Bisexuality. A lot of time and effort goes into defining it. The word itself – having hermaphroditic connotations – was suggested as obsolete in favor of ambisexual but this was never adopted. Alfred Kinsey, the foremost authority on human sexuality declared himself bisexual. Hundreds of women and men have declared themselves bisexual. It is a social taboo for men and signifies social status for women. There are those that believe it doesn’t exist. A lot of time goes into defining it – a lot of studying goes into it as well.

As the New Year approaches, and those of us that are bisexual take stock. A “new” article in the New York times outlines a study being done that “casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.” The study measures genital arousal patterns when exposed to images of men and women in various stages of copulation in various hetero and homosexual combinations. In short, the study has shown that women have a distinctly bisexual arousal pattern – in plain English, women are able to be aroused by either gender. Men – particularly men who identify as bisexual – were exclusively aroused by either one sex or the other.

This study stands to create more confusion in an already confused BLGT community. The scientific community now stands poised to tell us all that if you’re a woman you are bisexual by default, and if you are a man you are either straight or gay. Science, while amazing in its progress, does seem to leave one thing out of its empirical studies. Emotion. Measuring sexual arousal when exposed to stimulus will only get us so far – the stimulus combined with the emotion that comes with the involvement of a partner, male or female, is what will paint the full picture.

There are several clinical definitions of bisexuality. There are studies about it, books have been written and a lot of time and effort has gone into it. Regardless of all of the studies, all of the books and all of the clinicians and their empirical data – in spite of all of that, people still lead functioning bisexual lives. They live and breathe as bisexual people. Women and men alike have shown, since the early days of civilization that they are capable of being attracted to either sex. It is widely recognized that the Greeks lived bisexual lives and that relationships with men and women were common. A lesser known fact is, while the word homosexual has Greek roots, there was never a Greek expression for homosexual love, rather, homosexual practices were a part of aphrodisia which included men and women. The question begs to be asked, then, since we know that bisexual love has existed as long as humankind has existed – why do we continue to try to place all of humankind into a strict category? There is a quote I like that comes from the “X-Files” that applies here:

There’s an element of surprise . . . . Random acts of unpredictability. If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen, or expect the unexpected in a universe of unforeseen possibilities, we find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced . . .

It is the random unpredictability that allows humankind to transcend any sort of study. As long as human beings exist, we will continue to belie all reason – if science says men are only gay or straight, then men will find a way to be bisexual. If science says that women are all bisexual, then women will find a way to be gay or straight. Science is amazing in the way it continues to further the achievements of humankind, and we should welcome its studies and its empirical data as a means to further understand our existence. We should also temper that with the understanding that the human condition transcends science. That would seem to be a New Year’s resolution that is as good as any. One that I personally will try to keep in mind as I am happily living as a bisexual man in 2010.