One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles said gender isn’t a priority when it comes to relationships. His band mate, Liam Payne, said it was for him. But Styles said “it wasn’t that important.” Styles cited “sense of humor” and being “nice to people” as priorities. The ambiguity of Styles’ sexual orientation has many people curious and upset. He dated Taylor Swift, for goodness sake. Doesn’t that mean he’s straight? Is the 20-year-old just going through a phase? What does it matter?
To answer such questions, the media has turned to psychologists for answers. Lisa Diamond, a professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah told The Advocate: “It’s far more common to be someone who is a little bit attracted to the same sex than someone who is exclusively attracted to the same sex.” This isn’t news as Talula on Yahoo who points out: “Kinsey’s research at Indiana University suggested many decades ago [1940s and 1950s] that sexual orientation is on a continuum and not at all rigid… it was not uncommon even then for both men and women to express sexual interest in the same sex to varying degrees. Bisexuality among both genders was found to be much more normal than expected – and this was in the 40’s!” Of all the comments and rationales left in the comments section of the Yahoo article, Talula’s received the most turned-down thumbs.
