by Robin Baker
The advantage of bisexuality lies in its exponents potentially having a higher rate of reproduction than the average for the society in which they live. As we have noted, earlier and better learning of sexual technique gives bisexuals a competitive advantage over other men in gaining sexual access to women. The more bisexuals there are in the population, however, the greater the chance that their competitors are also bisexual – and the more common bisexuals become, the less the advantage enjoyed by any one individual as a result of his bisexuality.
As the proportion of bisexuals in the population increases, not only does the advantage of bisexuality decrease, but the costs increase. Of the three costs discussed above, two – genetics and disease – clearly increase as bisexuality becomes more common.
As far as the genetic risk is concerned, the more common the genes for homosexual behaviour the greater the chance that any two people will carry those genes, and thus the greater the chance that a man and his partner will produce sons and grandsons who are exclusively homosexual and will therefore fail to reproduce at all. When it comes to the risk of disease, the greater the level of homosexual activity in the population, the faster the spread of disease. More people, both heterosexuals and bisexuals, will become infected. But because bisexuals are always at greater risk of contracting disease, they will suffer most. Thus, the chances that any given bisexual will have an early death are greater.
We have seen that, in a population in which bisexuals are rare, those who are bisexual enjoy considerable advantages over heterosexuals. The result is that the genes for bisexuality increase in proportion in the population. Conversely, as bisexual behaviour becomes more common, the advantage enjoyed by bisexual individuals decreases and the costs increase. If the behaviour becomes too common, the reproductive rate of bisexuals falls below that of heterosexuals, and the proportion of bisexuals in the population begins to decrease once more.
The inevitable result of this interplay of costs and benefits as the proportion of bisexuals rises and falls is that eventually the proportion of bisexuals stabilises. Moreover, it stabilises at precisely the level at which the average success of bisexual behaviour in each generation is just the same as the average success of heterosexual behaviour. Therefore, the answer to our question – who does better reproductively, bisexuals or heterosexuals? – is ‘neither’. The only difference between the two is that the reproductive success of bisexuals is more precarious – they have a much greater chance of not reproducing at all. However, if they successfully avoid being killed by homophobes and contracting HIV, they also have the potential to be very successful. On average, the greater risks and the greater potential just balance each other.
The conclusion, therefore, is that in the larger, more industrial societies the genes for bisexuality have stabilised at around 6 per cent of the population because this is the level at which bisexual and heterosexual men, on average, do equally well.
The situation would be very different, of course, if the costs of bisexuality were never as great as the benefits, no matter how common the bisexual genes became in the population. Suppose, for example, there were some societies in which there was very little risk of sexually transmitted disease. In such societies, the benefits of bisexuality could always outweigh the costs, no matter how many people used the strategy. We should expect the genes for bisexuality to sweep through the whole population. Is it conceivable that there have ever been societies in which there were sufficiently few costs to bisexuality? The answer is yes.
So far in this discussion, we have concentrated on large industrialised societies – which are uniquely unfavourable for the wholesale spread and persistence of bisexuality. In particular, they harbour and facilitate the spread of those sexually transmitted diseases which generate the main costs of the strategy. The recent emergence and spread of HIV and AIDS are merely the most recent examples of a sequence of events that will have occurred many times throughout human history. For example, from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century syphilis was the major sexually transmitted killer in the larger societies.
Historically, small, more isolated communities have harboured relatively few diseases. Since the members of such communities were the offspring of the survivors of past epidemics, they inherited their ancestors’ natural, perhaps genetic, immunity. New diseases rarely appeared because the people had little contact with the outside world. When they did have such contact, few escaped exposure to disease no matter what their behaviour. The survivors were again those with some form of immunity – which they passed on to their offspring. Consequently, before they encountered the outside world and were exposed to measles, smallpox, syphilis and now AIDS, such small isolated societies enjoyed long periods with little danger from disease. In such circumstances, bisexuality would have carried nowhere near the risks that it now does in larger societies, with the result that the genes for bisexuality should have spread unchecked by disease. No matter how common bisexuality became, its exponents would still have reproduced faster than heterosexuals. It should be no surprise, therefore, to find that many such communities when first encountered and studied contained a far higher proportion of bisexuals than the industrialised world. And it should be no surprise, either, to find that, when the majority of people are bisexual, homophobia either becomes much less common or disappears completely.
As far as the level and tolerance of bisexuality are concerned, it is the major industrialised societies that are the exception, not the rule. Anthropologically, in 60 per cent of human societies bisexuality is both common and socially accepted. Some societies, such as certain small island communities in Melanesia, accept as normal that all adolescent males will at some point engage in homosexual anal intercourse. The women also accept that their long-term partner will from time to time have sex with other men, and they tolerate their partner’s homosexual infidelity more than his heterosexual infidelity. The usual attitude is that their partners can continue with their homosexual activity as long as it does not interfere with their heterosexual relationship. But even in these societies, where all male adolescents have phases of homosexuality, sometimes within short-term ‘monogamous’ relationships, exclusive homosexuality over an entire lifetime is very rare. Homosexual behaviour is very clearly part of a bisexual reproductive strategy. Moreover, it is so successful a strategy that it has completely displaced the heterosexuality that is the norm in larger, more disease-prone societies.
SCENE 31
The Coming of Women
The girl rubbed the steam off the bathroom mirror so that she could examine her face yet again. Reassuring herself for the fourth time that evening that the spot on her chin had almost gone, she carried on towelling herself dry. Twenty years old and she was still getting spots – surely she must grow out of them soon? As she hung the towel over the radiator, she noticed the nearly empty packet of tampons on the shelf and smiled. Which one of them would make the supreme effort and put it back in the cabinet this month? It was a week since their periods had finished – strange how they tended to coincide – and neither of them had yet managed to put the packet away. Powdering herself, she felt her throat tightening. Even after a year together she still got excited at the prospect of sex with her partner. She had been looking forward to this all day and there was a tingle between her legs already.
As she walked naked from the steamy bathroom to the dry heat of the bedroom, her partner was already lying on the bed. Ten years older than herself and the mother of a young child, she still had a wonderful body. How much better it was to lie down next to a soft, smooth, yielding and compliant woman than a muscular, urgent and selfish man.
Immediately she was on the bed, they embraced and kissed. As they did so, their hands slid expertly over each other’s bodies, lightly stroking here, lightly caressing there. From time to time one would massage the other’s breasts, play with a nipple, or gently stroke pubic hair. Taking it in turns, they moved down each other’s bodies, kissing and licking as they went, each
doing to the other what she most wanted to be done to herself. After a while, the girl sat astride her partner, facing away from her, then bent forward to lick her thighs and genitals. As she did so, she raised her bottom in the air, presenting herself to her partner’s tongue. This was the bit she liked best. Whenever she felt like an orgasm, this never failed to take her to the brink. As the warm, wet tongue licked and probed her vaginal lips, then so gently massaged her clitoris, she felt the sensations she had been anticipating all day. They kept each other on a high for minutes as they neared the edge but never crossed. Exquisite though they both found oral sex, they rarely climaxed from that alone.
Finally, unable to wait for release any longer, she lay back alongside her partner. Her momentary loss of focus soon passed as they kissed deeply, each briefly tasting their own juices on the other’s tongue. As they kissed, their fingers stroked and probed each other’s wet vaginal lips, then massaged each other’s clitoris. Each knew exactly what to do. As the girl felt the flush spread over her chest, throat and face she saw the same happening to her lover. Their breathing became a gasping, their pulses raced, and the sounds in their throats became louder and more urgent. For one brief, wonderful moment they hovered on the brink, then climaxed more or less simultaneously. It had easily lived up to the day’s anticipation. They settled into their usual post-orgasmic embrace, hands now idly stroking each other’s body. In the seconds before drifting off to sleep, she thought how much more expert they had become at giving each other orgasms since they first started living together.
Normally, they slept for only fifteen minutes or so after sex, but when she woke nearly an hour had passed. Her partner was still asleep and it seemed cruel to wake her. Nevertheless, she was beginning to fret. She had only an hour to get dressed and cross town. Eventually, she could delay no longer and made to move off the bed. Immediately, her lover woke and sleepily urged her to stay a little longer, suggesting it wouldn’t matter if she was a bit late for her meeting. Sliding off the bed and going in search of clothes, the girl said she wished she could stay but really did not want to be late for the third week in a row.
As she went into the bathroom, her partner shouted after her, complaining that she always seemed to be out in the evenings these days. She reminded her that in the beginning they were never out of each other’s company. That had been a year ago, the girl shouted in reply. Coming back into the room, she reassured her companion that once her exams were over, they could return to how they had been. In the meantime, she couldn’t afford to miss anything.
Before she left, her lover made her promise she wouldn’t be late. Saying that she would do her best, but warning that she would probably be dragged off for a drink once the meeting was over, the girl left.
Once alone, the woman got up, still naked, and switched on some music. Idly, she walked round the room. A moment of fear struck her when she saw the letter on the shelf, reminding her to have a repeat cervical smear tomorrow – abnormal cells, was that serious? In an attempt at self-distraction, she picked up the framed photograph of herself and the girl on holiday the previous summer, both tanned, drunk and happy. Not far away on the shelf was a photograph of herself with her young son. He was now ten years old, but it was several months since she had seen him. Once she had begun living openly with her current lover, his father had refused her access, insisting on looking after the boy himself with his new partner. If only he knew, she thought, that the boy almost certainly wasn’t his but, most likely, the product of a wild evening she had spent in a hotel room with two men and a girl while he had been away. Memories of that evening triggered the familiar tingle between her legs. It was only an hour since her last climax, but the minute she felt that sensation she knew she would masturbate before the evening was over.
The girl got off the bus and walked into the restaurant. She was late. She had known it would be a mistake to try to fit in sex before leaving but had been desperate for an orgasm all day. Looking around the tables, she wondered if he would still be there. This was their first real date, though he had been pushing her for some time. She didn’t really want to deceive her partner, especially now. The latter’s problems over access to her son and the worry of her abnormal cervical smear results were putting them both under considerable strain. Somehow, though, she didn’t feel quite as guilty about a clandestine meeting with a man as she would with another woman.
It was over a year since she had had sex with a man. In fact, her current lesbian relationship had been so rewarding that she had begun to think she would never feel like sex with a man again. She had always known she was bisexual, ever since she was a child. Throughout childhood and adolescence she had persuaded girlfriend after girlfriend to take off their clothes and get into bed with her. Once in her mid-teens, however, she had also given in to the occasional male.
At first she had just been curious about heterosexual sex, but after a few experiences had actually begun to enjoy it, in its own way. More than anything, though, she had enjoyed the feeling of power she could have over boys. Compared with her girlfriends, first the boys and later the men had seemed so gullible, so easy to manipulate and deceive, that she had found it difficult to respect them. Also, men were so sexually inept; so selfish. As long as she was in the mood, she could virtually guarantee that another woman could give her an orgasm. With a man, she nearly always had to apply the final touches herself, if she felt like it. So what was she doing in this restaurant, clandestinely meeting a man? She really didn’t know, except that perhaps she was ready for another experience – and this man really was rather attractive. A hand waved from the corner table. She waved back and went to join the hand’s owner.
On the other side of town, while the pair in the restaurant ate, the girl’s lover was lying naked on the bed, bringing herself to a climax. Afterwards, she went into the sitting-room to relax with a bottle of wine, music and a book. But she couldn’t settle. There had been something strange about her lover’s manner for the past day or so and it was bothering her. Suddenly, she began to look up the telephone number of the bar where the girl and her friends usually went after their lectures and meetings. She phoned, asking to speak to her, intending to suggest that she came and joined them. It wouldn’t be the first time. She was told, however, that neither the girl nor her friends were there. Deciding they must have gone elsewhere, she tried to settle down to her book once more.
There was an inquisition when the girl eventually returned – late, but not unduly so. The story she gave was that after their meeting her friends had decided they should all try somewhere new. Eventually, she convinced her partner she was telling the truth, but there was still an atmosphere between them when they went to bed.
In fact, the girl and her male escort had not had sex that evening, but it was only a week before they did. Afterwards, as the weeks passed, their relationship developed in a way that she had only thought possible with a woman. Her infidelity to her lesbian partner became increasingly difficult to hide as she found herself wanting to spend more and more time with her male lover. Her ingenuity was stretched to the limit. She also began to feel guilty at what more in the way of trouble she might be giving to a woman whose life was becoming increasingly fraught in every way. Her repeat smear again indicated abnormal cells – and she began the stressful process of having further tests and waiting for results. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she continued to be denied access to her son and was passed over for promotion at work when the rumour that she was a lesbian, which had been in the air for a while, began to spread.
The woman had begun to suspect that her young lover was being unfaithful to her, and increasingly they began to argue. Their worst fight was sparked off when they accused each other of faking orgasms. But she still couldn’t be certain about her partner’s infidelity – right up to the moment, that is, that the latter broke the news of her pregnancy. At first, she tried to convince her that they could look after the baby together, but the girl was adamant about moving out a
nd living with the baby’s father.
For a time, the woman was ill with stress and loneliness. After losing her job, she began to feel suicidal. But then, in the depths of depression, she met a man who had just been deserted by his partner and family. They counselled each other out of their joint despair and within weeks were living together. A year later, she had his child – a daughter. Not long afterwards she was operated on successfully for cervical cancer, and from then on her life improved.
Once her son became independent of his father, he came to see her. Untainted by his father’s homophobia, he quickly grew close to his mother and his younger half-sister and they became very much a family. Although the woman died relatively young, in her sixties, it was not before she had enjoyed fifteen contented years as a doting grandmother.
Having discussed the way that homosexual behaviour can aid men in their pursuit of reproductive success (Scene 30), it is relatively straightforward to do the same here for women. This is because there are many similarities between male and female bisexuality and relatively few differences.
Even those differences that do exist are largely just a matter of degree. For example, on average across societies there are fewer bisexual females than males – a trend that is also shown in most animals. In any given human society, there tend to be about a third to half as many women bisexuals as men. In large industrial societies, in which only about 6 per cent of men show homosexual behaviour, about 2-3 per cent of women do so. In societies in which all men show homosexual behaviour, about 30-50 per cent of women do so. This difference means that on average we should each need to go slightly further back in our family tree to find a female bisexual than to find a male. But the difference is only about one generation – back to about 1850 instead of 1875.