Babylon
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 5, 2009
- 1,332
- 82
Published: 23 Dec 09 13:39 CET
Young Swedes have ever more fluid definitions of sex and sexuality, according to a new study from Mälmö University in southern Sweden. Women in particular are more likely to pursue sexual activities with others of the same gender.
We are seeing a greater openness among young people, particularly among young women. There is an increasing interest in experimenting and pushing boundaries, and a growing resistance to defining oneself as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, Sven-Axel Månsson, a Mälmö University sociology professor, told Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
Månsson and colleague Kristian Daneback surveyed 855 young people between the ages of 18 and 24 via an online questionnaire.
The survey showed that 31 percent of young women and 7 percent of young men said that they were most often sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex, but sometimes they were attracted to people of their own gender.
Thirty-nine percent of the women and 8 percent of the men reported having sexual fantasies about both genders.
Young women were also far more likely than their male counterparts to act on their same-sex fantasies, with 13 percent of female respondents and 3 percent of male respondents reporting that they have had sex with both men and women.
Girls are less bound by norms than guys are; it is not as taboo for them to have sex with (other women), Månsson told DN.
He added that the figures for women having sex with other women were "strikingly high".
"Many no longer wish to be tied in to rigid sexual identities, they want to be open and free as people and as sexual beings. That is my interpretation," said Månsson.
