Female Sexual Orientation Is and Is Not a Spectrum

The four categories of female sexual orientation (Androphilic, Mostly-Androphlic, Ambiphilic, Gynephilic) form a skewed distribution, "representing approximately 85 percent, 10 percent, 4 percent, and 1 percent of the female population, respectively." In the past, I described female sexual orientation as a "smooth spectrum", but this is an oversimplification. Semenyna et al. (2022) critiqued the model of female nonheterosexuality as a "dosage-response type of relationship", noting that "graded, linear conceptions of female sexual orientation do not always fit the empirical data."

This is revealed in patterns of sexual attraction:

"Naturally, androphilic females report the highest levels of attraction to men, but mostly-androphilic and ambiphilic females report levels of attraction to men that are comparable, albeit slightly lower. The largest drop in androphilia only occurs among exclusively gynephilic females. For levels of gynephilia, this pattern is reversed – androphilic females report little attraction to women, whereas mostly-androphilic, ambiphilic, and gynephilic females report substantially more...Although each group shows stepwise changes in their androphilia/gynephilia, the size of these steps is not uniform. There is a noticeable "jaggedness" in this change that does not belie a smooth continuum of sexual interests differentiating these groups." (Semenyna et al., 2022)

And in patterns of sexual behavior: 

Illustration of sexual partners by sexual orientation group (Semenyna et al., 2022)

Instead of forming a smooth continuum from Androphilic to Gynephilic, women who are Mostly-Androphilic have the highest number of male sexual partners. Semenyna et al. (2022) describe how similar curvilinear patterns have been observed in several other traits. Although research suggests that Gynephilic women are the most gender-atypical, Mostly-Androphilic and/or Ambiphilic women have been found to be the highest in terms of sexual openness, sociosexuality, sexual sensation-seeking, sexual curiosity, sex drive, and mating-relevant competitiveness. Additionally, Mostly-Androphilic and/or Ambiphilic women are the highest in terms of substance abuse, mood disorders, and Dark Triad traits, but lowest in terms of conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility.

Why are these nonlinear patterns observed?


Spectrum from moderate bisexuality to exclusive gynephilia, but not mostly-androphilia.
(Diamond, 2021)

As Semenyna et al. (2022) explain, "varying degrees of female gynephilia are likely to have different developmental underpinnings, as well as different behavioral expressions." The largest-ever genome-wide association study (GWAS) on same-sex sexual behavior found evidence of multiple developmental pathways for same-sex sexual behavior.

"These findings suggest that the same-sex sexual behavior variable and the proportion of same-sex partners among nonheterosexuals capture aspects of sexuality that are distinct on the genetic level, which in turn suggests that there is no single continuum from opposite-sex to same-sex sexual behavior." (Ganna et al., 2019)

Diamond (2021) explains: "The word "single" is important here: Ganna et al.'s findings on the heritability of proportionality show that there is a meaningful genetic continuum differentiating individuals with low versus high ratios of same-gender [same-sex] to other-gender [opposite-sex] behavior." Diamond (2021) goes on to explain that the "meaningful genetic continuum" might range "from moderate bisexuality (i.e., at least one-third same-gender[same-sex] sexual behavior) to exclusive same-gender[same-sex] sexuality, but this continuum does not contain the mildest form of bisexuality (less than one third same-gender[same-sex] sexual behavior), which might represent "mostly heterosexuality"." In terms of the four sexual orientation groups, there could be a smooth spectrum from Ambiphilia to Gynephilia, but not Mostly-Androphilia. 


Hypothesized biodevelopmental pathways for subgroups of nonheterosexuality
(VanderLaan et al., 2023)


VanderLaan et al. (2023) propose that there are different subgroups to female nonheterosexuality, with one being masculine gynephilia. This subgroup could be a spectrum that ranges from moderate bisexuality to exclusive gynephilia. It could also have a "dosage-response type relationship", possibly due to the expression of genes that normally code for male sexuality or the masculinizing effects of prenatal hormones (Apostolou, 2022)(Luoto et al., 2022)(VanderLaan et al., 2023). The aforementioned GWAS found evidence that "sex-hormone regulation may be involved in the development of same-sex sexual behavior" (Ganna et al., 2019). Instead of masculine gynephilia, Diamond (2021) hypothesizes that the Mostly-Androphilic subgroup might relate to openness or risk-taking, while VanderLaan et al. (2023) notes that it "might hinge to a greater extent on sociocultural factors". 

For the time being, female nonheterosexuality is better modeled as a set of four different groups, but a spectrum might exist for one of the subgroups. 

Related Blog Posts

References

Apostolou, M. (2022). The Evolution of Female Same-Sex Attraction. In T. K. Shackelford (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology (pp. 28–51). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Diamond, L. M. (2021). The New Genetic Evidence on Same-Gender Sexuality: Implications for Sexual Fluidity and Multiple Forms of Sexual Diversity. The Journal of Sex Research, 58(7), 818–837. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1879721

Ganna, A., Verweij, K. J., Nivard, M. G., Maier, R., Wedow, R., Busch, A. S., ... & Zietsch, B. P. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science, 365(6456), eaat7693. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693

Luoto, S., & Rantala, M. J. (2022). Female Bisexuality. In T. K. Shackelford (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology (pp. 94–132). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Semenyna, S. W., Vasey, P. L., & Honey, P. L. (2022). The Female Sexual Orientation Spectrum in Evolutionary Perspective. In T. K. Shackelford (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology (pp. 3–27). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

VanderLaan, D.P., Skorska, M.N., Peragine, D.E. et al. Carving the Biodevelopment of Same-Sex Sexual Orientation at Its Joints. Arch Sex Behav 52, 2939–2962 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02360-1

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