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A common gambit in the antiques trade is to collect a series of pots made by a little-known factory which has gone out of business, write a book on the subject, and sell the collection at a large profit. In medicine the technique is to define a new entity and write a book on it, which brings us to this volume. It consists of a series of 20 papers on the subject of bisexuality. The first papers attempt to define the condition and measure it with the result that there is a lot of repetition. They all state that the bisexual is different from the hetero and homosexual but this is largely because both the other groups reject him. They are clear that bisexuals are not homosexuals in transition to heterosexuality (indeed most of the clinical examples are in the opposite direction), but sexually flexible individuals. Little reference is made to the fact that most humans can vary their object choice according to the supply of partners, and they consider it is a biological phenomenon that has to be accepted.
One paper, however, by J. M. Carrier emphasises the high prevalence of ‘active’ homosexuals/bisexuals in Mexico, a society which prohibits sex before marriage for women and where marrige is delayed. The same comment could be made about bestiality in rural Turkey. Could it be that Woody Allen was right in suggesting that bisexuality was a way of doubling your chance for a date on a Saturday night!
The rest of the book is largely concerned with the issue of the bisexual in a heterosexual marriage. David Lourea discusses the issues of counselling and there are eight papers giving details of samples, two where the female partner becomes bisexual and six where the male does. Not surprisingly the samples are heavily skewed towards high-income, college-educated volunteers and some of the conclusions can be directly attributed to this bias. Thus Gochros records that 33 women reacted to the disclosure that their husband was bisexual by increased assertiveness and communication skil