UK: 1 in 2 young people say they are not 100% heterosexual
Fascinating stuff. I’m not surprised, though. Much of what’s related to gender and sexuality is social construct. And of course there’s the difference between mental/emotional and physical attraction. Historically, people (including the gay community) wanted to portray sexuality in black and white terms. This obviously ignores the fact that in a darkened room, if someone is open to it, they can almost certainly arrive at an orgasm assisted by someone who they’d find unattractive with the lights on.
That’s not to say the results of this study mean that there are actually less heterosexual people than before, simply that sexuality is looked at in a different way by the younger generation. A better way, I’d say, because people aren’t limiting themselves. Life is hard enough; being expected to conform to archaic stereotypes is an absolutely unnecessary pressure. The more people feel able to explore, the better the chances of finding what suits them best.
My Mazamet 
I recently read a related article in The Grauniad Mr. M:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/18/bisexual-british-adults-define-gay-straight-heterosexual
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Blimey! If poor old Keegan Hirst had said he was gay when I was young there would have been ructions. On t’ pitch! There were no gays in t’ West Riding, and certainly not in League. This is probably not the point at which to add personal anecdotes to support that theory …
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I thought I was in your bad books Kate?
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Uh? Plenty of people are 🙂 but you weren’t on the list. Tell me what you’ve done though and I’m sure I can add you. It’s a long list though, so you might not make it to the top in a hurry.
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Last two comments at your gaff mod’ed – you’re worse than The Grauniad Kate! 😉
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I’m sorry! I’ll go find them. No reason. *crimson* not just blush. Do it right now, well, after I put the tofu on …
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Please don’t trouble yourself Kate; they weren’t terribly enlightening, merely me lending a bit of moral support to two other commenters. 🙂
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I can only find one? But I’ve approved it, don’t know why it went to spam. I’ve not checked recently, I’m working to a deadline so bloggery is haphazardly 😦 Again, sorry. My apologies.
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And don’t worry, as I’m in the midst of writing a factual piece on abortion. So I promise to check for spam. Maybe you just like too much Monty Python?
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I need chocolates not apologies dammit!
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Chocolates? As many as you want. People give them to us and we have to find willing victims. Send me your address if you want the next donation.
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There you go, persecuting me yet again with your soft centres. If you don’t watch it you’ll get the fish-slap treatment.
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Could have been worse … nuts, whole hazelnuts …
Apols to Mr M for this total diversion. Although all Hariod’s fault 🙂
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Bye! And yes, sorry Mr.M. – been prattling here.
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I did find it. I just didn’t post it 🙂
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I think I broke David 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Your levels of tolerance are greater than mine. He’s a twit.
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Who’s David? WHere is this all happening?
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He’s one of John’s friends. I don’t know where he finds them.
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There’s a factory somewhere in Kentucky.
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Yes, and he’s hating us calling him out on all his inconsistencies. You’ve done a marvellous job at ruining his narrative!
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Has she been telling Christians that women are human beings again? That they have rights? That usually throws them off.
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More Fact-Checker From Hell… from David’s perspective.
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I was disappointed. I was up for describing why 1–16 were or weren’t abortions. But, sadly reality rules and only scripture nails it. Sigh. Big sigh.
Poor Pink. It’s his blog and his post and everyone keeps talking to me. He’ll want to be on ABC next.
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LOL! Don’t worry, as long as it’s amusing, it’s fine. Start adding bible quotes and you’ll all be gone.
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P 279
1 Kings 15
13 child shald die.
Just did it to prove I have one. RSV from school. Presented to me by the governors. Never did read it.
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Skip ABC and go straight to SBS… Infinitely better.
You can still press David on whether he and his wife use contraception. I’d like to hear that answer.
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That’s your call. I want to know how he thinks an HPV vaccine cane be described as an abortion 🙂
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I have great abortion material:
Every menstrual cycle is in essence an abortion.
Or:
50% of pregnancies end naturally before the 4th week. That makes ‘god’ the biggest abortionist of all time.
Or:
For most of Christian history the church didn’t prohibit but regulated abortion ie fetus animatus vs. fetus inanimatus.
See, this is what happens when one is born into a family where family planning is the #1 topic.
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That’s great. I still want to know why HPV is remotely related. And that was what he posted.
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Oh and yes, I’ve just posted about quickening. I think that’s what you mean about animus?
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The fish-slapping dance! It’s one of my favourites!
My day has been made.
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Thanks for the link. Excellent piece. I particularly like “Most young people who are gay don’t see it as a defining property of their character, because they don’t have to, because society doesn’t constantly remind them of their difference.”
That explains the situation perfectly. Back in the day our second-class citizenship meant we had to explain ourselves. To make a decision, to announce it publicly. It wasn’t just external pressure, it was also a necessary step to be able to find and join a community- in that sense lgbt people were also generally forced to physically move to find an environment that was friendly and welcoming.
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Yes, that one sentence stood out for me too Mr. M. Bear in mind that ‘society’ in this context means ‘London’ though, and not Kate’s former Yorkshire stomping ground, where men are men and all that.
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Just wait until pleasure robots enter the fray…
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I know I have a tendency to being pedantic and so I ask for your indulgence and bear with me as I exercise that rather drool characteristic here.
I think this poll is rather misleading in that nearly 5 in 5 young people self-identify as either heterosexual or homosexual (but open to changing this level of confidence should their interests lead them wherever they go). So the slide between the various sexual identities is not linear as the title may suggest but a very thin parabola
Why does this matter?
Yes, there is less than certainty for this sexual identity at a younger age but the headline makes it appear as if about half are more uncertain than they really are, than they will turn out to be, and this is not the case. When increased age is factored into how solid is this young person’s somewhat variable identity over time, we find a very strong (nearly ‘certain’) correlation and this indicates that sexual identity is actually rather firm in fact even from a (relatively) young age. Half of young people are not falling between only heterosexual or only LBGT; they are, however, willing to be open to the possibility.
Sure, about half the young people say they are pretty sure (certain or nearly certain but open to whatever might happen later) but age reveals very little does, in fact, change so the statistic demonstrates a solidifying of sexual identity opinion over time. And this is what we would expect if sexual interest (an identity, remember) is a brain function rather than a learned behaviour.
So there’s really no news here… other than young people being perhaps a little more open minded about the firmness of their sexual identity than in the past, but with age comes an actual sexual identity and it’s not vague at all.
There. I feel so much better now.
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I agree 100%. That’s why I inserted the “That’s not to say the results of this study mean that there are actually less heterosexual people than before.”- But thank you for going into detail.
The general public doesn’t really know how to read statistical data, or what it actually means; even worse, the media takes whichever angle is more sensationalistic and gets more clicks.
In any event I do think it’s very positive that the stigma attached to sexuality has gone down. I grew up in a time when a whole lot of the actual gay people didn’t want to admit we were gay even to ourselves.
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Hmm. I read the data and wanted to know more!
There are so many potential things going on here. Firstly, fluidity. I know some people who have always regarded their sexuality as fluid and, for them, it still is, even in middle age; those (like me) who felt it fixed from a very young age; and those for whom it firmed up as they grew older.
And secondly, there is a question of where you might end up on the scale, if your sexuality does indeed fix: I suspect most end up at one end or the other as much because of a need or desire to make a long-term relationship work. That’s harder (though possible) if your desires encompass more than one sex.
It all reminds me of a lovely (and very happily married) friend who once described herself to me as 98% heterosexual. I asked her how she could be so precise. She beamed at me, and said, “Well, I have had fifty lovers in my life, and one of them was a woman”.
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I thought your post quite right and didn’t mean my comment to be a criticism of your opinion; I simply thought the linked article was a bit misleading. And you’re also quite right to point out that younger people are revealing themselves to be less certain of their parent’s certainty! And that’s a good and healthy sign of capability all around.
However… a sidebar comment:
I also think this is the same trend regarding religious certainty and I have found about half of this same younger group if not atheist then at the very least rather critical agnostics towards the religious certainties of others. This, too, is a good sign.
Unfortunately, I have also found respect for the doctrines of others too easily confused with tolerance of others… and far too easily granted. Too much tolerance of intolerant doctrine camouflaged as respect for others by these same younger people as a cohort is not just dangerous to us all but a growing threat that is real.
Many unprincipled liberals seem quite willing to assume that giving voice to such criticism (why tolerating the intolerable is a social harm) almost seems to be the worst possible crime imaginable (and this same point was raised by Faust and O’Neill, which should have been argued further and shown why the claim was wrong in their case)… far worse, in fact, than actually implementing the intolerant doctrines and throwing real people off buildings and murdering real bloggers.
So the younger generation still has ways to go aligning their critical faculties with the real world effects they cause… a process by which younger people must come to understand why such tolerance of any intolerable doctrine is an ethical capitulation of principle in the name of universal respect for others.
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Criticism is welcome, and so is more in-depth information!
We’re in agreement again regarding your sidebar. The people you’re referring to are the ones who decry allegedly angry atheists, defend Islam as an ideology and only consider the Palestinian side of the middle-eastern debate. In a sense their mindset is very close to the traditional patriarchal authoritarian model.
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I’m uni-sexual. I love unicycles. Ya gotta be careful when doin’ the deed, however, or you can hurt yourself. I’m safe though cause I only love them from afar. I’m chivalrous that way.
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Does this study take into account Brits who attended same-sex boarding school? 😉
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Personally, I wish we could do away with sexual labels altogether and allow people the freedom to pursue whatever they want. For example, a man who fancies women 98% of the time may occasionally be attracted to another man to the point of wanting to explore that attraction both physically AND emotionally. Our current models of gender and sexuality do not allow for that without his masculinity and his heterosexuality being called into question. Boxes are made for things, not people.
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Boxes are also made for baby kittens, especially when you’re bringing one home on the bus after adopting it from a shelter. $Amen$
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Great post, Pinky. It’s nice to get some confirmation that sexuality is a continuum like just about everything else in life. I wonder why we laud individuality on the one hand and enforce a rigid conformity on the other.
Did you by any chance ever watch an amazing movie called Kiss of the Spiderwoman? It would have to be 20? 30? years old now but it was ground breaking when it came out.
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Is that the one about the prisoner in Argentina?
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Yes! William Hurt and the late Raul Julia. Absolutely brilliant. I think it must have been a time of change world wide because The Crying Game was also of that vintage. Both looking at love of the individual rather than necessarily love of a gender.
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