Are bisexuals more likely to be attracted to androgynous partners (male & female) than heterosexuals, or do they (on average) like their males masculine and their females feminine (to the same extent as heterosexuals, on average)?
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Moved to IMHO.
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hmm that’s a good question. I haven’t met very many bisexual people, but I believe that they are attracted to your average man and average woman, and possibly the androgynous types as well but I don’t think they necessarily have a predilection for them.
It differs. I’ve met straight women who go into paroxysms of ecstasy over an androgynous man and bisexual women who only like people at the extremes of the gender spectrum. I haven’t known many bi guys who were as evenly balanced in their attractions as women.
I consider myself mostly gay, but I do have bi attractions/affections at times. They’re only to women who are androgynous or somewhat masculine. The guys I like tend to be “pretty” I suppose, and yet clearly male. Along the lines of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
I’d classify myself on the straight end of bisexual (2/6 on the Kinsey scale), but I find masculine women and feminine men very attractive. Make of that what you will.
I know a bi woman who is dating a man (no idea how masculine he is) and biological woman who lives life as a man.
I’m a fairly androgynous woman and the last guy I was with was bi. He seemed really into androgynous people in general (he liked butch girls and femmy guys). But I don’t know if he’s representative of anything. I’m mostly straight and I prefer androgynous guys.
Problem with this is that an IMHO thread asking this question gets a bunch of personal anecdotes, which is what it attracted. What I was hoping for was some actual evidence/studies, which is why I tried GQ. Possibly these don’t exist, but that was the intention, at any rate.
Bisexuality isn’t a singular thing. For men, it seems to me that there’s a few different categories (and infinitely more gradients within categories). For simplicity, I’m going to group them three ways:
- guys who are mostly gay or straight but like to dabble in the other
- guys with little regard for gender (often identifying as pansexual or queer)
- guys with both a “straight” and “gay” side
Going on meagerish anecdotal evidence, #2 is going to be the most likely to be attracted to androgynous people. For #1, they likely looking for a more “typical” sample to experiment with. For #3, they want to compartmentalize more.
Data-point - I am strictly heterosexual and generally find androgynous women much more attractive than hyper-feminine women, who often seem abjectly ridiculous to me.
My personal experience is that androgynous people are more likely to be bisexual, but not that they necessarily prefer other androgynous people. Nor does that cover all bisexuals.
I’d imagine it depends on the person.
I’m bi, and I know a lot of other bi people (and gay people) and in my experience, it’s all over the map.
I’m curious, do you consider sex (and other activities) to be sex with a person, or with a man or woman? Do you sometimes want one or the other specifically, or does it matter? Do you go through phases?
I can agree with this as more the #3 type you describe. I’m bi leaning toward straight, and I like girly girls and (when in the mood) manly men. I find androgynous people of either gender entirely unattractive.