Some research indicates that as much as 15% of the U.S. population identifies as heteroflexible.
The term can be controversial, as some suggest that it contributes to bi-erasure and bi-invisibility.
Others suggest that such claims minimize the identities of those who use the heteroflexible label.
Diego Duarte Cereceda / Unsplash
However, our society still expects people to be heterosexual as the defaulta phenomenon known asheteronormativity.
What Is Heteronormativity?
The term heteroflexible has recently emerged to describe people who have same-sex desires but still identify as primarily heterosexual.
Heteroflexibility vs. Bisexuality
Heteroflexibility is a subcategory of bisexuality.
If you’re bisexual, you’re attracted to both men and women.
Men who acted in feminine ways and were the receiving partner were called “fairies” rather than gay.
It was all aboutgender performance, rather than attraction.
As the 20th century moved on, however, ideas of heterosexuality and homosexuality took hold as identities.
These categories have been more or less flexible throughout the last hundred years.
Some suggest that some people might choose heteroflexibility as a label as a way to minimize stigma.
What Makes Someone Gay?
Some people think that one instance of same-gender attraction or sex makes someone gay or a lesbian automatically.
This is obviously not the case.
Bisexual people have sex with people of the same gender without being gay.
Some suggest that the label of heteroflexibility can give people the comfort to explore same-sex attractions.
In this light, heteroflexibility is just as genuine and significant as any other orientation.
It is important to remember that people self-define and choose their own labels.
Labels can be helpful in some ways.
They may help people learn to embrace their own identity and find a community of support, for example.
2019;48(5):1403-1422. doi:10.1007/s10508-018-1336-y
GLAAD.The U.S. bisexual+ movement: A #BiWeek history lesson.
Basic Books; 1995.
2016;(88):1-14.
Wunderman Thompson.Gen Z goes beyond gender binaries in new Innovation Group data.
