Unpacking Why College Bisexual Women Experience More Sexual Assault

This piece examines why bisexual college women experience disproportionately high rates of sexual assault—35–40% compared to about 25% of heterosexual women—and argues that existing explanations centered solely on bisexual stigma overlook key dynamics in college sexual culture. Using new analyses of the Online College Social Life Survey, the research suggests that bisexual women’s elevated vulnerability is less about individual traits and more about their intersectional position as women and sexual minorities navigating stigmatizing, disrespectful, and male-dominated environments. Openness to diverse sexual experiences appears to heighten risk, and bisexual women whose most recent partner was a man face an even greater likelihood of sexual assault than heterosexual women partnered with men, pointing toward possible patterns of gendered disrespect or attempts to police sexuality. The findings underscore the need for more research focused specifically on bisexual women and those with bisexual behavior, and they highlight how gender inequality, sexual double standards, and bisexual stigma intersect to create predictable, structural patterns of harm—not failures on the part of survivors, but failures of perpetrators and the systems that enable them.