The Bisexual Dilemma

By Elizabeth Major on July 16, 2015 in Other

There is a substantial argument for the relativity of homosexuality. The idea is that nobody is truly gay or straight, but that everyone sits on a kind of spectrum according to sexual inclination. This theory is based on the Kinsey Scale (created by Alfred Kinsey in 1948) that proposed sexual desire as a rating from 0, exclusively heterosexual, to 6, exclusively homosexual. For the asexual, there is category x, meaning there are no socio-sexual contacts or reactions (as in, you’re being too fussy and probably masturbate to the Discovery Channel).

Apparently at level 3, you are equally heterosexual and homosexual, which means you’re anyone’s and probably a whole lot of fun after a few drinks. Traditionally, this was called bisexual; however, we now have the diplomatically correct term, pansexual, which goes to say that meaning you fall in love with the personality and the gender is irrelevant.

The social implications of sexuality should not be disregarded when you consider whether you are ‘“more than incidentally homosexual’” (that’s a level 2). Bisexuals may seem like they get the best of both worlds but they will often feel spurned by the exclusively homosexual crowd, who tend to be kind of elitist in their attitudes. There is the idea that someone who can jump the fence back to a level 0 at any moment isn’t really committed. If you haven’t suffered discrimination or marched in Mardi Gras, then you’re not really ‘gay’.

Of course, this is different for men. Actually, the gender roles have been expanded to such an extent for women that we are widely accepted as bisexuals. If pop culture is anything to go by, women are largely encouraged to kiss a girl every now and then. What Katy Perry left out was how society feels when a man decides to incidentally kiss a boy and like it. The sexuality boundaries for men are black and white with limited grey areas. While all fun and freedom-loving women are expected to go through a ‘lesbian phase’, the same is not true for men. According to society, there’s only a one-way road up Brokeback Mountain.

Throughout the animal kingdom, homosexual behaviour is widely enjoyed; however, most animals will return to heterosexuality for the purpose of propagation. In fact, lasting homosexuality is only found in about 10 percent of rams, which will refuse to mate with ewes but choose to mate with other rams. Homophobes out there may consider boycotting wool.

If you can spare a few moments to take a sexuality test on the Internet, a multiple-selection quiz determines your sexual preference with such hypothetical questions as: ‘In a moment of clumsiness, you accidentally touch a member of the opposite sex’s genitalia or ass …’. The possible reactions vary from a ‘tingly feeling’ to ‘traumatised for life’. Choose the website wisely, or you may get through the whole quiz and end up staring kind of bleakly at a blank page.

Perhaps one day the Kinsey scale will become obsolete and people will no longer have to define sexual orientation as a caveat for acceptance, because at the end of the day there’s a little gay in all of us, even if it’s just the length of a pinkie finger.