Less than half of adolescent girls in Barcelona declare themselves exclusively heterosexual
Nearly 10% of male and female students between the ages of 13 and 19 declare that they are attracted only to people of the same sex. It is practically the same percentage in boys (9,7%) than in girls (9,8%), according to the report FRESH (Risk Factors in Secondary School Students) of the Barcelona Public Health Agency.
But When talking about bisexuality, to different degrees, it is clear that girls are more open than boys. In fact, less than half of girls declare themselves exclusively heterosexual (48,5%) and more than a third of the boys (77,7%).
If we look at young people who are usually attracted to people of their sex, but sometimes also to the other, the difference is 7,5% of girls compared to 2,9% of boys. There is even greater distance when sexual attraction is indistinct: 11,4% of girls compared to 2,1% of boys.
In the same line, 15,8% of girls declare that they are usually attracted to boys, but sometimes also to girls. In the case of boys, only 3,7% say that they are also sometimes attracted to boys.
“Deconstructing labels”
Alba Alfageme, professor in the department of psychology at the Girona University, assures that the new generations are “deconstructing labels” that had been entrenched for many years. “There is a change in the conception of sexuality and thanks to feminism many barriers have been broken. Women have stopped classifying while patriarchy is very noticeable in boys. Masculinity weighs them down and that represses the fact of feeling desire towards another boy”, he admits alfageme.
The survey FRESH It was carried out on young people from the city of Barcelona, chosen in a representative manner, so 1.220 second-year ESO students were interviewed, 1.062 four-year ESO students, 730 second-year Baccalaureate students and 378 intermediate training cycles. 51,2% of the interviewees were girls while 48,8% were boys.
