Vladimir Vladimirov / Getty Images A lesbian flag hold by a LGBTQ+ activist
Vladimir Vladimirov / Getty Images
The number of Americans who identify as bisexual has risen sharply in just over a decade.
SEXUALITY – Don’t worry, bi happy. According to one study published on June 22 in The Journal of Sex Research, the number of Americans who identify as bisexual has nearly quadrupled in the past decade. Between 2004 and 2010, they were only 1.2%, against 4.5% today.
This study was conducted by Sophia Neuweiler, a student at the University of Portland, as part of her graduation thesis, accompanied by Martin Monto, a sociology professor specializing in gender and sexuality. They both analyzed data from General Social Survey (ESG), led by the National Center for Opinion Studies at the University of Chicago.
These data make it possible to follow the evolution of the social characteristics and attitudes of Americans for more than 50 years. And therefore their sexual behavior. Between 1989 and 1994, 3.1% of the 6,354 respondents said they had had sexual partners of both sexes since the age of 18. This rate has also exploded: between 2012 and 2018, they were 9.3% among the 6,609 people questioned. And 9.6% in 2021.
An upward trend that is expected to continue: more than 6% of 18-29 year olds, compared to less than 2% of respondents aged over 40, said they were bisexual in the most recent data.
Changing sexual norms
“Society draws lines around sexual behavior and these lines, while often contested, can change over time. (…) These changing norms appear to have affected the proportion of people who identify as bisexual and have likely also affected actual sexual behavior”explain the two authors of the study.
According to them, these increases could also result from a growing desire to recognize bisexuality, long stigmatized in the United States and not yet fully accepted today.
In 2019, according to another study published in the newspaper Plus Oneabout five out of six people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual globally hid their orientation from most, if not all, people around them.
Other reasons for these figures, according to the researchers: the increase in content on social networks, podcasts or programs that question the heteronormativity of society, or the brutal shock of the pandemic, during which some people have rethought their sexuality.
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2023-07-03 15:36:24
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