On the Diversity of Love Object Orientations Among Women

Abstract

Seven hundred and three women ranging from 17 to 84 years and drawn from classrooms, lecture audiences and friendship networks completed an anonymous questionnaire regarding their most important sexual or non-sexual passionate love experiences. Sixty women, ranging from self-defined heterosexual women to self-defined lesbians, reported having felt strong emotional attraction for other women. The data showed a continuum of emotional and sexual inclinations, rather than the generally used heterol homosexual dichotomy, thus validating bisexuality as an authentic separate category. Genuine shifts from a heterosexual to a lesbian love orientation took place in a number of mature women, suggesting that female sexual inclinations may sometimes be more fluid and less basic to female identity than is often assumed.