In this day, there are many most people categorize themselves into groups ( we do it here as well). With something as personal as sexuality, how important is it that you put a label on how you're identified by such?
Whatever makes you happy. If It doesn’t influence science or politics it’s none of my business and if it pisses off the religious extreamests I’ll fully support it.
I'm interpreting the question as "do I need my sexuality to be labeled?"
Generally speaking my answer would be no.
It's nobody's business except my own, and whomever I'm with as a romantic partner.
With that in mind, however, labels sure do come in handy when looking for that romantic partner. If someone's trying to set someone else up, it's handy to know that they're on the same playing field, so-to-speak.
But in a day-to-day way - nope, not needed.
Does involuntary celibacy count?
Counting the minutes or the years?
@CallMeDave It changes, but always involuntary.
It's only important in the general sense of whether I prefer men or women or both or neither. Anything more specific than that is just reductionist hair-splitting.
I hate being pigeonholed in anything. if it seems like id like it or not dislike it ill try it. I like just bending a woman over and going like a buck rabbit knocking things off of the table or listening to some sex music like a bit of Lionel Richie and taking my time. im I guess fairly vanilla-ish. not what you do but how you do it I think.
I do no labels, I am not a can or a jar.
People assume that because I'm "gay" this means I'm incapable of winning a fight, drinking them under the table, fishing, hunting, painting a house, fixing a sink, etc. I love when I dissapoint them by wiping the floor with a dude, drinking enough to kill Lindsey Lohan, hauling in a catfish, taking out a deer, making their house look brand new, stopping their sink from spraying shit and horror everywhere. I also boxed and played football in high school. If labeling me makes you feel better about yourself, I guess that's fine. What you shouldn't do is use that lable to make assumptions about how much of a guy I am.
Right on.
I think labels are important and useful. They are much maligned by people who don't understand how to correctly apply them. They are crucial in trying to group together to fight for our rights. And have you ever tried writing a dating profile without them?
Simple rules:
There are an awful lot of pseudo-sexualities floating around these days. Largely invented by bisexual people, tired of being accused of not having standards, and often conflating gender presentation based attraction with mechanical sexual interest.
The actual sexualities that I would recognise are:
Homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual and asexual (sexually interested in same sex, other sexes, both or neither.)
Androsexual and gynosexual/gynesexual - interested in male or female respectively, with no reference to the sex of the interested party.
Pansexual/polysexual - a flavour of bi, and essentially pseudo-sexualities. But I like the way that they go out of their way to encompass those outside the sexual binary (intersex and transsex) and that it treats the sex of a partner as completely irrelevant (a lot of bisexuals treat male and female very differently.)
They were, perhaps, helpful in the early research but our society seems to be moving to a place where they are of less or no use.
I can't really wrap my mind around the fact that some people identify with a sex that they were not born with unless they are to wear the description of gay or lesbian. At the same time, I have read that throughout medical history there have been several hermaphrodite births where the doctor took it upon themselves to choose the sex of the baby. In this case I can see why there may be hormonal or instinctual tendencies toward either and therefore contribute to the new gender blur that we currently observe. It doesn't offend me in any way but it is hard to wrap my mind around, being that I am hetero.
Yup. People often can't imagine anything they haven't personally experienced. I've never experienced being black, for instance, but I don't claim that being black is all in their heads because I've never been black. I can always tell who is cis hetero because of their declarations that such things as trans people are silly. It's not something they can conceive for themselves since they comfortable with their own birth gender identities.
I never truly understood why some people object to using words to describe themselves one way or another. I'm heterosexual, I'm cacasian, I'm male, I'm liberal, I'm an atheist. These labels describe who I am or how I view the world. Why wouldn't you want people you care about to appreciate who you are in a way they can understand
What do you mean by "sexuality?" There are many meanings-
1.your gender identity-what gender you feel you are, whether or not it matches your birth gender.
2.your sexual orientation, meaning which gender sexually attracts you, if any, depending on your own gender.
For instance, you'd be considered heterosexual if you were a man married to a woman, but if you transitioned to female and had the operations, yet stayed married to your wife, you'd then be considered a lesbian.
3.your gender presentation-how you dress and present yourself. For instance, if you are a bio woman but dress androgynously.
In any case, I am a bio female, I'm panromantic..I can fall in love with any gender, and I'm demisexual-I have no sexual attraction for any person or gender unless I've been with someone over a year. I am androgynous in presentation, and don't strongly identity with either gender, so I'm nonbinary.
I am a partial transmale..meaning that part of me-about 60%- identifies as male.