Ascribing Sexual Orientations
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to suggest a somewhat different approach to the contemporary discussion of human sexual orientations. Instead of examining the nature of sexual orientation itself, it discusses the meanings of ascriptions of sexual orientation. (The discussion is confined to cases where the subject of ascription is female.) The paper begins with a survey of some prevalent ways of interpreting ascriptions of sexual orientation. It then comments on the variations in their meanings, and considers what the speaker is doing when uttering such an ascription. It concludes with some comments about an apparently anomalous sexual orientation, bisexuality.Metrics
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