Alicianichole+Lionheart

** Men and Women Bisexuality Research **
This needs a more descriptive title.

The purpose of my research is to explore bisexuality in women WOMEN'S? culture in modern society. ( What is "women's culture?" This needs a definition, or else just say "modern society." ) I chose this topic XXof interestXX due to MY INTEREST IN? many controversial arguments behind bisexual women and how committed women are to the term “bisexual”. Bisexuality has become more popular in women culture today, even though it has not always been that way. Women and bisexuality appear to be more accepting BISEXUAL WOMEN APPEAR TO BE MORE ACCEPTED in our society than male bisexuality and many wonder if this is due to male dominance in our society. Leigh (2006), states “that numerous surveys have proven that girl on girl action is the most popular male fantasy”. (While it may be a popular male fantasy, this says nothing about whether it is socially acceptable) Men tend to be shunned and/or ridiculed when their bisexuality is revealed; while women are encouraged and not taken serious SERIOUSLY.

(I met many men, while going through a divorce, who admitted to forcing their wives into same-sex encounters simply to be pleased. The results of each of those cases were the end of their marriages and the start of the wives’ sexual voyage with women.)

We can use personal experience in an essay, but if you're going to use it as evidence (as you do here) it must be argued much more closely than this. In fact, your parenthetical remark above could be expanded into a whole paper, or even a book. I think this is just sidetracking your argument.

Why does it seem that society accepts one gender’s sexual preference and not the other, and how does this affect the bisexual individual and his or her mental or physical health? Our society is an extremely binary society that believes all things are one way or the other and there is no between factor. (there are no shades of grey?) This way of thinking has allowed many of us to either hide our true feelings or become adaptive only to appease others; either way, conformity is in effect with all things that tend to be socially unacceptable. Psychologist, no comma Gregory M. Herek, wrote an article that examined adult heterosexual attitudes towards bisexual men and women. According to Herek (2002), bisexuals in the US are increasing recognition as a unique sexual minority in recent years. (This should be in your first paragraph. It's the support you need for your statement on the social acceptance of female bisexuals.) Heterosexual adult attitudes were more negative towards bisexual men and women except intravenous drug users; but one must take into consideration of the gender of the respondent. In the article, heterosexual women respondents felt more negative towards bisexuals than homosexuals; while heterosexual male respondents felt more negative towards any sexual minority male; which resulted in the most negative rating throughout the study. Bisexual women are not held to the same negative standards that men are and I plan to investigate the issue. I will explore health (both mental and physical) and sexual identity to deepen our understanding with female bisexuality and modern society acceptance.

Sexual Identity
Wikipedia (n.d.) defines sexual identity as a term that has two uniquely different meanings. It goes on to describe one as “an identity roughly based on sexual orientation” and the other as “an identity based on sexual characteristics”, which are neither based on socially but biologically.

The Wikipedia is a very handy tool. It can be a very quick way to get the basics on a topic. However, because the Wikipedia changes, sometimes hourly, and because there can be fluctuations of quality, it's not a good idea to  cite it. Use the links at the end of Wikipedia articles to find good citations. An academic source is best.

Bisexuality has never been known to possess one definition and has been quite known to change definitions depending upon who is asked. There are many definitions of bisexuality; sometimes definitions change depending upon who is asked. Our dichotomized society tends to lack acceptance to any other forms of sexuality instead of OTHER THAN? heterosexuality and homosexuality (Robinson, 2008). Why is it so hard for society to think outside of the box? Robinson states that “many of us are taught to look at almost anything in the universe as a duality: male and female, light and dark, hot and cold, moral and immoral”. It seems that with so many years of tradition, XXthatXX sexual orientation has been added to the pool of duality LIST OF DUALISMS. Robinson defines bisexuality as the sexual attraction towards both sexes without necessarily to the same degree; which AND THIS causes the controversy by many AMONG researchers.

According to Barker & Langdridge (2008), bisexuality has IS recognized as a silenced sexuality in various domains such as : NO COLON mainstream media, gay and lesbian communities, sexology, psychology, and psychotherapy. (page no. for this information?) This simply means that many exclude bisexuality from sexual identity and refuse to accept its identity independently. These numbers of domains CATEGORIES fail to include this “third” sexuality but rather deny its existence in modern society. Jayson (2008) reports from a previous study ????? IS THIS RELEVANT? , that bisexuality is more than a phase. The research conducted by Associate Professo r, no comma Lisa Diamond, found that sexual identities remained consistent and stable instead of transitional and suggests that most women can experience sexual desire for both sexes depending upon the circumstances. (This is really interesting - you should expand on this point) Researchers around the world are finding that this suggestion has more truth than not. An article on bisexual yearnings and women suggests a similar argument. Demontis (1998), reports that one in five women think of another woman sexually instead of a man. Some suggest this may be due to our sexual nature at birth or that it may live within us all, to some degree.

Mental and Physical Health
Sexual Identity seems to play a major role in gender and adult health. Stated by ACCORDING TO Conron, Mimiaga, & Landers (2010), H ealth statistics based on population are extremely important in providing information regarding prioritizing public health issues and have a public interest in activities promoting health. Previous years’ surveys excluded sexual orientation or sexual identity measures which resulted in very little data collected concerning sexual minority health THE HEALTH OF SEXUAL MINORITIES. The authors report that out of 22 health characteristics, health was worse among sexual minorities (homosexual/lesbian/bisexual) than heterosexuals. Overall, data shows bisexuals had greater percentages of worse POOR health, 30-day tension or worry, sadness, illegal drug use, differences in POOR access to healthcare, than heterosexual s, gay and lesbian respondents.

Mental health is greatly affected by certain factors regarding sexual identity. According to Kertzner, Meyer, Frost, & Stirratt (2009), those adults who identify with the LGB (lesbian, gay bi-sexual) community, have more psychiatric despair than heterosexuals. It appears, that non heterosexuals remain having CONTINUE TO HAVE worse outcomes than their counterparts. Social well-being was defined as “respondents’ perception of their social environment and social coherence, integration, acceptance, contribution, and actualization”; while psychological well being was defined by “self acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose of life, and personal growth. (Kertzner et al., 2009). After examining health outcomes of the social and psychological well-being in LGB respondents, the authors suggest that with an increase of social disadvantage, no comma would in turn show an increase in depression, resulting in a decrease in well-being. This hypothesis is drawn from prior research that correlates to the socially disadvantaged and data that show consistencies in worse health outcomes. Bisexuals were identified as having a disadvantage in social well-being, lower levels of LGB community connections, and limited social support from other bisexuals. African American lesbian and bisexual women were found to have increased depressive symptoms compared to males. The authors suggest that African American women reported higher levels of discrimination which may explain the higher numbers of depressive symptoms.

In modern society, we expect to have grown a great deal in our understanding and acceptance within OF bisexuality, but what has been found is a small but significant increase. IS ONLY A SMALL, ALTHOUGH SIGNIFICANT, INCREASE. Bisexuals around the world are still being questioned concerning their sincerity for their sexual identity, regardless of sex. Research shows that bisexuals are still not fully understood nor OR accepted, but that women tend to suffer less in society than men do. Some men argue that THE women’s movement created change in the way society viewed women but no such movement has changed the way society view men. While our society continues to instill male and female roles, it has come a long way in seeing what is in the middle. Furthermore, bisexuality is a type of sexual identity for both men and women in modern society and should be accepted for both sexes, not just one.