Stable Lesbians' Attractions are not Person-Based

In "Female Bisexuality", Luoto & Rantala (2022) note that "many nonheterosexual women's sexual attractions" are "person-based rather than sex-based". The nuances of this description can be appreciated. 

The nuances of this statement can be appreciated. Diamond (2014) proposes that there might be more than one dimension to female sexual orientation: 

  1. person-based vs. sex-based ("Does the partner's gender matter?") 
  2. same-sex attracted vs. opposite-sex attracted ("If the partner's gender matters, which gender is preferred?") 

However, Diamond (2014) also notes different subtypes of nonheterosexual women:

"Lesbians with relatively exclusive same-sex attractions might follow a developmental trajectory more similar to gay men (i.e., the development of a same-sex orientation rather than the failure of a gender-based orientation to develop). Several studies suggest that lesbians are qualitatively distinct from both bisexual and heterosexual women in that they show more male-typical patterns of “gender specificity” (i.e., consistent and exclusive “targeting” toward one gen der) and stability in their sexual arousal and attractions (Chivers & Bailey, 2007; Chivers et al., 2007; Diamond, 2005b; Diamond & Wallen, 2011; Suschinsky et al., 2009). Perhaps, then, there may be four forms of sexual orientation in women, with different underlying causes and developmental trajectories: heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, and “nongendered.”"

In terms of Semenyna et al.'s (2022) Four Female Sexual Orientation Groups:

  1. heterosexual ~ androphilic
  2. bisexual ~ ambiphilic
  3. homosexual ~ gynephilic
  4. "nongendered" ~ mostly-androphilic

The description of nonheterosexual women's attractions as "person-based rather than sex-based" cannot be generalized to gynephilic women who are consistently (near or fully) exclusive in their same-sex attractions and behavior (stable lesbians). Diamond (2005) notes that "stable lesbians generally disagreed with the characterization "I'm the kind of person that is attracted to the person rather than their gender," whereas fluid lesbians and nonlesbians showed similar degrees of agreement with this characterization."

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References

Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2007). The sexual psychophysiology of sexual orientation. In E. Janssen (Ed.), The psychophysiology of sex (pp. 458–474). Indiana University Press.

Chivers, M. L., Seto, M. C., & Blanchard, R. (2007). Gender and sexual orientation differences in sexual response to sexual activities versus gender of actors in sexual films. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(6), 1108–1121. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.6.1108

Diamond, L. M. (2005b). A new view of lesbian subtypes: Stable versus fluid identity trajectories over an 8-year period. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29(2), 119-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00174.x 

Diamond, L. M. (2014). Gender and same-sex sexuality. In D. L. Tolman, L. M. Diamond, J. A. Bauermeister, W. H. George, J. G. Pfaus, & L. M. Ward (Eds.), APA handbook of sexuality and psychology, Vol. 1. Person-based approaches (pp. 629–652). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14193-020

Diamond, L. M., & Wallen, K. (2011). Sexual-minority women’s sexual motivation around the time of ovulation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9631-2

Luoto S, Rantala MJ. Female Bisexuality. In: Shackelford TK, ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology. Cambridge University Press; 2022:94-132.

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.

Suschinsky, K. D., Lalumiere, M. L., & Chivers, M. L. (2009). Sex differences in patterns of genital sexual arousal: Measurement artifacts or true phenomena? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38, 559–573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9339-8

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