Link: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/most-straight-women-dont-want-to-date-bi-guys-but-most-straight-men-are-open-to-bi-women/

Two-thirds of straight women and one-third of straight men are unwilling to date a bisexual person of the opposite sex, according to a YouGov poll published today, during Bisexuality Visibility Week. The poll illustrates how lingering stereotypes negatively affect people’s impressions of bisexual individuals.

The poll — which surveyed 5,983 Britons during late March, including 2,031 straight women and 1,517 straight men — found that 48% of all respondents had positive views of bisexual people and only 8% had negative views. The remaining percentage had neither a positive nor a negative view of bisexuals.

...

When the survey asked straight women and men why they were unwilling to date a bisexual person of the opposite sex, most (16% and 19%, respectively) said they “just don’t” or claimed, “It’s just a preference.”

A nearly similar portion, 17% of straight women and 16% of straight men, said they felt like bi people are more inclined to cheat, or that they themselves would feel insecure that they’d be unable to provide a bi partner whatever they get from a same-sex partner.

Interestingly, 9% of straight women said they feel disgust or discomfort towards men with same-sex experiences, 8% worried about possible sexual health risks, and 10% of straight men said they considered bisexuality to be either religiously or morally “wrong.” Approximately 12-13% of all straight respondents said they just wanted their dating partner to be heterosexual.

I’ve observed this in some women’s groups over time - this aversion to bisexual men - and it’s always so disappointing to see it come up. There are women I’ve had to pull away from because of these views that bisexual men are somehow tainted or too feminine or whatever flavor of homophobic reasons they use to reject people based on an immutable trait.

I remember when I was a teen trying to figure myself out I came out to my parents as gay and they were supportive. But eventually I had a couple of girlfriends and after I had brought one of them home mom told me I should pick one team and stick with it because bi guys are icky.

She said it in such an offhand way that she probably doesn't remember, but that's the kind of thing that sticks with you. She believed that bisexual men were willing to fuck anything without standards which would lead to me being either deranged or diseased.

Joke's on her though: I'm so bad at picking teams I didn't even grow up to be a man

“Pick a team” …..ugh I’m so sorry she was so flippant during such a formable time in your life.

Had a good laugh at your last line though :)

There is so much internalized biphobia in our society. A lot of men sexualize bi women and think dating one means they will get threesomes. On the other side, a lot of women are convinced that bi men are twice as likely to cheat, or that they will eventually leave you for a man. And this kind of biphobia is present as well within the LGBTQ+ community, this is not inherent to straight people.

You’re right, biphobia is not found in straight people alone. I’ve been rejected within my own community because I’m bisexual and not a “gold star” lesbian. It stings even more that way to be honest.

I've dated bi guys, and my main objection is they didn't inform me prior (except for one, and he really was promiscuous, and didn't inform me about that), then wondered why I had a problem when I learned of their boyfriends, after months or years of unprotected sex.

These things stayed with me and put me off BI guys, altogether. It's not fair, but it's unfair to me to put myself through it again, after all that, so im simply not. There's too much baggage after too many years.

That said, I have been volcel almost four years because straight men are the same, and I'm sick of dealing with doting mothers who encourage bad behaviour, and mothers whose children can't do anything right and are dammed if you do, dammed if you don't, either... Including mine.

In a world where intense couples counseling and willing partners were to be found (rather than those few who appear willing for appeasement, wasting time, effort, money), I may, or not. But I can navigate friendships easier because of no emotional investment in romance, so it's just better that way. Plus I prefer monogamy.

Iow, it's complicated.

I’ve dated bi guys, and my main objection is they didn’t inform me prior (except for one, and he really was promiscuous, and didn’t inform me about that), then wondered why I had a problem when I learned of their boyfriends, after months or years of unprotected sex.

I'm honestly asking - do you require straight men to be forthright about how many women they slept with previously? Why not ask for a recent STI panel instead of their sexual history?

I said nothing about "previously."

I said they didn't inform me they were bi, didn't inform me they're promiscuous (promiscuity being in common with straights).

And I have asked for mutual testing, which didn't stop the ones who agreed from cheating and being caught.

they didn’t inform me prior

Apologies, this is what I read as "previously". That they didn't inform you before you started sleeping with them, not that they were cheating on you or not disclosing they were continuing to sleep with others.

Any bisexual man knows this. Painfully.

Bi people are some of the coolest people I know. Their loss, more for us.

<3

I have a right to know if a potential partner is bi, just as they have the right to know I'm cis. This is how honest conversations about expectations for any relationship that may develop begin. And I get that it's probably not appropriate at the first or fourth date, and why people may not want to disclose that. Just like I get relationships are built on trust, but that leap of faith has to happen sometime, or just disclose that it doesn't seem a compatible match. 🤷‍♀️

I think the only problem I have with any of this is assuming all bisexual men will act the same because they are bisexual. Or because they're men. I do still believe everyone has a right to date whom they want to be clear.

I feel uneasy with that first line "I have a right to know if a potential partner is bi". I have to sit with that for a minute before I can fully explain why that makes me uncomfortable.

I think you would have to have a deep cultural understanding of the rural deep south village of a couple of hundred deeply indoctrinated people. In a perfect world, it would be different. In a different community or location it may be different.

It's not any of those and every failure and all the work gets dumped on women anyway, when when people know it's the man's proclivities. This is still the times women who go nowhere and have no friends are expected to "agree" she infected her man, rather than her promiscuous man infecting her and still don't know where it came from, and will continue to infect women knowing they're infected because, "a man's going to be a man."

And what sucks is I've seen multiple times, men are generally more guilty of their homophobic views than women. Women will show a surface level support(most men don't do that) but they are almost as homophobic, and blatantly so when given a chance to open up.

As someone fully entrenched in the PNW corner of the US, that may be exactly where our differences in views come from.

Even if men are more likely to be cheaters, it’s still against all of my own held beliefs to treat all men as if they are cheaters. It’s a difference in systemic behaviors vs the individual. We can talk about the propensity for men to cheat, that our society ignores or otherwise condones men cheating, without assuming every single man will cheat.

I'm not sure men feel more guilty about their homophobic views, they're just more upfront about them lol

Yes, it is distressing to join up with other women thinking they are a safe space and come to find out they hold beliefs that are inherently biphobic. Even if they feel like their views only extend to bisexual men, it does extend to all bisexuals.

something about the numbers didn't make sense, until

The survey also included 824 gay men, 349 lesbian women, 396 bisexual men, and 866 bisexual women, and asked them about their willingness to date a bisexual person matching their preferred gender.

It's not an assumption. It's that im tired of of it and not going through it again.

It's that men generally exaggerate their homophobia to fit in groups, whereas women hide theirs better till they're in places where they feel their views would go unchallenged. Also yeah, comparing men's homophobia and women's is comparing apples to oranges.

It's like, they are more guilty, but they better be for the kind of shit they've said.

I thought the whole point of this last decade+ is that people should take what they can get.

Oh wait, I forgot about the homophobic propaganda.

It’s that im tired of of it and not going through it again.

That's really understandable.

Straight guy here from /all. Unfortunately, a big chunk of my cohort will have responded favorably because they are dreaming of a female partner that will gift them a threesome.

And they, too, are engaging in biphobia with that logic.

I'm a straight woman who very briefly dated a bi guy. I never cared. It felt like none of my business who he had been with before me. He was an absolute sweetheart, and I miss him dearly.

What happen to him?

But the numbers are almost same order of magnitude, is it really that bad?

Not sure that's how a "phobia" works.

It's biphobic to assume that bisexual women all want threesomes.

We can debate about if there's a better word for leaning into harmful stereotypes of bisexual people, but the closest term we have currently is biphobia.

Biphobia (monosexism) refers to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination toward those who are bisexual

If prejudice doesn't always have a negative connotation, then the assumption that all bisexual women are into threesomes still falls under 'biphobia'.

Word meanings also evolve over time and usage. They're not static.

I mean if you're consistently wrong then yeah, I guess. Doesn't make you any less wrong though.

I'm so glad you came into this discussion to be pedantic about the kind of discrimination bisexual people go through. Good job, buddy.

We're quite literally not talking about discrimination. Kinda noticing a pattern here.

I’m sure all bisexual women really love it when men assume they’re into threesomes as performative sex dolls. It’s a really positive view of bisexual women that certainly doesn’t fall under the biphobia umbrella /s

When does a use different from the most ancient one stop being called a "misuse"?
Especially talking about not a word, but its etymology?

Pretty sure a significant quantity of the words you use were at some point described as "misuses", "mistakes", or something similar.

I say that as someone who hates seeing/hearing scandals be called "something-gate" in reference to Nixon's Watergate scandal. Same with "something-ception" in reference to the movie Inception. So I understand the feeling, but this kind of take mostly contribute to elitism.

What matters most in any language is the ability to communicate, not the conformity to a (potentially idealised) static snapshot of the language rules.

It’s biphobic to assume that bisexual women all want threesomes.

would downvote if i could. potustheplant didn't say that "all women want threesomes", only that some men hope that some women want threesomes.

would downvote if i could. there's no evidence that "homophobic propaganda" makes up for the people who don't want a bi partner. i'm pretty sure that people can have their own opinions and feelings without having to attribute everything to propaganda.

His argument is that it isn't biphobia to assume bisexual women want threesomes because "phobia" means fear of.

Those men are being biphobic if they are dating a bisexual person with the express interest of them being a sex doll willing to do threesomes with them because of their sexual orientation.

Not saying it's positive or ok, it's just not discrimination.

Their personal preferences are rooted in homophobia whether they're conscious of it or not if they refuse to date someone because of that person's sexual orientation.

Bisexual people are not different from straight people in any meaningful sense when it comes to monogamous relationships.

It is biphobia. It is an assumption of someone based on their sexual orientation.

Sociology concepts named "something-phobia" are not the same thing as the similarly named concepts (classified in the "phobia" family) in psychology and psychatry.

Usually, meaning can vary with context. The discussed field in such a context.

I never understood the bi hate. Even before I ever met a bi person, it seemed easy to understand - they're sexually attracted to either gender. Whether or not someone is a cheater type is completely separate and has nothing to do with it.

That's prejudice. This is turning into the joey meme xd

Biphobia (monosexism) refers to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination toward those who are bisexual