Women display more fluidity in sexual attractions and fantasies than men. The research shows that while men strongly prefer one gender over the other, women tend to display a wider range of potential attractions.

**Women display more fluidity in sexual attractions and fantasies than men**

A new analysis of data from over 50,000 individuals indicates that men exhibit a more exclusive pattern of sexual attraction than women do. **The research shows that while men strongly prefer one gender over the other, women tend to display a wider range of potential attractions**. These results appear in The Journal of Sex Research.

The analysis of this massive dataset revealed a consistent pattern. Men generally exhibited greater gender-specificity than women. This trend appeared across self-reported attraction, fantasy frequency, and the indirect association measures.

The data provided a detailed look at why this gap exists. Men reported very high levels of attraction toward their preferred gender. At the same time, they reported very low levels of attraction toward their non-preferred gender. This created a large statistical gap between their likes and dislikes.

Women showed a different profile. They reported slightly lower levels of attraction to their preferred gender compared to men. More importantly, they reported higher levels of attraction to their non-preferred gender than men did. This finding suggests that women are psychologically more open to their non-preferred gender.

The study clarified the nature of attraction among heterosexual women. Contrary to some interpretations of older physiological studies, straight women were not completely non-specific. They clearly preferred men over women in both self-reports and indirect measures.

However, the intensity of this preference was not as exclusive as the preference straight men held for women. Straight women demonstrated a distinct preference, but the separation was less extreme. The researchers noted that this pattern was robust across the different samples.

The study also examined individuals who identified as gay or lesbian. The researchers found that the gender gap in specificity was different in these groups. The large difference seen between straight men and women was often smaller, absent, or reversed among gay and lesbian participants.

For example, lesbian women showed levels of specificity that were sometimes similar to, or even higher than, gay men. This suggests that the high degree of exclusivity observed in straight men might be a unique characteristic of that specific group. It may not be a universal trait of male sexuality.

The analysis of sexual fantasies reinforced the findings regarding attraction. Men reported fantasies almost exclusively about their preferred gender. Women reported fantasies primarily about their preferred gender, but with more frequent exceptions than men.

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2025.2545965

Glad someone finally posted what we already knew.

I think a very big part of this is that we pretty much get all the pornography we could ever “want” from a young age, and since most porn is male centric, sexual preferences shift.

Society likes to see gay women as bisexual, and bisexual men as gay. Both conveniently make them sexually available(at least in fantasy) to men.

Any stereotype that gets repeated enough is frequently internalized, especially if the alternative is seen as less socially desirable.

As a bisexual woman, I find the notion of “fluidity” as erasing. My attraction isn’t fluid. I’m not sometimes straight and sometimes gay. It doesn’t move for other people’s convenience. I’m always bisexual. I’m attracted to some people of both genders.

Everyone is aware that men have a harder time admitting any deviance from being heterosexual for social reasons, but it’s not entirely impossible that there are biological reasons for it too. Men historically have pursued women. Being straight and actually interested in pursuing women is a good motivation and could result in more offspring. I’m not saying it’s definitely the case, but it’s something to consider that there’s an evolutionary reason for men to be straight more often.

My take on this sort of thing is that it’s generally a product of society, what we expect of men and women, and how we percieve each other. It seems as though it’s far more acceptable for women to comment on each others attractiveness, tell another woman she looks hot, be more physically intimate and for that to still be consdered platonic. This I think breaks down that stigma of attraction and it’s not so weird if a woman actually considers others sexually attractive.

Men on the other hand rarely if ever comment on how attractive another man is. Doing any of what I mentioned for women above would often be consdered inappropriate and have people questioning a mans sexuality. Women are often turned off by a man who is bixexual, and there is a lot of biphobia toward men.

This puts men in a situation where exploring the idea of sexual attraction toward other men is something they wouldnt consider, it’s not something they can be open about without people thinking they may be gay. I cannot imagine a hit pop song “I kissed a guy and I liked it”

A lot of my straight / bi women friend say “I love every woman and one man.”

If you go on grinder you will see the truth. I’m not saying all men are secretly gay, but the amount of men that hide their desires and fantasies is astounding (and boring). 
For example I am currently staying at my mums in a Home Counties commuter town. Very stereotypical gender and sexual orientation “normative”. You go on grinder and it profile after profile of men (mostly married to women with kids who follow the current model society decides what men should be), that are actually bisexual, gay, queer, fluid, attracted to femmes, dom tops, trans, gender fluid people. A LOT of men want to be dominated. 
It is terribly sad. And scary for out people such as myself because these issues can lead to aggression out of fear of “being outed”.

I always hate these articles as they always seem to miss that the scientific research says that this is a social phenomenon not a genetic one.