Written by theimpossiblek | Posted under personal
Funny, I vowed to never post on this topic again… but I couldn’t help myself. I was listening to a podcast called Science Talk today, and in this podcast, Dr. Epstein talks about his studies on the spectrum of human sexuality. He argues against labels like “gay” or “straight” because the truth is, most humans aren’t entirely one or the other.
If you’d like to see how “straight” (or “gay”) you are, here’s a link to his sexual orientation test:
Epstein’s Sexual Orientation Inventory.
Epstein’s scale runs from 0 to 13. 0 = completely heterosexual, and 13 = completely homosexual. The results are weighed in two ways- First, it gives your “mean sexual orientation” score. If your score is lower than 7, you lean more towards the heterosexual end of the scale. The second score determines your “sexual orientation range.” Basically, the higher that score, the greater flexibility you have in choosing how you behave sexually.
I took the test. Here are my results:
My Mean Sexual Orientation is 7
My Sexual Orientation Range is 12
Not surprising, really. :: smirk ::
Another interesting point:
Epstein wrote an article in Scientific American last year called “Do Gays Have a Choice?” I love how he compares sexual orientation to being right- or left-handed. It’s an interesting analogy for me, because I could go either way… In both cases, my “flexibility” is not something I deliberately chose. It’s a blessing, I think, because I get to dabble a bit with both perspectives. 
potentate on 23 Feb 2008 at 3:52 am #
Ha. I got ten and two. I agree completely with the results, but wonder if they could even possibly be valid–eighteen questions? That’s it?
theimpossiblek on 23 Feb 2008 at 1:41 pm #
Yeah… and the type of questions only explore one facet of orientation- strictly sexual. Which, for me, is very limiting indeed.
María on 23 Feb 2008 at 11:49 pm #
Hi! My answer in the test is:
Your Mean Sexual Orientation is 5.5
Your Sexual Orientation Range is 7
But I don’t understand very well the diference between the two and what am I? Lesbian or bi??
Thank you very mucho for your help!
joel on 24 Feb 2008 at 4:11 pm #
i coulda told you this one:
Your Mean Sexual Orientation is 1.5
Your Sexual Orientation Range is 3
i agree, could not be accurate with such few questions and the types of questions themselves.
it doesn’t account for a lot of things that I won’t go into.
theimpossiblek on 24 Feb 2008 at 8:27 pm #
Maria- You could be bi, but your score leans more towards hetero… still, how you interpret the scores is up to you.
My scores leaned more toward lesbian, but I’d never consider myself such, even though I’d agree that my level of sexual attraction towards both (0) is equal. ::shrug::
O-Mo on 28 Feb 2008 at 11:45 am #
Heh-heh. 8.5, range of 3. Hm…
baby on 19 Mar 2008 at 7:51 am #
Nice website!!