Mostly Straight

Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Published by Harvard University Press 2017

Mostly Straight

Sexual Fluidity among Men

Ritch C. Savin-Williams

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674981034

Overview
Contents

About this book

A growing number of young men today say they are “mostly straight” and yet feel a slight but enduring desire for men. Ritch Savin-Williams explores the stories of 40 mostly straight young men to help us understand the biological, psychological, and cultural forces that are loosening the sexual bind many boys and young men experience.

Author information

Savin-Williams Ritch C. :

Ritch C. Savin-Williams is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.

Reviews

Letitia Anne Peplau, University of California, Los Angeles:
In this beautifully written book, Savin-Williams offers a nuanced and substantive portrait of an often overlooked group. He makes a forceful case that both the general public and the scientific community should recognize the existence and experiences of mostly straight men.

Lisa Diamond, author of Sexual Fluidity:
This is a book whose time has come, and there is no one better suited to tell these riveting, surprising stories than Ritch Savin-Williams. For too long, men who consider themselves ‘mostly straight’ have been invisible and misunderstood. Their experiences will challenge your assumptions about sexual identity and orientation and reveal blind spots in your thinking that you didn’t know you had.

Meredith Chivers, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sexuality and Gender Laboratory (SageLab), Queen’s University:
Savin-Williams, a highly respected psychologist and pioneer in research on sexual minority youth, brings us a fascinating and in-depth exploration of nonexclusive heterosexuality among young men. Woven around engaging first person narratives that defy gender stereotypes, and supported by emerging science on male sexual fluidity, Mostly Straight offers an opportunity to challenge the status quo of tripartite sexual identities and attractions—bi, gay, straight—and consider the possibility of a more flexible, and less categorical, sexuality.

Uli Lenart:
An illuminating new study about male sexual fluidity…Calling for a more modern understanding of sexual orientation, [Savin-Williams’s] idea is that increasing numbers of millennial metrosexual young men are shunning rigid notions of sexuality, and increasingly not identifying as straight, but mostly straight. These are not closeted gay or bisexual men but a new generation of guys who are predominantly heterosexual but have embraced the idea that sexuality exists on a spectrum and who have less anxiety than previous generations about being open to intimacy with other guys.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
The Sexual Neverlands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Straight But Not Narrow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Dillon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Sexual And Romantic Spectrums Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Romantic Orientation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Sexual And Romantic Fluidity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
It Is Who I Am Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Straight, But Not Totally Straight Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Demetri Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Ricky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Chris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Progressive Mostly Straight Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
It’S About The Sex Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Five Young Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Ryan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Kyle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
It’S About The Romance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Two Romantic Young Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Jay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
It’S About The Sex And The Romance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Joel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Chandler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Do Mostly Straight Youth Exist? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Dillon Returns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Developmental Trajectories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
If You Believe You Are Mostly Straight Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Escaping The Sexual Neverlands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
Appendix A: Methods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Appendix B: Mostly Straight Science Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Pages
- Main content: 256
Illustrations
- Other: 1 table

eBook

Published: November 5, 2018
ISBN: 9780674981034