Women’s rationales and perspectives on “mostly” as a nonexclusive sexual identity label.

Abstract

The sexuality labels of “mostly straight” and “mostly gay” are used by men to understand their non-exclusive sexualities, yet the value of these labels in understanding women’s sexuality has not been investigated. The current qualitative study addresses this issue by examining how women with non-exclusive sexualities view the term to understand their sexual desires and identities and explores their experiences as women with non-exclusive sexualities. Participants were 30 cis-gendered women who indicated having gender non-exclusive desires, yet did not identify as bisexual. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Participants reported and identities as meaningfully different to bisexual identities, citing sexual, romantic and intellectual reasons as rationales for their non-exclusive orientations. Participants viewed “mostly” as more indicative of sexuality as a fluid construct, serving to de-emphasize sexual identity labels. Participants’ narratives support the notion that sexual identity labels mostly lesbian and mostly straight are useful to understand non-exclusive sexual desires and provides support for sexuality understood as a continuum interpreted through multiple overlapping categories. Implications for the understanding of women’s sexuality as fluid and flexible and how this relates more broadly to their identity are considered.