Abstract
Male sexual orientation is commonly associated with gender non-conformity, in other words homosexual men show, on average, more feminine characteristics compared to heterosexual men. This article reviews the development of tools for measuring masculinity-femininity, and summarizes the research on the association between gender non-conformity and male homosexual orientation.
Importantly, we show that results of many studies are ambiguous, showing that the link between sexual orientation and gender non-conformity is more complex than it might look. We show that despite homosexual men being on average more feminine than heterosexual men, sexual orientation and gender non-conformity are two independent phenomena, and gender conforming homosexual individuals have been systematically overlooked in the current psychological research.
The future research on sexual orientation should take into account both the masculine and feminine sub-type of homosexual men, or control for gender non-conformity. Thus, different sub-types of homosexual men won't be studied as a homogenous group.
The aim of this critical review is to outline a new model of the relationship between sexual orientation and gender non-conformity, and demonstrate the existence of both gender conforming and non-conforming homosexual men, a topic crucial for future psychological and biological empirical research, and also for clinical psychology.