“Straight Girls Kissing”?

Abstract

Sexuality researchers have demonstrated how the progressive campuses of selective universities shape hookups, sexual fluidity, and same-gender sex among straight-identified women (“straight girls kissing”). However, this research cannot fully explain a puzzling demographic pattern: women with the lowest levels of educational attainment reported the highest lifetime prevalence of same-gender sex. To make sense of this puzzle, I draw on interviews with 35 women systematically recruited from a demographic survey. I find (1) early motherhood forecloses possibilities to develop or claim LGBTQ identities as women prioritize seemingly incompatible discourses of self-sacrifice and good motherhood; (2) sexual friendships and safety strategies provide opportunities to meaningfully explore same-gender sex and desire; and (3) participants reject “queer” and embrace “bisexual” in the opposite pattern observed among their more privileged peers. This study underscores the situated nature of sexuality knowledge by offering an intersectional analysis of how women beyond the college hookup scene and located outside spaces permeated with LGBTQ discourses enact sexual fluidity and make meaning of same-gender sex.

Changes in Sexual Identity Labels in a Contemporary Cohort of Emerging Adult Women: Patterns, Prevalence and a Typology

“…Yet this is not to suggest that women are free of heteronormative expectations. For example, heteronormative pressures and/or a desire to align with normative femininity can increase as women plan for and transition into motherhood, with implications for the sexual identity labels that they choose to adopt (Budnick, 2016;Diamond, 2008;Ross, Tarasoff, Goldberg, & Flanders, 2017;Silva, 2019).…”

Intersections between Sexual Identity, Sexual Attraction, and Sexual Behavior among a Nationally Representative Sample of American Men and Women

“…A further reason that more Americans report same-sex sexual behavior and same-sex attraction than report gay or bisexual identity could be rejection of such labels all together. Research shows that some individuals who report engaging in same-sex sex or who report same-sex attraction also express discomfort in labeling their sexual orientation, saying that current definitions of sexual identity categories do not accurately describe them, that they find them to be restrictive, or that they prefer other identities over non-heterosexual identity labels (Budnick 2016;Diamond 2008;Savin-Williams and Vrangalova 2013). Previous research has also documented the strong heteronormative expectations and proscriptions -such as promoting gender conventionality and heterosexuality as the norm and "correct" way to be -that exist as background context in contemporary U.S. culture (e.g., Neilsen et al 2000;Pascoe 2012), which some people may be responding to when asked to label their sexual identity, regardless of their sexual desires and history.…”

Women’s rationales and perspectives on “mostly” as a nonexclusive sexual identity label.

“…Participants' frustrations and need to provide a description about their sexual identity is reflective of previous research on individuals who identify as sexually nonexclusive (Galupo et al, 2014) and younger generations of bisexuals (McCormack, Wignall and Anderson, 2015). However, eschewing sexual identity labels is an uneven process within society, with some individuals finding power or comfort in a sexual identity label (Hammack et al, 2019); indeed, Budnick (2016) argues that rejecting the queering of identity categories is often done from a position of privilege, connecting with the concern that such positioning can further marginalize bisexuality (see Dyar et al, 2017).…”