Gender-Specificity of Genital Response and Self-Reported Sexual Arousal in Women Endorsing Facets of Bisexuality

Gender-specific sexual arousal has been examined in women with sexual attractions toward predominantly women or men, but not in women reporting sexual attractions to both genders. In this study, women who endorsed one or more facets of bisexuality—sexual orientation, sexual identity, romantic attraction, sexual fantasy, sexual behavior—listened to narratives describing sexual and nonsexual interactions with female and male partners while their genital response and self-reported sexual arousal were assessed. Contrary to expectations, across the bisexuality facets, female gender cues produced a greater degree of genital response and self-reported sexual arousal than male gender cues, regardless of the number of facets of bisexuality that were endorsed. This pattern of results replicates those obtained by Timmers, Bouchard, and Chivers (2015) using audiovisual stimuli. Implications for our understanding of women's sexual attractions and response are discussed.