“Women are either bisexual or gay but ‘never straight’.” That sentence makes my toenails curl up just writing it. Why must women’s sexuality and orientation always be constantly defined? Why must what turns women on and what women’s sexual preferences are always be extricated and analysed?
This study has apparently found that women who identify as heterosexual are, on average, aroused by images and videos of both attractive men and women. The subjects were women ranging in age, educational background and ethnicity. The study then found that 74% were strongly aroused by these images. Their arousal was measured by factors such as pupil dilation.
So that’s right. You, as a self-aware human may be labelling yourself as heterosexual, but your fanciful masquerade has been uncovered by Dr Rieger from the University of Essex, whose ground-breaking research unequivocally proves that life really is like The L Word promised it would be.
(Photo Credit: www.huffingtonpost.com)
Is it really the case then that “Women can’t be straight” because they are slightly aroused by a photo? If all teenage boys were put under the same scrutiny, people would think we had an epidemic of sex pests on our hands. But we don’t. So why is it the case here? A problem I have with this is the assumption that arousal is the same as sexual orientation. For argument’s sake, let’s suppose that arousal (a truly personal and unique feeling) can in fact be measured. This does not factor in the point that arousal is not always due to sexual or romantic reasons. What if you aren’t even consciously aroused by women? I don’t know about you but the last time I was getting down and frisky, the first thought to jump into my head wasn’t “I’m around 45% aroused right now.” This measurement of arousal seems also to forget that there are women out there who might identify as bisexual or gay but who might not have yet met a woman who turns them on. The problem is that sexual orientation, it seems, must be categorised or has to be measured by how aroused you are.
But I think there is an even more obvious underlying factor that this study has failed to recognise. Women have become so accustomed to seeing other women as objects of desire. Women have become socially conditioned to find the female form attractive anyway. Look around you. Look in a magazine, on the TV, films, video games, at the adverts telling you to buy their bleeding shampoo. Welcome to the male gaze. Over and over again, women’s bodies are lingered over, lusted over, drooled over. Our society is built upon the assumption that the viewer/consumer is sexually attracted to women – women’s bodies are a mass market and they are everywhere.
(Photo Credit: www.newnownext.com)
Therefore I don’t find the survey’s results at all surprising. We have been practically taught what to find arousing. The fact that these women’s pupils dilated only shows me that our bodies are now reflecting a lifetime of conditioning. It begs the question: What the photos of these “attractive” women looked like. If it’s anything like the standards of the media, then the survey is also following the continued instructions on what we should find attractive and sexually stimulating. The survey also fails to take into account asexuality – where sexual attraction has nothing to do with their identity. It’s just another example of how this study fails to grasp the extensive nature of sexuality as a whole.
It makes me genuinely sad that sexuality must always be about labels. I guess to a certain extent I am pleased that sexuality is finally being seen in a less polarised way, but this report does exactly the opposite. Yet again the media is trying to place sexuality within nice, little, neat categories. It’s far easier to manage. It is a shame that this obsession with sexual identity cannot seem to be left alone. It shouldn’t be such a fixation. Who cares if you’re straight, bisexual, homosexual, anything! These are not the defining features of a person, they are merely one of the many make ups that create a person.
So my advice? Just let your sexuality do its own thing. It doesn’t need to be understood by anyone but yourself.