Review by Choice Review
Diamond (psychology and gender studies, Univ. of Utah) recruited 89 women from various gay places and 11 women from college sex courses who identified themselves as heterosexual. She interviewed each of them five times over ten years. (At the end, there were 79 participants from the gay sites and 10 heterosexuals.) After summarizing previous research about men, almost all of which found that the vast majority of men had a stable sexual orientation throughout life--always heterosexual, or bisexual, or gay--Diamond gives her results about her subjects. The majority of the women changed in various ways: lesbians having an affair with men, straight women with women, changing self-description from lesbian to unlabeled or vice versa, and so on. Most of the changes were in some range, wider for some women, narrower for others. At the end of the book, Diamond suggests changing current categorical thinking (hetero, bi, gay) into a "dynamic systems" model: proceptivity (desiring sexual contact) distinct from "arousability" (becoming sexual because of the current situation). She worries that her research, already being quoted by anti-gay groups to prevent legal rights for LGBT people, will become a weapon for bigots in the future. A well-researched, easy read. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate collections in gender studies; researchers/professionals. R. W. Smith emeritus, California State University, Northridge
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Many women experience a fluid sexual desire that is responsive to a person rather then a specific gender, argues Diamond n this fascinating and certain to be controversial study. Diamond, associate professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah, is best when detailing, with vivid examples, how scientific studies of sexual desire and behavior have focused on the experience of men, for whom the heterosexual/homosexual divide seems mostly fixed. Diamond says traditional labels for sexual desire are inadequate; for some women even "bisexual" does not truly express the protean nature of their sexuality. Diamond details in accessible and nuanced language her own study of 100 young women (by her own admission not "fully representative") over a period of 10 years. She says that she is "calling for an expanded understanding of same-sex sexuality" that could radically affect both LGBT activists who hold that sexual identity is fixed and antigay groups who believe sexuality is chosen. Sexual fluidity involves a mix of internal and external factors, but is not, Diamond emphasizes, a matter of conscious choice, and she speculates that a younger generation that views sexuality as personal rather than political might embrace this less rigid view. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
