Georgia College & State University

Sexual Fluidity – Understanding Women’s Love and Desire

Book Report #2

Hannah Turner

KINS 6543 Human Sexuality

Dr. Scott Butler

05 April 2020
 Fluidity is a concept that many, include those who study sexuality, are having a hard time

learning to grasp. The basis of fluidity in terms of sexuality is that a person’s sexual preferences

can change over time. The idea may be better suited when looking to women verses men, due to

women having changing emotions. Does this make a person bisexual or lesbian? Lisa Diamond,

the author, argues that this does not. The book dives into detail about women who may have

been exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual, but at a point in their lives, having a

change in emotion. Meaning that a woman who may have been strictly attracted to males,

finding herself becoming attracted to a female best friend. What Diamond argues is that these

changes can be natural. There has not been much research produced on the subject of fluidity,

but mainly on those who identify with being strictly lesbian. The main reason is due to the

subject of sexuality being divided. The two main philosophical topics about sexuality is the

essentialist perspective and the social constructionist perspective. The essentialists tend to view

sexual orientation and the topic of sexuality as based in internal, inherent, and biological or

genetically based. Where as the social constructionist perspective believes that sexuality and

orientation are constructed by culture – meaning that they are determined by social interactions

and norms and structured political forces.

Study Information

Diamond did not at first set out to study strictly sexual fluidity, but was more

concentrated on variability in women’s sexual pathways. But, after looking towards past studies

and data from her own, Diamond realized that the topic of fluidity was one that has not been

studied. Much of the information that is known on sexuality tends to be outdated or not followed

up as prominently as needed to have accurate studies. In order to dissect the topic of fluidity and

changes in women’s sexuality, it was important to follow individual women over longer periods
of time in order to see the shifts or changes. The main participants for the study were recruited

through events that were geared towards the LBGTQ community or college campuses that had

courses based on gender and sexuality. The age range was females between the ages of sixteen

and twenty-three, regardless of identification as long as they had participated in some form of

same sex relations. Diamond managed to get eighty-nine participants, with 43% identifying as

lesbian, 30% identified as bisexual, and 27% did not claim a sexual minority identification (but

they did consider themselves to be non heterosexual). There was a ten year follow up period

where Diamond did interviews with the participants around every year or year and a half to

figure out if there were shifts in their sexuality. Some of the important findings come from the

fact that there were women who had identified as lesbian (meaning that they had already been

through the “coming out process”) and then later in the follow ups had switched identification.

There were five women who gave up their title of lesbian or bisexual for unlabeled identities and

then five more had changed their title to heterosexual. This was seen shifted many times

throughout the study, with women, as they grew older went from bisexuality to heterosexual

relationships. The shifts, whether it be from heterosexuality to strictly homosexuality, or from a

predominately homosexual women deciding that she wanted to have a relationship with a man,

came a lot in term from different life events. The main point that Diamond was trying to get

across, was that women, need to have a model for themselves. Most of the studies have shown

women in relation to biological concepts, or those who have believed to be lesbian since a young

age. But, from the study, it shows that there can be shifts in a women’s sexual favor, with

majority of these being based around different life events or just an all over change of feeling.

Diamond wants for people to understand that they are not feelings that need to be explained, but

just brought up in relation to fluidity. The dynamic systems model is a concept that is starting to
emerge in relation to women’s sexuality. Instead of narrowing down on genetics and being

“lesbian since birth”. “Dynamical systems models explain how complex phenomena (such as

cognition, language, gender identity, or in this case, same sex sexuality) emerge, stabilize,

change, and restabilize over time, through individual’s ongoing interactions with their changing

environments” (p. 238). Which, this model was proven through out Diamonds study, but

showing the different relations over a ten-year period of women moving through different cycles

and becoming intimate with different genders, but also some having sought after no gender,

meaning that they fell in love with the person, not because they were male or female.

Relations to Sexual Health

Sexual fluidity is a topic that is just now becoming more acceptable and more

understood. In terms of academic purposes, many tend to still look to sexuality being a

predisposition idea, but more studies have come to the idea that this is not entirely correct. With

more knowledge, it has become more clear that with different experiences and different cultural

surrounds, individuals may have a change in the way of sexuality. The idea is more fluent in

women, due to this gender being more influenced by emotion and fantasies than cultural norms.

In any aspect of sexuality, life events will play a change on a person and their beliefs or ideas.

This is seen even in relation to sexual dysfunction or attraction to a life long partner.

Incorporating different life events can help to explain more about why people behave the way

they do sexually. One may grow up strictly heterosexual, say due to the family surroundings and

being taught at a young age that a man and a women are supposed to be married. But then, once

this person moves out of their hometown or goes off to college and experiences life on their own,

the ideas may change. Cultural ideals tend to play a large role in what individuals believe to be

right or wrong. Relating this to gender, which now, many people don’t claim to be
gay/lesbian/bisexual, but one that falls in love with a person’s ideals and emotions. Therefore,

not seeing gender. But, in relation to sexuality, gender is a biological process, but due to society,

maleness or femaleness is completely taught. The same goes for attraction to different people.

Still today, the norm is heterosexuality and the United States slowly coming to learn that

individuals are no longer growing up with this ideal. Many people are just starting to teach that

there are differences in terms of attractions and relations, and that these are acceptable. The

concept of fluidity is important because it encompasses that changes can occur and that they are

completely natural. It also brings up the fact that these changes may not be permanent. It simply

is a shift in a person due to certain relations or experiences. With this concept taught, it may

teach more people that these shifts are okay and decrease the backlash that some may experience

with them. It comes to a point that in our society, people will be talked poorly about for dating a

man for many years then suddenly finding themselves attracted to a female. The changes get

called fake and it could in turn make more people afraid to accept them. In regards to sexuality,

there is still much to learn about the female’s sexuality, but also, a lot more to learn towards the

LBGTQ community. That’s why the idea of one person falling in love with an individual and not

a gender is important and probably needs to be taught more. Hate would decrease and more

people would feel comfortable with their decisions.

Text Assessment

Sexual Fluidity – Understanding Women’s Love and Desire, is an important read,

especially for those who are more interested in overall sexuality, but also on the differences

between males and females. The first few chapters of the book move relatively slow, due to it

focusing mainly on terminology and explaining the concept of fluidity, but once it begins to dive

deeper into the participant’s different experiences, the book takes off. Diamond does a good job
of keeping in contact with those she recruited for the study and it is very interested to see the

different shifts in sexuality and what caused them. Due to the study being mainly adolescent and

young adult females, it can be hard to relate this information for the adult women and why some

of the changes in their sexuality may have occurred. But, the book gives a good basis of why

fluidity can occur and that it is natural. Due to many studies not being out on women’s sexuality,

the book is a good start in explaining the different shifts. Hopefully from here, more detail will

go into looking at women and not basing their experiences with same sex relations on

“experimental” or being a “fake lesbian” but more in regards to emotion and experiences.