January 9, 2016

Growing bi-curiosity even among "conservative" girls? The influence of libertarianism out West

Having established the big picture that heterosexuality is still declining among young women, let's look into how this trend differs among different groups of women. Since laissez-faire moral norms play a big role, we'll study women who differ in how closely their moral orientation matches the "consenting adults" model.

There are three questions in the General Social Survey that let us look into the kind of morality guiding their behavior: political orientation, political party affiliation, and church attendance. We're still studying white women aged 18-29, but now using decades instead of years, to boost sample sizes among smaller sub-groups of women. Heterosexuality is measured by how many female sexual partners she's had since turning 18.

The puzzle begins with comparing liberals, moderates, and conservatives. In the 1990s, all three groups began highly heterosexual, despite liberals being the least and conservatives being the most. Those who had fooled around with zero women made up 92% of liberals, 96% of moderates, and 97% of conservatives. By the 2010s, these numbers had all dropped -- 80% of liberals, 91% of moderates, and -- shockingly -- 86% of conservatives, who used to be the most hetero group.

This growth in bi-curiosity among the supposedly most conservative is not seen when we measure moral orientation by party affiliation or church attendance. Republicans in the 2010s were no less hetero than in the 2000s or the '90s (about 95%). Democrats fell from 95% to 81% hetero, and independents from 95% to 84%. Among frequent church attenders, young women did not become less hetero, staying above 95% the whole time. Occasional church attenders declined somewhat, from 95% to 90%. Rare or non-attenders fell the hardest, from 92% to 80%.

So, those young women who lead a more conservative life have not become more experimental with other girls. When it comes to ideology rather than overt behavior, though, there has been a shift toward more experimentation among the group you'd least suspect.

Interestingly, the change among conservative women was an overnight change instead of the gradual decline among liberals and moderates. The numbers for the 2000s were unchanged from the '90s among conservatives, but were lower for liberals and moderates. It's only during the current decade that conservatives have become so bi-curious.

I attribute this to generational turnover -- by the 2010s, people aged 18-29 were Millennials instead of the late X-ers from the 2000s, or the early X-ers from the '90s. For Gen X women, "conservative" meant no fooling around with other women. Millennial women have a very different understanding of what "conservative" means, presumably a more libertarian one.

Honestly, when you see an urban Millennial conserva-hipster like Kat Timpf on Fox News, how sure are you that her tongue has never tickled another girl's nipples?


Aside from looking at generational differences, we can measure different moral norms using the surrounding culture. Unfortunately, to study geographic differences in the current decade among an already small group (20-something conservative women), we can't compare all regions against each other. To boost sample sizes, we need to compare one half of the country with another. The main political faultline these days is east vs. west of the Mississippi River -- the legacy of the lawless and rootless Frontier -- so we'll go with that comparison.

Sure enough, there is a big gap between young conservative women in the 2010s: 90% of those back East are hetero, compared to just 80% out West. Among the more resistant groups like Republicans and frequent church attenders, the geographic difference is small. Among Republicans, 97% of those back East are hetero, and 93% of those out West. Among frequent church attenders, 99% of those back East are hetero, and 96% of those out West.

The plot thickens when we look not at where they currently reside but where they were raised (region at age 16), suggesting a developmental window of morality that is open during adolescence but less so during their 20s.

Among conservatives, 92% of those raised back East are hetero, but only 74% of those raised out West -- nearly double the geographic gap seen with place of current residence. Again the more resistant groups show narrow gaps: 97% vs. 91% of Republicans raised back East vs. out West, and 99% vs. 95% of frequent church attenders.

Looking into finer-grained regional differences without restricting to just conservatives in the current decade, it looks like the Mountain states take the lead in the explosion of bi-curiosity, although the Pacific and West South Central (AKA Greater Texas) are not far behind. However, the West North Central region (Western Midwest) is like the normal half of the country.

On a practical level, if you want to keep your children from growing up to be deviants, it looks like the strongest protection is going to church regularly. That strengthens them against the more deviant zeitgeist of today compared to 20 years ago, and it strengthens them against a surrounding culture of do-whatever-you-want like you find out West.

Parents are fairly impotent to raise a child properly all by themselves -- they are most effective by exposing the child to social pressures outside of the home, where no one has a vested genetic interest in catering to their selfish bullshit. The paranoid anti-society mindset found more out West -- homeschool the kids, don't let them have friends, worship God in your own way at home, etc. -- is bound to warp their development and predispose them to deviance in adulthood. Only society can socialize children.

GSS variables: numwomen, year, race, sex, age, polviews, partyid, attend, region, reg16

11 comments:

  1. This is all confounded by the fact that many of today's conservatives are simply non-multicultural leftists (albeit with a fondness for the market, which is historically not exactly conservative anyway). They are anti-Islamic immigration e.g. because they don't like gay-bashing or women being groped en masse. It's a lonely place to be, politically. In Europe such types have been labeled "identity liberals," or against multiculturalism partially in order to preserve Enlightenment liberalism's tolerance and even celebration of hedonism.

    FOX News almost certainly has many of this type working for it.

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  2. I frequently wonder whether all of this is in fact from an infection of some kind.

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  3. I wonder if this trend also reflects changes in sex education over the past generation. I have the impression that secular sex ed programs teach and encourages girls to masturbate and have orgasms as ends in themselves. This might have the effect of lowering girls' inhibitions about getting together with other girls to make each other come.

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  4. Eduardo the Magnificent1/9/16, 10:01 PM

    Almost all the girl on girl I saw in college was purely for attention. I doubt most women really want to "explore their sexuality" unless it's with an alpha male.

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  5. You didn't see two girls getting sexual with each other.

    The wording of the GSS question: "how many female partners
    have you had sex with"? Not one girl shaking her butt in another girl's lap, or kissing each other. "Had sex with".

    It's a private act, so attention is not the motive.

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  6. "I have the impression that secular sex ed programs teach and encourages girls to masturbate and have orgasms as ends in themselves."

    That certainly wouldn't help things, but I'm not sure that's one of the main causes. Over 20 years ago when I was in health class, the focus was entirely on the sex act itself -- protection, pregnancy, STDs, that kind of thing. It wasn't on orgasm, pleasure, or masturbation.

    I'm sure it was the same for the rest of the '90s. But girls were already starting to experiment with each other during that period.

    It's not clear that increased hedonism would lead to bisexuality. Another girl doesn't have what she needs. Usually bisexual girls say they're looking for more emotional comfort by being with girls, and when they really need to scratch their itch, they have to resort to guys again.

    It sounds more like someone who's emotionally awkward around the opposite sex (in a romantic context anyway), rather than someone who's looking to maximize their pleasure.

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  7. To clarify, the growth of laissez-faire norms allow people to do whatever they feel like.

    For hedonists, it leads to more hedonism.

    But it could also lead to more stunting and social regression, if that's what makes them feel comfortable. Hence girls wanting to retreat to only interacting with other girls. They aren't pursuing physical pleasure but lower anxiety levels, because maturing = stressful.

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  8. "It's a lonely place to be, politically."

    Right, the last time there were non-multi-culti leftists, during the Great Compression, their main focus was egalitarian economic policies (stronger unions, regulations against trusts / monopolies, etc.).

    To achieve those goals, they had to jettison their old support for open borders, back during the Gilded Age and turn-of-the-century when the Democrats were basically the Urban Immigrant Party. FDR led the transformation from that older orientation toward labor-friendly, immigrant-hostile New Deal Dems.

    But these "crunchy con" types are not for strengthening collective bargaining, breaking up monopolistic corporations, etc.

    They're much weaker on the national solidarity question, compared to real conservatives. And they don't bring much societal improvements from the liberal direction either. They won't be needed at the deal table.

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  9. As I have said in the harry potter thread, some of the increase in female bisexuality is a reaction/defense mechanism against male homosexuality.
    This phenomenon used to be confined to the most mentally healthy long term fag hags (most turned bi/lesbian after spending too much time around gays).
    Thanks to pop culture and other social factors, naive suburban girls have been turned into fag hags.
    TV shows with strong homoerotic/misogynist subtext like teenwolf on MTV are causing great amount of psychological damage on their young female audience.

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  10. I see bi-curiosity and fag-hagging as two symptoms of the same underlying disease, namely wanting to retreat from mature interactions with the opposite sex.

    Their gay BFF is more of a kid brother or adoptive baby than a maturing peer.

    And their experimental girl partner doesn't require her to emotionally mature in order to connect with those weird, confusing, frustrating members-of-the-opposite-sex.

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  11. Audacious Epigone has a post up about the regional popularity of MGTOW("Men going their own way"; in other words, men dropping out of the dating game). He compared the frequency with which Internet users search for the phrase "MGTOW", on a state-by-state basis, vs. how often they search for the phrase "how to get a girlfriend", state-by-state.

    Strikingly, what was discovered is that "MGTOW" is more popular out West, whereas "how to get a girlfriend" is more popular out east.

    http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-closing-of-matrimonial-mind.html

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