Poll: 0-6

[angledge]

For reference, the Kinsey Scale is a seven point continuum based on the degree of sexual responsiveness people have to the members of the same and other sex.

0 - exclusively heterosexual
1 - predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homoexual
2 - predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
3 - equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 - predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
5 - predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual
6 - exclusively homosexual

More info here.

With that in mind ....

[Poll #557787]

Comments

I don't think I can edit this entry without messing up the poll HTML.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

But I wanted to add:

Why would you or would you not adjust your Kinsey scale rating?

Re: I don't think I can edit this entry without messing up the poll HTML.

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

While I consider myself straight, I've flirted with male teachers because I thought it would help my grade. And judging by my GPA, I probably should've just studied more. ;)

I wouldn't adjust my rating because I don't take it seriously. Humans are too complicated. That's why I studied engineering.

[thepikey.livejournal.com]

Depends how you define 'incidental'. Probably more like a .5 or somesuch.

(That's me, just trying to be difficult.)

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

I think the only way I can give an accurate Kinsey scale number for me is to answer the same survey that Kinsey administered to his study subjects and then grade it the same way. I haven't actually looked into his method (though I bet I could very easily and disguise it as work research) but I'm guessing it's either a lot of yes/no questions or a lot of from 0-5 with 0 being never and 5 being frequently have you done X have you thought about X, etc.

The reason for this is that I don't know how to weight my fantasies vs. my actions or my slightly more than friendly actions vs. my mind-blowing actions when assigning a number along the Kinsey scale.

I won't go out and do things just to change my kinsey score (unlike my purity test score...anyone want to find a secluded tree to help me out with this?) but I wouldn't be surprised if it were to shift either because I finally decided to explore this attraction to women or because I finally met a man who will stand up to me.

[carocrow.livejournal.com]

Mani and I had this discussion a while back. We're both in the 1 Range of the Scale, but attraction doesn't mean squat if you are in a committed relationship that is monogamous, or if you have taken a vow of celibacy. The only time it really makes any difference is when you are single or polygamous (or, IMO, you are not really in a committed monogamous relationship).

I think there are also people who have sex with whoever is convenient, and don't really care either way what gender they are. I don't know what you would call them, that's not particularly bisexual.

[kwokj.livejournal.com]

interesting, though I'm not answering. My record has been to be very straight. I dunno, I am whatever I am, and don't have a particular attachment to it nor a desire to change it.

[marasca.livejournal.com]

Of course this makes me curious about what you think your rating would be. ;)

I marked myself as a 2, but Lisa had a good point about fantasy vs. what you`ve actually done. Similarly, there`s a question of what you would do if given the chance vs. what you`ve done. For example, I`ve exclusively dated men, but would certainly date a woman if the right one came my way.

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

I've just never been interested in girls that way - no fantasies, nothing even remotely resembling an experience... The funny thing is that I almost feel guilty about how hetero I am because I want to be open-minded. On a few occasions I've actually thought, "Maybe I should at least attempt to think about what it would be like to kiss/make out with/etc. a girl", but I think that's just my fuzzy "embrace all viewpoints" side trying too hard, because it just doesn't work.

Perhaps somewhere out there is a girl that I could be sexually attracted to, but I haven't found her and now that I'm married I'm obviously not trying to find anyone else, male or female, that I would want to do anything with sexually. I've always been the boring monogamous type. ;-)

Re: I don't think I can edit this entry without messing up the poll HTML.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

Can I metaquotes you, please?

[songquake.livejournal.com]

huh. i coded myself as a 4, but mostly b/c kinsey doesn't allow for much gender variation. that is, the scale assumes only 2 genders. i don't only date "women-born-women," but i don't date bio-men, either.

anyway, i like some variation in my life. and i'm not into bio-men in general, and like my life as-is. even with the difficulties.

[ataralas.livejournal.com]

like songquake said, the scale's really gender normative. For someone like me, who has days that tend towards male-identified and days that tend towards female-identified, it's hard. I answered with respect to purely chromosome-based sex, but that doesn't even begin to encaspulate the complexity of my experience, I think.

[ataralas.livejournal.com]

Oh, and forgot to add, I think I would shift my Kinsey number a bit more towards the middle--as much as I like girls, I tend not to actually like them.

???

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

Ummm...sure. I guess so. O_o

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

I thought Kinsey was a woman.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

Alfred Kinsey was a man. My guess is he would score somewhere closer to 3 than to 1 on his own scale and this study was his way of proving that he's normal even if society doesn't say so. (normal for a college student or a prisoner)

Virginia Eshelman Johnson is the woman in earlier sex research. She and William Howell Masters researched physical sexual response. And a lot of the numbers about women are Johnson's own numbers because very few women were willing to go through all the things they had to for this study.

Ahh...

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

That's who I confused him with. So Masters and Johnson studied the physical aspects of sex, and Kinsey was just trying to figure himself out while pretending to do research.

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

I don't think life's any easier for people who're straight, or gay. Popping pills never seems to help either, unless you put them in ice cream. :P

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Me? I said 4.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

HA.

Like boys are any better!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

In the poll, I said I'd take the pill to become exclusively heterosexual. Mostly I did so in an attempt to create some discussion - in reality, I don't know what I'd do. But if I had to pick gay or straight, I'd definitely pick straight. It would make life just a bit more simple.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

We'll call that a 3.

Re: I don't think I can edit this entry without messing up the poll HTML.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Did you metaquotes this? I didn't see it if you did. And some random person answered my poll, which is fine with me, I'm just trying to figure out how he ended up at my LJ.

[ataralas.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know, I much prefer to hang out with them...although that, I suspect might change if I were attracted to them, who knows...

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Yeah, us boys suck. We're just monkeys with less hair. Well, most of us, anyway.

Re: I don't think I can edit this entry without messing up the poll HTML.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

Not yet.

Sorry...

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to sound snarky. I know people in the middle of the spectrum encounter more shit than those at the ends. I was just thinking of all the "straight" and "gay" people that I know, and their lives aren't any easier because of their alleged sexual awareness.

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

You've transcended the scale into intelligent thinking?!? That's the hard part though. Ignoring the reptilian part of the brain that wants sex, and approaching life from a different angle.

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

Girls are far more attractive. Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

...but your eyes say 3. :P

[effrontery.livejournal.com]

I watched Kinsey (with Liam Neeson) today. Have you seen it? He was an...interesting man.

Hey, if you haven't checked this place out yet, you gotta for me, please! It looks amazing--I so want to go someday.