Sexual fluidity

Sexual fluidity is one or more changes in sexual identity or sexual orientation. There is significant debate over whether sexuality is stable throughout life or is fluid and malleable. Scientific consensus is that sexual orientation, unlike sexual orientation identity, is not a choice, as there has been no strong evidence to validate it as a lifestyle choice.Essentialism, in this context, is the belief that sexual orientation and sexual desire are fundamentally biological and therefore do not change throughout life. The results of a large-scale, longitudinal study by Savin-Williams, Joyner, and Rieger (2012) indicated that stability of sexual orientation identity over a six-year period was more common than change, particularly for men. While stability may be more common than change, change in sexual orientation identity does occur and the vast majority of research indicates that female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality. This could be attributed to females' higher erotic plasticity or to sociocultural factors that socialize women to be more open to change. Due to the apparent gender differences in the stability of sexual orientation identity, male and female sexuality are not treated as functioning via the same mechanisms. More research is needed to determine the fluidity of sexual orientation of subgroups (i.e., bisexual, lesbian, gay, etc.).The term sexual fluidity is significantly promoted by Lisa M. Diamond in her 2009 book Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire; she argues that society should go beyond the language of ""phases"" and ""denial"", and that traditional labels for sexual desire are inadequate.