BISEXUALISM: DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION
Bisexualism and bisexuality are synonyms. In established usage, one may speak of the morphologic bisexuality of the embryo or of psychosexual bisexuality of the child or adult. In the Freudian and psychoanalytically derived theory of bisexualism, it is implied that a bisexual tendency lurks covertly, if not overtly, in all people. However, by analogy with embryonic development, it is more accurate to conceptualize an undifferentiated stage of gender identity/role which, in the course of a critical developmental period, becomes permanently differentiated as either masculine or feminine, or as a combination of both.
The bisexual person has traditionally been stigmatized as homosexual, since specialists as well as society at large overlook the heterosexual component in favor penalizing the homosexual component.
As in the case of homosexuality, bisexuality can be defined either mentalistically or behaviorally. The most workable definition is that a bisexual person is one with a history of performing sexually with a person of either genital sex, separately or in a threesome or group. More broadly, the definition may also include those who have not actually performed but have experienced overt imagery of doing so.
The transitoriness or regularity of either the practice or the imagery needs to be ascertained separately. The definition can then be appropriately augmented or qualified. The qualification may include an estimate of whether the degree and frequency of involvement with each sex is approximately the same (50:50) or disproportionate. Usually it is disproportionate. Falling in love, for example, is usually more intense and less perfunctory with one sex than the other.
Ambisexual, a term not widely used, refers to characteristics shared by both sexes—kissing, for example, as a form of erotic expression.
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