Kinsey scale 0 Exclusively heterosexual 1 Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual 2 Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual 3 Equally heterosexual and homosexual 4 Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual 5 Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual 6 Exclusively homosexual X No socio-sexual contacts or reactions I think I'm somewhere between 5 and 6.
The Kinsey scale is obnoxious. In response to the question, yes there are different levels, or however you want to say it. I, however, don't distinguish between genders.
As Thunderlane said, there is the Kinsey scale. It's rather difficult to place yourself on a point on it, and I would assume that most Kinsey 5s and 6s identify as gay, while the three in the middle are generally what would identify as bisexual. Don't worry, experiencing attraction towards both sexes with one more than the other is perfectly normal.
The notion of the Kinsey scale, to me, is more conceptual than it is valid in its numbers. As life marches on, a person's cumulative totals can change, and change their Kinsey number. Of course bisexuality's intensity varies. That's what can make it a challenging orientation that can also cause a lot of stress. Everyone's bisexuality is also very different - geneses of the preference, the mixing or separation, sexual/affectional aspects, cycling, repertoire they're open to with each gender, and much more.
Certainly there are, and to make it even more confusing, this seems to fluctuate over time. At some times I find that the gay side dominates, at other times the straight side.
But that was one of Kinsey's points -- that it changes and the number is just a convenience to place you at that point in time. It was not meant to be a static label.
^ The Kinsey Scale fails to acknowledge the non-binary nature of sex and gender, both subjectively and objectively.
Got it. So a 1 could go to a 3 and down to 2 and up to 5 and back to 3. Wow. I see his concept. I do think that a lot of his research methodology was faulty. They said that a lot of interviewees were picked based on availability and from certain institutions to a greater extent than others, so the samples aren't really representative of American society. I think that research on bisexuality has been very challenging and inaccurate. For one thing, because of its very nature, many interviewees may not be forthcoming and the sample may not be normally distributed, and I'm not trying to be funny, from the outset. It would be interesting to see what the real percentage is and what the prevailing mix of mixing it up really is.
There is the Klein Grid but it is only a slight improvement on the Kinsey Scale. Do you know of another model that is better? I would love to try it.