Diamond, Lisa M. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009. 152p. paperback.. ISBN: 9781551522470.

For Sexual Fluidity, Lisa Diamond interviewed 100 women—five times each, over a ten-year period—about their current sexual attractions, intimate involvements, and perceived orientation. The majority of interviewees were young (recruited from college campuses) and lesbian or bisexual, with about a dozen straight women added to the mix.

At least, that was how the study started. Over the next ten years, her cohort demonstrated what Diamond came to call “sexual fluidity” attractions that shifted unexpectedly to include or exclude a particular gender, attractions based on personality rather than gender, and desire developing out of emotional attachment instead of the other way around. Diamond theorizes that, in general, women possess a greater capacity for sexual fluidity than men, although individuals of both genders will vary along this continuum as well.

Diamond is well aware that her hypotheses can be (and already have been) misinterpreted and misused by opponents of gay rights, so she allows the reader no shortcuts. She describes her own data and other psychologists’ findings at length, explains her reasoning thoroughly, and she clearly spells out what she thinks her findings mean, as well as what they do not mean.

This is a thoughtful contribution to what we already know about women’s inner lives and the complexity of human sexual identity. Recommended for academic and public libraries.

Reviewed by Ruth Ann Jones
Special Collections Cataloger
Michigan State University Libraries