J. Michael Bailey co-authored a report on bisexuality that was featured in the New York Times and later criticized by gay rights activists.
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ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG
Friday, July 15, 2005
The New York Times angered gay rights activists last week following its report on a new study questioning the validity of bisexuality in males.
Critics claim that the July 5 story, “Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited,” failed to question the methodology of the research and did not include past accusations of misconduct on the part of one of the study’s authors.
According to the Times article, a study on bisexuality, to be published in Psychological Science, casts serious doubt on the validity of bisexuality in men because it found that bisexual men were aroused by images of men while showing little or no arousal when exposed to images of women.
Several gay advocacy groups, including the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, publicly denounced the Times story.
The study concluded that: “[W]ith respect to sexual arousal and attraction, it remains to be shown that male bisexuality exists. Thus, future research should … explore nonsexual reasons why some men might prefer a bisexual identity.”
The researchers, Gerulf Rieger, Meredith L. Chivers and controversial Northwestern University professor J. Michael Bailey, attached a device to the penises of study participants to measure arousal while they watched two-minute pornographic movies and 11-minute non-sexual films. The men were asked to discuss their arousal during the films. The study examined small samples of homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual men — about 20 to 30 in each group.
“My conclusion is that for the most part, men’s self-identity doesn’t match their physical genital pattern,” Rieger told the Blade.
“In my own opinion, I truly doubt that bisexuality exists in men,” said Rieger, a gay graduate student at Northwestern’s psychology department and the study’s lead author.
Rieger said that he and Bailey are not accusing all bisexuals of lying but that it is possible that some of the men sampled were not truthful about their sexual orientation.
But can the authors’ methodology accurately measure sexual arousal and does that arousal determine sexual orientation? According to researchers contacted by the Blade who reviewed the study and are experts in the sexuality field, the answer is no. The study only raises more questions and definitively answers none, they agreed.
Many also questioned the researchers’ interpretations of their data. The study showed that heterosexual men responded more to watching pornography with two men than to the non-sexual movies.
“What I see here is greater evidence of bisexuality,” said Paula Rodriguez Rust, a sociologist and member of the International Academy of Sex Research.
Some researchers criticized the methodology used in Bailey’s study. Bailey used a penile plethysmograph to measure arousal. Courts generally reject the plethysmograph, which was created in the 1950s, when prosecutors and defense attorneys try to submit its findings in sex abuse cases.
“It’s not scientifically accepted by the courts,” said Jack King, director of public affairs for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
The device is mistakenly seen as a lie detector for the penis, said Randall Sell, an assistant professor of clinical socio-medical sciences at Columbia University. But it is vulnerable to manipulations because men learn at an early age that having an erection in public is an embarrassing experience and are trained to avoid that, he said.
Sell also pointed out that in 25 percent of the people studied the device could not detect any arousal. These people were dismissed from the study.
“I don’t know anyone that will rely on a device that is so insensitive it can’t measure anything in 25 percent of the people,” he said.
Signs of arousal don’t always translate into desire. At times people can become physically aroused against their will, Rodriguez Rust said. There have been cases in which a man who is raped gets an erection or women will appear aroused while watching a video of sexual violence, she said.
Several researchers also noted that arousal and orientation are influenced by audio stimulus, behavior, attraction, pheromones, fantasies and emotional connections. Bisexuality is just as complicated — bisexuals are not 50 percent heterosexual and 50 percent gay, they said.
In Rodriguez Rust’s research of bisexual men she found that they were attracted to men and women differently. With men, it was more of a sexual pull and with women they were drawn to romance, she said.
“When they show people films, what they’re getting is a visual image,” she said. “It’s not surprising that they’re getting a physical response. The images of women are not what most bisexual men say they’re attracted to.”
The videos themselves are subject to scrutiny as well. To determine heterosexuality, a video of two women having sex was shown; for homosexuality, two men were shown. Quite simply and crudely, that just might not turn you on, several researchers said. Rieger explained that videos with a man and a woman were not used because he would not be able to know if the subject was responding to the man or the woman in the movie.
The study advertised for subjects in a gay newspaper and an alternative newspaper for “heterosexual, bisexual and gay men.” Ron Fox, who conducted an earlier study of 800 bisexuals, said that the small sample was not representative of the bisexual community, where there is great variety. Their advertising methods made them more likely to get “gay-leaning bisexuals,” said Fox, who teaches at the Saybrook Graduate School & Research Center in California. His research found that a third of the people he studied had previously identified as lesbian or gay.
The New York Times story included little criticism of the study and failed to mention that Bailey was investigated by Northwestern University in 2004 following allegations that his research methods were unethical.
A spokesperson for the New York Times said in a statement, “We thought the article was thorough and fair. It is, of course, only one part of the coverage we will continue to do on this issue.”
In Bailey’s book, “The Man Who Would Be Queen,” several of his research subjects said they were never told he was interviewing them for a book and one woman alleged that Bailey had sex with her. The women thought they were meeting Bailey as a psychologist to receive permission letters for gender reassignment surgery, said Lynn Conway, professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Conway underwent gender reassignment surgery in the 1960s and has been an outspoken critic of Bailey. The book portrayed transgendered women as mentally unstable and unable to hold down legitimate jobs, she said.
Alan Cubbage, vice president of university relations for Northwestern, said that he couldn’t reveal the investigations’ findings. The university took “appropriate action,” he said
Bailey was also criticized when he argued in a 2001 article published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, that it is morally acceptable for parents to choose heterosexuality for their fetus.
He wrote: “[S]election for heterosexuality may tangibly benefit parents, children, and their families and seems to have only a slight potential for any significant harm.”
Critics are upset that Bailey, whose research has been marred by allegations of misconduct, received almost unquestioning coverage in the country’s most prestigious newspaper.
Sell said he is concerned that many who read the Times article may believe that bisexuality doesn’t exist. The caveats and explanations never receive as much attention as the initial sensationalistic splash, he said.
“It scares me that little studies create myths that live on,” Sell said.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg can be reached at eweill-greenberg@washblade.com
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