Capturing Diverse Sexual Identities via Sexual Configurations Theory

• In Event: 2-150 - Emerging Sexual Identity Labels: What can Youth Tell us and Where do we go from Here?

Integrative Statement

Researchers often assess sexuality by providing participants with a list of common sexual identities (e.g., heterosexual, bisexual, and lesbian/gay), which has some benefits and some detractions. One detraction is that this checklist is not well-equipped to capture times when identities branch from attractions, fantasies, and behaviors. Dimensional measures of sexuality are better able to capture a diverse range of attractions and behaviors when used alongside identity labels. However, these measures have centered on one dimension of sexuality: their potential or actual partners’ sex. While sex may be a defining feature of many people’s sexual orientations, there is evidence that other dimensions, like gender, can be equally or more important (e.g., Galupo, Mitchell, Grynkiewicz, & Davis, 2014). Further, these measures rely on a binary understanding of sex, such that one can only describe attractions to the “same” or “opposite” sex as one’s self. In this presentation, we describe sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015) as one way to address these limitations. SCT proposes an empirically-based, visually-delineated framework to understand and describe diverse partnered sexualities as well as diverse gender/sexes. SCT consists of conical diagrams that represent continua along which aspects of sexuality can vary in both binary and nonbinary ways. Gender, sex, and gender/sex (characteristics such as whole identities that are not easily attributed to gender or sex alone) are delineated in SCT such that no one aspect is assumed to be primary over another. SCT further distinguishes between identity, status, and orientation as well as eroticism and nurturance. Such distinctions allow for the description of times when these coincide (e.g., a lesbian-identified woman who is attracted to and dates women) or branch (e.g., a heterosexual-identified man who is attracted to both women and nonbinary people and has nurturing relationships with men). SCT also includes diagrams to describe the number of partners a person is oriented towards being erotic and/or nurturant with. In these ways, SCT has the potential to represent sexual orientations, identities, and statuses that are not captured by existing measures. In this presentation, I will also describe how empirical research using SCT has shown its utility for describing diverse partnered sexualities in people with various sexual identities. One qualitative interview study with gender/sex and sexual minorities (N = 25) demonstrated that the use of SCT allowed people to express aspects of their sexualities that they would not have been able to with other measures (Schudson, Dibble, & van Anders, 2017). Using SCT also provided us valuable insights into sexual diversity, such as how sex is not always primary to sexual orientation, that statuses help clarify orientations, and how social contexts influence partnered sexuality. A similar study with gender/sex and sexual majorities (N = 26) demonstrated that SCT is useful even for those whose identities are often assumed to be unitary. SCT is thus an emerging tool that can assist in better representing diverse sexualities with the potential for creating a more inclusive, and ultimately more rigorous and situated, science of sexuality.

Authors

• Will J. Beischel, University of Michian
  Presenting Author

• Zach C. Schudson, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sari van Anders, Queens University
  Non-Presenting Author