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Bisexuality is a sexual orientation which refers to the romantic and/or sexual attraction of individuals to other individuals of both their own and the opposite gender (socially) or sex (biologically). Most bisexuals are not equally attracted to men and women and may even shift between states of finding either gender or sex exclusively attractive over the course of time. However, some bisexuals are and remain fairly static in their level of attraction throughout their adult life.

In the mid-1940s, Alfred Kinsey devised the Kinsey scale in an attempt to measure sexual orientation. The 7-point scale has a rating of 0 ("exclusively heterosexual") to 6 ("exclusively homosexual"). Bisexuals cover most of the scale's values (1–5), which range between "predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual" (1) to "predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual" (5). In the middle of the scale (3) is "equally heterosexual and homosexual".

Although observed in a variety of forms in human societies and in the animal kingdom throughout recorded history, the term bisexuality (like the terms hetero- and homosexuality) was only coined in the 19th century.

Bisexual people are not necessarily attracted equally to both sexes. Because bisexuality is often an ambiguous position between homosexuality and heterosexuality, those who identify, or are identified, as bisexuals form a heterogeneous group.

Others view bisexuality as more ambiguous. Some people who might be classified by others as bisexual on the basis of their sexual behavior self-identify primarily as homosexual. Equally, otherwise heterosexual people who engage in occasional homosexual behavior could be considered bisexual, but may not identify as such. For some who believe that sexuality is a distinctly defined aspect of the character, this ambiguity is problematic. It is sometimes argued that the behavior of bisexuals may be explained by subconscious homophobia or peer pressure. On the other hand, some believe that the majority of people contain aspects of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but that the intensities of these can vary from person to person.[citation needed] Some people who engage in bisexual behavior may be supportive of homosexual people, but still self-identify as heterosexual; others may consider any labels irrelevant to their positions and situations. In 1995, Harvard Shakespeare professor Marjorie Garber made the academic case for bisexuality with her 600-page Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life in which she argued that most people would be bisexual if not for "repression, religion, repugnance, denial...premature specialization."

Some bisexuals make a distinction between gender and sex. Gender is defined in these situations as social or psychological category, characterized by the common practices of men and women. For example, the fact that women wear skirts and dresses in Western society while men traditionally do not is a gender issue. Sex in this case is defined as the biologcal difference between males and females, prior to any social conditioning. Bisexuals in this sense may be attracted to more than one gender but only to one sex. For example, a male bisexual may be attracted to aspects of men and masculinity, but not to the male body. Such a person's attractions may manifest themselves through sexual activities other than anal sex with other males.

Bisexuality is often misunderstood as a form of adultery or polyamory, and a popular misconception is that bisexuals must always be in relationships with men and women simultaneously. Rather, individuals attracted to both males and females, like people of any other orientation, may live a variety of sexual lifestyles. These include lifelong monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, polyfidelity, casual sexual activity with individual partners, casual group sex, and celibacy. For those with more than one sexual partner, these may or may not all be of the same gender.

Terminology

The term bisexual was first used in the 19th century to refer to intersexed people. By 1914 it had begun to be used in the context of sexual orientation. Some bisexuals and sex researchers are dissatisfied with the term and have developed a variety of alternative or supplementary terms to describe aspects and forms of bisexuality. Many are neologisms not widely recognized by the larger society.