher erotic plasticity or to sociocultural factors that socialize women to be more open to change. Due to the gender differences in the stability of sexual orientation identity, male and female sexuality may not function via the same mechanisms. Researchers continue to analyze sexual fluidity to better determine its relationship to sexual orientation subgroups (i.e., bisexual, lesbian, gay, etc.).
Background Often, sexual orientation and sexual identity are not distinguished, which can impact accurately assessing sexual identity and whether or not sexual orientation is able to change; sexual orientation identity can change throughout an individual's life, and may or may not align with biological sex, sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation.Sinclair, Karen, About Whoever: The Social Imprint on Identity and Orientation, NY, 2013 While the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and American Psychiatric Association state that sexual orientation is innate, continuous or fixed throughout their lives for some people, but is fluid or changes over time for others,"LGBT-Sexual Orientation: What is Sexual Orientation?" , the official web pages of APA. Accessed April 9, 2015 the American Psychological Association distinguishes between sexual orientation (an innate attraction) and sexual orientation identity (which may change at any point in a person's life). Scientists and mental health professionals generally do not believe that sexual orientation is a choice.
The American Psychological Association states that "sexual orientation is not a choice that can be changed at will, and that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors...is shaped at an early age...[and evidence suggests] biological, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality." They say that "sexual orientation identity—not sexual orientation—appears to change via psychotherapy, support groups, and life events." The American Psychiatric Association says individuals may "become aware at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual" and "opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as 'reparative' or 'conversion' therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation". They do, however, encourage gay affirmative psychotherapy.
In the first decade of the 2000s, psychologist Lisa M. Diamond studied 80 non-heterosexual women over several years. She found that, in this group, changes in sexual identity were common, although they were typically between adjacent identity categories (such as lesbian and bisexual). Some change in self-reported sexual feeling occurred among many of the women, but it was small, only averaging about 1 point on the Kinsey scale on average. The range of these women's potential attractions was limited by their sexual orientations, but sexual fluidity permitted movement within that range.
In her book Sexual Fluidity, which was awarded with the 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues Distinguished Book Award by Division 44 of the American Psychological Association, Diamond speaks of female sexuality and trying to go beyond the language of "phases" and "denial", arguing that traditional labels for sexual desire are inadequate. For some of 100 non-heterosexual women she followed in her study over a period of 10 years, the word bisexual did not truly express the versatile nature of their sexuality. Diamond calls "for an expanded understanding of same-sex sexuality."Sexual Fluidity—Understanding Women's Love and Desire , Lisa M. Diamond 2009, Harvard University Press. Accessed April 6, 2015
Diamond, when reviewing research on lesbian and bisexual women's sexual identities, stated that studies find "change and fluidity in same-sex sexuality that contradict conventional models of sexual orientation as a fixed and uniformly early-developing trait." She suggested that sexual orientation is a phenomenon more connected with female non-heterosexual sexuality, stating, "whereas sexual orientation in men appears to operate as a stable erotic 'compass' reliably channeling sexual arousal and motivation toward one gender or the other, sexual orientation in women does not appear to function in this fashion... As a result of these phenomena, women's same-sex sexuality expresses itself differently from men's same-sex sexuality at every stage of the life course."
Biology and stability
Conversion therapy (attempts to change sexual orientation) is rarely successful. In Maccio's (2011) review of sexual reorientation therapy attempts, she lists two studies that claim to have successfully converted gay men and lesbians to heterosexuals and four that demonstrate the contrary. She sought to settle the debate using a sample that was not recruited from religious organizations. The study consisted of 37 former conversion therapy participants (62.2% were male) from various cultural and religious backgrounds who currently or previously identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant shifts in sexual orientation from pre- to post-treatment. In follow-up sessions, the few changes in sexual orientation that did occur following therapy did not last. This study stands as support for the biological origin of sexual orientation, but the largely male sample population confounds the findings.Maccio, E.M. (2011). Self-reported sexual orientation and identity before and after sexual reorientation therapy. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, 15. 242-259.
Further support for the biological origin of sexual orientation is that gender atypical behavior in childhood (e.g., a young boy playing with dolls) appears to predict homosexuality in adulthood (see childhood gender nonconformity). A longitudinal study by Drummond et al. (2008) looked at young girls with gender dysphoria (a significant example of gender atypical behavior) and found that the majority of these girls grew up to identify as bisexual or lesbian. Many retrospective studies looking at childhood behavior are criticized for potential memory errors; so a study by Rieger, Linsenmeier, Gygax, & Bailey (2008) used home videos to investigate the relationship between childhood behaviors and adult sexual orientation. The results of this study support biological causation, but an understanding of how cultural assumptions about sexuality can affect sexual identity formation is also considered.
There is strong evidence for a relationship between fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation, and there has been biological research done to investigate potential biological determinants of sexual orientation in men and women. One theory is the second to fourth finger ratio (2D:4D) theory. Some studies have discovered that heterosexual women had higher 2D:4D ratios than did lesbian women but the difference was not found between heterosexual and gay men. Similarly, a study has shown that homosexual men have a sexually dimorphic nucleus in the anterior hypothalamus that is the size of females'.LeVay 1991 as cited in Twin and family studies have also found a genetic influence.
Changes in sexuality Demographics
One study by Steven E. Mock and Richard P. Eibach from 2011 shows 2% of 2,560 adult participants included in National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States reported change of sexual orientation identities after a 10-year period: 0.78% of male and 1.36% of female persons that identified themselves to be heterosexuals at the beginning of the 10-year period, as well as 63.6% of lesbians, 64.7% of bisexual females, 9.52% of gay males, and 47% of bisexual males. According to the study, "this pattern was consistent with the hypothesis that heterosexuality is a more stable sexual orientation identity, perhaps because of its normative status. However, male homosexual identity, although less stable than heterosexual identity, was relatively stable compared to the other sexual minority identities". Having only adults included in the examined group, they did not find the differences in fluidity which were affected by age of the participants. However, they stated that "research on attitude stability and change suggests most change occurs in adolescence and young adulthood (Alwin & Krosnick, 1991; Krosnick & Alwin, 1989), which could explain the diminished impact of age after that point".
Males versus females