In the second and final part of her series on bisexuality, sociologist and author Janet Lever, PhD, further characterizes what it means to be bisexual and shares some surprising statistical information about this often misunderstood community.

Being bisexual, as Woody Allen quipped, may double your chances of getting a date on Saturday night, but most people don't regard sexual fluidity so flippantly because it challenges their most deeply held beliefs about the dichotomous nature of sexual attraction. What are the most common myths about bisexuals?

-- Bisexuality doesn't really exist; it's just a cop-out by homosexuals seeking legitimacy in the straight world.

-- Most bisexual women are really straight but want to experiment.

-- Bisexuality is just a transient phase on the way to accepting the fact that one is really gay or lesbian.

-- Bisexuals, because of their dual attraction, cannot be monogamous

There has never been an in-depth study of bisexuality based on a representative scientific sample, but we can usually learn a lot from "convenience samples" of volunteers, such as those who fill out magazine surveys or respond to ads. Given that these respondents select themselves to participate in such surveys, it's important to consider the source of the data. Nonetheless, we're lucky to have two large, detailed studies--one from Playboy and one from The Advocate (the oldest national news magazine for the gay community)--that attracted very different types of bisexual women.

The bisexual women who participated in the Playboy readers' survey were predominantly involved with men, whereas those who responded to the survey in The Advocate were more oriented toward other women. In addition, the Playboy study suggests some key differences between bisexual men and women. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that the statements above are far from fact.

The Bisexuals in the Playboy Study

Looking at the 2,786 males and 984 females who said they were bisexual in the Playboy survey, it's apparent that bisexuals who are equally active with males and females are rare; the ones in this study were mostly intimate with members of the opposite sex, and more than a third were married at the time of the survey.

But a closer look reveals several interesting differences between the men and the women. When asked to rate satisfaction with their sex life, the bisexual women were the happiest group in the sample (compared with straights, gays, and lesbians). The bisexual men, on the other hand, voiced the most dissatisfaction. No wonder the women were so happy: They were having intercourse more frequently than any other group; they engaged in more acts of self-pleasuring than other women; and they were twice as likely as straight women or lesbians to report using sex toys.

What accounts for the bisexual men's unhappiness? The survey didn't make that clear, but it might be guilt over liaisons with men that they kept secret from their female partners, or it could be the greater societal disapproval for homosexual experimentation among men than among women.

Perhaps the most interesting difference between the bisexual women and men in this survey is how many more women (31%) than men (11%) had their first homosexual experience in adulthood. This finding is consistent with generalizations drawn from other studies: Bisexual men experience first attraction towards other males in their early to middle teens, while bisexual women often experience their first attractions to other women later in life. Most bisexual women experience heterosexual behavior before their first homosexual behavior; most bisexual men experience their first homosexual behavior earlier or at about same time as their first heterosexual behavior.

Yet another important difference is that men find it easier to have sex with other men than to have romantic feelings toward them, whereas women find it easier to fall in love with other women than to be sexual with them.

Overall, the Playboy data demonstrate that the majority of male and female bisexuals are continuing a pattern begun in adolescence. Such a long-term pattern is hard to reconcile with the notion of bisexuality as a temporary state.

The Bisexual Women vs. the Lesbians in The Advocate Survey

The 735 women who said they were bisexual in The Advocate survey provide some evidence of bisexual identity as a transitional status on the way to a homosexual identity. More than half of these women said their feelings of sexual attraction, over the years, have shifted more toward women. At the same time, fully one-quarter said sexual attraction continues to shift back and forth between men and women, and a third report still being equally attracted to men and women.

These women did not just have an ideological commitment to bisexuality; 43% of self-professed female bisexuals had a male partner within the previous year, compared with only 5% of the 6,935 respondents who labeled themselves lesbians. And the bisexual women's sexual histories fit the pattern already described above: average age for first intercourse with a male was 17.5 years. The average age for first touching another woman's genitals was 21 years. The average age for falling in love with a male was 18 years; with a female, 22 years.

The bisexual women's responses shatter the stereotype that they are really lesbians who don't want to pay the price of social stigma. Over two-thirds said their parents and most or all of their straight friends knew about their bisexuality, and most were "out" to their bosses, too. Disclosure appears to involve risks. Eleven percent of bisexual women have been physically threatened or attacked because of their sexual orientation. (For lesbians, the figure is 12%.)

Another stereotype called into question is the inability of bisexual women to be monogamous: 63% of bisexual women compared with 86% of lesbians said their relationships were monogamous--fewer, yes, but clearly the majority is quite capable of sexual fidelity.

Final Note

It's interesting that in The Advocate survey more bisexuals than lesbians believed choice had something to do with their sexual orientation. Roughly half of bisexual women believed they were born with their sexual orientation, compared with 80% of lesbians. Bisexuals also said later-life circumstances were more influential than those in early childhood, whereas lesbians said the opposite.

Whatever the origin of bisexual orientation, both of these surveys, along with a good deal of other research, challenge today's myths about bisexuality. The survey data also point to the conclusion that a central commitment to homosexuality or heterosexuality can coexist with a substantial appetite for the less preferred sex. For some, sexual exploration ends as they grow more comfortable with their homosexual or heterosexual identities, but others retain a stable bisexual identity for a lifetime.