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Do you think a Kinsey 1 or 5 is more common than a Kinsey 0 or 6?

Discussion in 'Sexual Orientation' started by SubZero, Mar 22, 2016.

  1. SubZero

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    I'm really curious about this. If we use the Kinsey scale to help determine somebody's sexual orientation, would it make sense that most men/women (whether they self-identify as straight or gay) would actually fall under Kinsey 1 or 5 instead of 0 or 6?

    Kinsey 0: a person who is exclusively attracted to people of the opposite sex.
    Kinsey 6: a person who is exclusively attracted to people of the same sex.

    The key word that really throws me off is the word 'exclusively'. That would mean that someone would have to strictly find the same or opposite sex attractive throughout their entire lives, with no sexual desires, fantasies, or attractions whatsoever to the other sex.

    Personally, if I think long and hard about my sexual attractions, I would be lying if I said I never felt sexual attraction/arousal to females (even if those attractions may be insignificant/weaker than my attractions to males). I can acknowledge that I can feel sexual attraction/arousal to females under certain circumstances. So, technically I think I would fall under Kinsey 5 instead of Kinsey 6. I just self-identify as gay to make it simpler.

    This is just my thought on this. what do you think? Do you think it's more common for someone to be predominantly attracted to the opposite/same sex (Kinsey 1 or 5) or for someone to be exclusively attracted to the opposite/same sex (Kinsey 0 or 6)?
     
  2. HerrinDesFeuers

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    I read that it's not even only about attraction or desire, but also about experience. So even if in retrospect it becomes clear to someone that they have never really been attracted to one sex, I think that most people make experiences with both sexes throughout their lives, even if it's only kissing.
    So yes, I think that a Kinsey 0 or 6 is very rare.
     
  3. Aberrance

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    Yeah I agree. I honestly don't believe anyone can be exclusively 0 or 6, everyone must have some degree of fluidity or leeway within their sexuality.
     
  4. guitar

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    I dunno about as prevalent but I think a lot of people who are 1s and 5s just kind of also assume they're 0 and 6s.

    Just looking at a lot of the gay people I know in my personal life, I know a considerable amount of Kinsey 5s. I only know a handful of gold star gays (they haven't had sex with the opposite sex), most gay guys & lesbians I know have experimented with the opposite sex.
     
  5. andimon

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    Oh well. I'm really inexperienced but what I've lived so far tells me I'm a solid 6, and I don't know why that'd change. And this comes from a person that had wished for long to be straight and tried all sorts of things. But now I kind of see it as a gift and I'm happy I can have heterosocial relationships without having attraction come in between (I like girls over boys when it comes to friendships).
     
  6. Creativemind

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    I would avoid saying stuff like this as It is homophobic (and heterophobic as well) and makes more rigid people feel uncomfortable and unaccepted in the LGBT community.

    I'm a 6. Never had any attractions or desires for men or penises in the slightest, nor have I ever experienced any romantic/sexual contact with them. Even sex with my sister is more arousing and interesting than sex with men (which I would never do either).

    That being said...to answer the OP's question, yes they are rare. Most people are 1 or 5. However, kinsey himself said that 0's and 6's are about 10% of the population, while 90% of the population is everything else. That makes them very rare but NOT impossible, and I wish people would stop saying such. 92% of murderers and rapists are also men, but that does not mean that women have never killed or sexually abused a person before. It is just uncommon.
     
  7. Invidia

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    Yep, I agree. I haven't ever done anything sexual with a girl, but I still think I'm attracted to them and would likely be open to at least kiss or so.
     
  8. WanderingMind

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    I really don't think one's sexual identity should be based on experience... at all. I don't think a girl kissing a girl makes her bi or lesbian... unless she wanted to, liked it, and might one day want to do it again. I also KNOW that never having kissed a girl wouldn't make me straight.
     
  9. HerrinDesFeuers

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    I think so too, but as I said that's just what I read about the Kinsey scale.
     
  10. lilli

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    Seconded on the disagreement about experience. I knew I liked girls long before I ever kissed one; when I actually did and it tasted amazing, it simply reaffirmed what I already knew. On top of that (as I posted in another forum), I have been hesitant to identify myself as a lesbian because since I went on dates with men in the past and even married one, people won't take me seriously, even though I'm in love with a woman right now. But like Elsa sang in Frozen - I'm never going back, the past is in the past. I legitimately loved one of those men, even if I wasn't really into the sex, so I'd rate myself a Kinsey 5.

    That's actually the entire trouble with labels - sexuality is so diverse, and there are so many variations on who we can fall in love with, who we can have sex with, and what we most enjoy in a partner, that trying to encompass it all with just one word seems incredibly facile. People are so complex that trying to pigeonhole ourselves into neat, tidy boxes isn't a good idea. For that reason, I like that Kinsey treated sexuality as a scale rather than as a binary, black and white sort of thing.
     
  11. biAnnika

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    Might you be conflating the Klein grid with the Kinsey scale (or might your source have done that)?

    The Klein grid considers attraction, experience, and fantasy. The Kinsey scale is about evaluating your attraction.
     
  12. HerrinDesFeuers

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    I read that in the Wikipedia article about the Kinsey scale. I know that Wikipedia isn't always a reliable source, so it might be wrong.
    Since I'm not too interested in the Kinsey scale tbh I didn't do any further research on it.

    Edit: I just checked that again an even on the web page of the Kinsey Institute it says "The scale ranges from 0, for exclusively heterosexual with no experience with or desire for sexual activity with their same sex, to 6, for exclusively homosexual with no experience with or desire for sexual activity with those of the opposite sex, and 1-5 for varying levels of desire or sexual activity with either sex."
     
    #12 HerrinDesFeuers, Mar 23, 2016
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2016
  13. Chip

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    Kinsey, in his research, indicated that only a small percentage of the population was at either of the far ends of the spectrum, and that most people would fall on the spectrum. So by that, it's probably reasonable to infer that Kinsey would have expected more 1s and 5s than 0s and 6s.
     
  14. PatrickUK

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    I think 1 or 5 is probably more common in reality, but many people prefer not to admit as much.
     
  15. BobObob

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    Although I think that the number of "mostly straight" people isn't insignificant, I think that the number of people in 0 probably outnumber all the other groups combined.

    ---------- Post added 23rd Mar 2016 at 07:48 PM ----------

    I could be wrong, but I thought that Kinsey only really studied sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Of course, sexual orientation and sexual behavior tend to correlate, but someone's sexual behavior may not necessarily match their sexual orientation for various reasons.
     
  16. Hiraeth

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    They actually did this study where they asked a bunch of people where they fell on the scale and got the percentages: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/16/half-young-not-heterosexual/

    So according to this, 0 and 6 are more common than 1 and 5, 5 being the rarest number. Then again, people could be wrong about themselves when responding to this.
     
  17. WallWeed

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    It's really unfair for anyone to assert that there are no 0's and 6's simply because they experience a grade of fluidity themselves. I think it's also important to lay down exactly what we define as "attraction," and what "fluidity" actually fluctuates between, as it can get really confusing, really fast.

    First of all, being aroused by something does NOT, I repeat, NOT mean one is necessarily "attracted" to said thing. I recall an instance as a kid when I was sitting on top of our washing machine while it was running, and, well, you can guess where this is going. Needless to say, I was, for all intents and purposes, "aroused" by the machine. Does this mean I'm sexually attracted to household appliances? Ahh, no, but I am human, and my body has natural responses to stimulation regardless of where or whom it is derived from.

    Similarly, I have not willingly had sex with any gender, but I did experience a period in my life when I was sexually abused by a member of the opposite sex, and, though this sick man repulsed me to the core of my being, he was still able to "stimulate" me. So, even in the most hellish of circumstances, with the most unattractive person imaginable, I know I am capable of being "pleasured," and, from what I researched, that experience is not uncommon among other victims of rape. Yet, here I find some of you trying to assert that we are a certain way because of experiences we have had. Uh-hum, no.

    Also, I don't think it's fair to use "fantasies" as a means to determine orientation. I have a vivid imagination, and I can say that my mind has devised all sorts of scenarios that I would NOT want to happen in real life (what would it be like to get hit my a bus? what does it feel like to burn to death? what would I do if my mother was diagnosed with cancer? etc...). These are things that have been pseudo "created" in my mind through "fantasies," but, again, it contributes absolutely nothing to determining my own personal desires.

    No, alas, when we are speaking solely on terms of being attracted to someone, of wanting to be with them and hold them close, wanting to kiss them and be intimate with them, wanting to be in a relationship with them, being able to fall captive to heart-thumping, knee bending, soul encompassing love), I am a 6, through and through.
     
  18. Loveislife

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    I think 1's and 5's are more common indeed. I'm definitely not a 6 myself. But, as others have said already - that doesn't mean 0's and 6's don't exist. I know some of them too.
     
  19. LooseMoose

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    I did not find the Kinsey Scale helpful at all, - because it attempts to make inferences about ones innate sexuality based on aspects which are not really measurable & might not have bearing on ones sexuality.

    Sexuality is like handedness- doing something with the hand contrary to your handedness, does not change your handedness, neither does mentally wanting to do something with a right hand, when you are left-handed, change the way your neurological system handles it.

    There are people who are right-, or left-handed, and there also people who are ambidextrous. And we all have capacity under certain circumstances to act contrary to our hand- dominance, or 'pick a hand'- in the case of ambidextrous people. But this will not change our make-up.

    The Kinsey scale does not take this into account at all, it does not ask: did you pick this with your right hand because you were trained to do so, or because you are really right-handed? With it the Kinsey scale completely bypasses the reality of compulsory heterosexuality, because it does not acknowledge different reasons for actions/attractions. It kind of forces us to constantly declare/reassess/proove our sexuality to each other.

    The Kinsey scale is constantly used to discredit and challenge peoples identification-

    Eg: "you cannot say you are straight because you once made out with a person of the same sex", or " you are not really bi because you have a preference". etc