Think male bisexuals don’t exist? Think again. According to a new study, it is indeed possible for men to be attracted to both sexes, challenging the common notion that male bisexuals are actually closeted homosexuals. 

"Someone who is bisexual might say, 'Well, duh!'" Dr. Allen Rosenthal, a psychology doctoral student at Northwestern University, told the New York Times. "But this will be validating to a lot of bisexual men who had heard about the earlier work and felt that scientists weren't getting them."

Rosenthal is referring to a controversial study published in 2005 which suggests that bisexual men are only aroused by other males and that male bisexuality is a myth.

In the new study, published in the August issue of Biological Psychology, researchers at Northwestern University gathered 100 men of various sexual orientations and showed them gay and straight pornographic videos while measuring the men’s sexual response. However, unlike the 2005 study examining male bisexuality, Rosenthal’s study only accepted men who had slept with at least two members of each sex and who had been in a romantic relationship with a member of each sex for at least three months. The results? Bisexual men were excited by both types of videos, while gay and straight men were not.

“It’s great that they’ve come out with affirmation that bisexuality exists,” Jim Larsen, chairman of the Bisexual Organizing Project told The New York Times. “Having said that, they’re proving what we in the community already know. It’s insulting.”

Ellyn Ruthstrom, president of the Bisexual Resource Center in Boston, was also troubled by the results of the study.

“This unfortunately reduces sexuality and relationships to just sexual stimulation,” she said. “Researchers want to fit bi attraction into a little box — you have to be exactly the same, attracted to men and women, and you’re bisexual. That’s nonsense. What I love is that people express their bisexuality in so many different ways.”

Recent findings aside, researchers at a variety of institutions agree that more studies are necessary to accurately assess bisexual men and women.

Photo: morgueFile.com

Tags: bisexuality, bisexual men, bisexual study, bisexuals, dating and relationships
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