I’m a man. Only ever dated, been attracted to women. Recently I met this guy and I’m having weird feelings. I can’t quite tell if I’m attracted to him as a person or just like the way he treats me; nonetheless something makes me want to treat him differently than any other guys - the way I would a girl I suppose. My friends say I might be attracted to femininity in general regardless of gender and that’s why I feel this way, and the reason why it hasn’t surfaced until now is because I haven’t yet met a guy to tick those boxes. Wondering if anyone has been through something similar.
Everyone, and I think probably especially intellectual people, questions their sexuality (am I attracted to the opposite gender in some way?) and at least their gender expression (am I masculine / feminine enough?) to some extent. It’s no different for a lot of people I think than imposter syndrome and can be tied to a lack of self confidence.
Everyone is also capable of fantasizing about, basically, whatever, and enjoying it, without the fantasy or enjoyment having to mean anything about how they feel about themselves or how others will feel about them.
Also, sexual preference, as kinks and fetishes, develop and change in men at least until some surprising age, like, into your 50s. Like you could live your entire life identifying and living as a one thing and by fifty-five be identifying as something else. I think, and I’m not sure yet, be that’s just life. Most people who don’t live in a safe space bubble and don’t leave their home town or school aged friend group have to reinvent themselves multiple times in life.
Also also, sexual pleasure and gratification is a full body and mind experience and it’s possible that different partners stimulate and gratify different parts of that experience, even different encounters with the same partners. And none of that has to be carried around with you as if it changes anything about who you are or how you should be treated.
And lastly, it’s fine to treat this person and anyone else in a positive and fun way for both of you. It could be that this person expresses themselves femininely and so your instinct is to be a little different, whether that’s with more compassion and tenderness and even flirty, and I would say confusion is probably a very healthy and intelligent, internal reflex to something like this that is new to you.
And finally, anyone that says the Roman Empire collapsed because of all the fucking without making babies is a right cunt. If society collapses because of who any of us are fucking then it was coming either way.
Always remember that sexuality is not “I was born this way” sexuality changes throughout everyone’s life. Just like ones gender.
It’s a spectrum of many things and many ways from no sexual feelings to all sexual feelings towards any or no genders.
There is no binary there is no definite answer. It’s whatever you feel. And that’s completely ok.
Just to expand, having a fixed sexuality that is unchangeable is an expression of “homonormativity”, which is to say it is queer identity that tries to coexist within the heteronormative default without challenging it.
It is easy to box oneself into a sexuality archetype like “gay” or “bi” or “ace” because they provide convenient labels that can be used to more easily understand/relate to others, and it helps to be able to organize and rally under a defined identity, but it fails to acknowledge that not everyone can perfectly fit the same mold, nor are they inherently going to follow the same path throughout life.
Semi-relevant side story: over Thanksgiving, I went to visit my folks, and walked in on them watching some cable TV channel which was airing an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond about (fittingly enough for my visit) a misunderstanding that Ray’s brother might be gay. And so there were some deeply uncomfortable canned laugh tracks at gay stereotype jokes that made my skin crawl before the two brothers confirmed their mutual heterosexuality, to great relief of both, but there was one line that stuck with me as having something of a grain of truth (paraphrasing): “Maybe I could be gay and I just haven’t met the right guy yet”.
Obviously if you’re a man who is into women 99% of the time but one day end up genuinely attracted to a guy, it doesnt make you “gay” (bi, maybe) but I’d argue that no one is inherently “gay”, nor can one be perfectly “straight”. Heteronormativity instills that concept of essentialism in order to perpetuate the “us vs them” binary of sexuality, and so essentialist identities are as much a trap as they are a convenience. People are better off thinking less “What am I” and more “Who am I attracted to”, and accepting that can change over time.
I think gayness is a spectrum. Likewise, I think emotions are not back and white. So you could have some feelings for this guy, you could be confused, and if this was ancient Greece you probably would have slept with him by now, but whether you see him as a partner or a little brother you want to protect is a conscious choice you can make.
Nah.
I identify as bi but I don’t really find myself attracted to outwardly masculine or ‘normal’-looking guys, often, as you said, femininity is a thing, and consideration. There’s also the pansexual concept which transcends traditional borders. I do find enby peeps attractive too.
Yep, have been doing so for a few years now. I’m happily married to a woman so it’s somewhat irrelevant what my feelings towards men and NB people are.
But fi you’re single and the guy is open to dating give it a shot.
Btw, questioning things is usually a healthy thing to do. And sexually or attraction is complex. For some people it’s also (or more) about personality and less about body features. Or it’s multiple factors. You can be attracted to more than one gender. It’s a wide bandwidth. And there’s a lot of different things out there. You do you.
No. I like feminine women who are healthy, strong, and supportive, and always have.
One day you will meet a weak, sickly woman who will knock your socks off.
Maybe I will. There are many kinds of strengths.
Identify as straight. F1nn5ter could absolutely get it.
Finn identifies as genderfluid now, right? I think that means it’s less gay than being with a man.
Benicio del Toro?
Only when my wife gets out her strap-on.
Nothing wrong with that.
😩😳
In the teenage boy caught in the hyper masculine world of American highschool? Yes.
In the actualized adult trying to understand myself and the world? Also yes.
Its like a math question. You need to show your working, even if you guess the right answer, or you don’t get full marks for it.
I’ve never questioned the sexuality itself, in fact it was a friend of mine who had to inform me I was asexual (aceflux to be exact). I did not question it, but he had realized he was asexual based on conversations with his siblings, and he let me know based on the signs that caused him to realize it. I in turn went to his GF and did the same thing. We’re all asexual.
The biggest sign, for those wondering, is really just that NSFW thoughts don’t come naturally, and it was profound enough in us that, in my guy friend’s case, he thought that when people get physically lovey-dovey with each other, it was simply a form of rebellion against social norms. One day he was asked why he and his GF don’t “do it” and he had the epiphany “wait, I didn’t know that’s something we’re supposed to do”.
Even more intriguing is we all have different “fetishes” that all correspond so little to relationships and would be irrelevant to anything we encounter in daily life that our minds did not connect the “feeling” of the fetishes to “doing the act”. So a lot of people have looked at us, the two friends being in a relationship and me being in one with a non-asexual (but who is genderfluid), and they see we get “turned on”, and they think we’re offensively misusing the asexual label, unaware that it’s not cut and dry. Often I’m asked to explain how, in their words, such a thing is possible, as if someone whom the whole concept of sexuality is alien to couldn’t ask them the same thing, and it’s even a source of hate as people looking to hook up with me think it’s just a trend/phase/excuse.
Aside from all of that, I’ve also had enough trans friends that occasionally the thought goes to my mind that maybe I myself should start questioning it, which is why there will be times when I am identified externally as the gender I am not. I, however, don’t identify as trans at the moment, not that I am fully aware. I have always identified as female. Though I’m jealous of my friends for having acedar (the asexual equivalent to gaydar) while I seem to have a subconscious transdar.
I never really questioned my sexuality, but I did have an experience that somewhat confirmed it for me.
I’ve had a fairly open relationship with my wife and we’ve brought people in for various reasons, and I had the opportunity to have a devil’s threesome with my (at the time) brother from another mother, and during a lul when my wife had to use the bathroom, we kept the mood going ourselves. Found out that I’m definitely not (physically) into AMABs, and they (eventually) found out they were trans. I still love the hell out of her even if I don’t talk to her nearly as much as I’d like (damn life always life-ing), and I have a couple non-sexual semi-ronantic relationships with AMABs in my life, and one of my partners is a (semi-transitioned) trans-man.
All that to say, you never know if you don’t try. And if you feel that the person is safe/trustworthy/receptive enough, it can’t hurt to test the waters and see. You may find out that you’re bi, demi or pan. And you might just have your cis-het confirmed as well. But you’ll never know unless you’re willing to make that step.
I saw gay porn once and was immediately sure that I’m hetero. That’s definitely not the flavor for me. If how I felt is how gay people feel when they see hetero sex in movies, then you guys have my condolences. Yuck!
