Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity among Men

by Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Overview

Most of us assume that sexuality is fixed: either you’re straight, gay, or bisexual. Yet an increasing number of young men today say that those categories are too rigid. They are, they insist, “mostly straight.” They’re straight, but they feel a slight but enduring romantic or sexual desire for men. To the uninitiated, this may not make sense. How can a man be “mostly” straight? Ritch Savin-Williams introduces us to this new world by bringing us the stories of young men who consider themselves to be mostly straight or sexually fluid. By hearing about their lives, we discover a radically new way of understanding sexual and romantic development that upends what we thought we knew about men.

Today there are more mostly straight young men than there are gay and bisexual young men combined. Based on cutting-edge research, Savin-Williams explores the personal stories of forty young men to help us understand the biological and psychological factors that led them to become mostly straight and the cultural forces that are loosening the sexual bind that many boys and young men experience. These young men tell us how their lives have been influenced by their “drop of gayness,” from their earliest sexual memories and crushes to their sexual behavior as teenagers and their relationships as young adults. Mostly Straight shows us how these young men are forging a new personal identity that confounds both traditional ideas and conventional scientific opinion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674976382
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/13/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ritch C. Savin-Williams is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

The Sexual Neverlands 1

Straight But Not Narrow 7

Dillon 11

Sexual and Romantic Spectrums 22

Romantic Orientation 25

Sexual and Romantic Fluidity 28

It Is Who I Am 31

Straight, But Not Totally Straight 34

Demetri 46

Ricky 56

Chris 66

Progressive Mostly Straight 72

It's About the Sex 77

Five Young Men 80

Ryan 91

Kyle 103

It's About the Romance 113

Two Romantic Young Men 116

Jay 123

It's About the Sex and the Romance 129

Joel 138

Chandler 147

Do Mostly Straight Youth Exist? 156

Dillon Returns 166

Developmental Trajectories 177

If You Believe You Are Mostly Straight 191

Escaping the Sexual Neverlands 204

Appendix A Methods 209

Appendix B Mostly Straight Science 213

Notes 223

Acknowledgments 229

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

An illuminating new study about male sexual fluidity…Calling for a more modern understanding of sexual orientation, [Savin-Williams’s] idea is that increasing numbers of millennial metrosexual young men are shunning rigid notions of sexuality, and increasingly not identifying as straight, but mostly straight. These are not closeted gay or bisexual men but a new generation of guys who are predominantly heterosexual but have embraced the idea that sexuality exists on a spectrum and who have less anxiety than previous generations about being open to intimacy with other guys.

Attitude - Uli Lenart

Savin-Williams, a highly respected psychologist and pioneer in research on sexual minority youth, brings us a fascinating and in-depth exploration of nonexclusive heterosexuality among young men. Woven around engaging first person narratives that defy gender stereotypes, and supported by emerging science on male sexual fluidity, Mostly Straight offers an opportunity to challenge the status quo of tripartite sexual identities and attractions—bi, gay, straight—and consider the possibility of a more flexible, and less categorical, sexuality.

Meredith Chivers

This is a book whose time has come, and there is no one better suited to tell these riveting, surprising stories than Ritch Savin-Williams. For too long, men who consider themselves ‘mostly straight’ have been invisible and misunderstood. Their experiences will challenge your assumptions about sexual identity and orientation and reveal blind spots in your thinking that you didn’t know you had.

Lisa Diamond

In this beautifully written book, Savin-Williams offers a nuanced and substantive portrait of an often overlooked group. He makes a forceful case that both the general public and the scientific community should recognize the existence and experiences of mostly straight men.

Letitia Anne Peplau