Understanding Sexuality

[aswanson]

If you feel comfortable sharing--how do you understand sexuality? Do you feel it is rather fluid?Like a spectrum? Do you feel there are categorizations?

[mikehiggins]

1. I'm in the fluid camp

I really don't feel that people are always locked in a specific catagory, all neat and clean and locked in a box. When I was eighteen (a long, long time ago) I sometimes mentioned that I was pan-sexual in my view, as in open to just about anything. This, naturally, was shocking to my peers but since I was getting nowhere sexually with anyone of any gender it was actually rather academic. To me, the fact that my eyes were in my head, and not in my penis, sort of hinted it didn't really care where it wound up as long as the destination was warm and moist.

I have spent most waking moments largely heterosexual, to which I attribute the existence of my two wonderful kids, but there have been times when I have been attracted to men though never actually enough to risk public opprobrium (just love that spell checker ) by acting on the urges. As I got older I sort of drifted into an asexual state which now, at seventy, suits me just fine.

I marvel, sometimes, at how passionate people can be about their sexuality, to the degree that it is a very significant part of their daily existence. I cannot claim to ever having been that obsessed with it. I almost always enjoyed the sexual act, but chocolate...

[LostOne4Ever]

2. There is a lot we don't know

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=#009999]But we do know that it is not something a person chooses.

We do know that it is not something that we can control or force to change.

THAT said, I do believe that, for a very few people, under very rare and unknown circumstances, one's orientation can change over the course of their lifetimes. But again, it is not something we choice or that we can control.

I think there are multiple continuums of various sexualities. Further, I don't think sexuality can be broken into neat categories. Sexual and Gender fluidity, sexual flexibility, and many other factors makes it just too complex.

BUT, if I a gun was put to my head and I had to group things I tend to see things like this:[/font]

• Sexual identities
  
  
  • Multisexual Spectrum Identities
    
    
    • Bisexual
    
    
    • Pansexual
    
    
    • Polysexuals of various types
    
    
  • Homosexuals
  
  
  • Heterosexual
  
  
  • Misc. Sexualities that don't fit any of the above

Non-sexual identities

• Asexual


• Grey-sexual spectrum identities


• Grey-sexual (low levels of or low frequency of sexual attraction to others)


• Demisexual


• Misc. Grey-sexualities that don't fit any of the above