What do you think of all of the different labels on romantic/sexual orientation

I think it's great from anyone in the community who understands them, but it's highly unfair to expect any random person to understand any of these terms and what they mean. It gets pretty complicated and I barely understand a lot of them.

 

This! Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

I think it's awesome that people use labels to describe themselves as accurately as possible. I encourage it, because it makes you feel validated.

But for some words, I think that people should understand that most people have no knowledge besides LGBTQ, and straight of course...

So basically what I'm saying is that we should try to educate people on the different sexualities, but we should also understand that most of the time, the average person will not know what "androsexual" is for example, and that we should be understanding when people don't know.

 

Yeah just the other day I had to explain to a friend that there was a term for what he was describing to me and it blew his dang mind X3

He's apparently bisexual but heteromantic =P

 

I dunno.

I agree. It's kinda confusing. I'm seeing all these terms like 'genderqueer' and stuff, and I'm like: "Well ok then."

I mean, I legitimately don't understand it all, and if I wasn't a procrastinator, I would look up all these terms... but I am, so I won't. :lol:



...But you do what you want, ya know? I mean, your sexual orientation is important, so... yeah.



What is wrong with me lately.

 

It's good I think, to be able to precisely narrow down what you mean. But like others have mentioned, only to people who are capable of understanding such labels.

Like I would never tell my parents, "Oh, I'm a panromantic grey-asexual with a preference for trans-women." They would look at me as if I'd sprouted horns. Because in their (and many others) minds, there only exists straight, gay, and maybe bisexual.

While I wish we didn't need labels, they can be very valuable and informative if used correctly and with the right people.

 

Somewhat unnecessary but I won't judge the usage of them by others. I am demisexual by technical standards- to the point I do not relate to any other lesbians on this site- but I don't find any use in labeling myself that way personally. "Super picky lesbian with high standards" works for me.

 

Not a lady so can't really be a lesbian obviously, but totally demisexual as well *highfives*

 

I think microlabeling is great for understanding how you relate yourself to sexuality, however past that, I don't think it's especially practical (especially the labels which go past three words).

To me, it's similar to asking someone what their favourite colour is, and getting "dark cyan under fluorescent lighting" as a response. Sure, it's accurate, and yeah, i guess that colour exists, but just blue would have sufficed.

*Im not trying to invalidate anyone's orientation.

 

Labels make things easier for other people to know what you are, but its important not to confine and limit yourself to that label.

 

I agree. You guys have solid points worth considering.

And that's why my orientation reads *shrug* because I'm just... tired of fooling with it. :lol:

 

As someone who studies language, I should probably take the time to get to know what many of these highly-specialized idiosyncratic labels mean. Yet I don't seem to be interested...

If coming up with an esoteric label helps you feel comfortable with your sexuality, then go for it. But I will echo the others and say that it's unrealistic to expect other people, especially the general non-LGBT public, to understand them or put effort into understanding them.

 

I get the point. I just think there's too many terms for the average person to understand (I barely understand them and I've memorized every fucking Pokemon- what does that make me?) The other problem is that many of the more exotic labels like alloromantic, omnisexual, or so on can mean different things for different people. We also have too many terms that mean almost the exact same thing (like pansexual versus bisexual) which compounds the confusion even more.

 

While I respect the right to self-identification, I feel most humans fall into one of three categories: 1)they like penises (and the bodies of penis holders), 2)they like vagina and breasts (and the bodies of vagina and breast holders) 3) both 1 and 2.

I sometimes feel people really suffer from Special Snowflake Syndrome when they deviate from the most "common" labels or go out of their way to label themselves. Of course, I am not a subject-matter expert in this.

Just don't fuckin' get mad if someone doesn't know what "demisexual" or some other arcane word means.

 

'Demisexual' seems to me like more of a personal preference rather than a hardwired part of your orientation. Or even something like Kaiser's 'Sapio-bisexual' meaning "attracted to intelligence."

It's really great if you figured yourself out that specifically but yeah I think the point of a label is to make it easier to explain what you are, not more complicated lol

 

I don't have strong feelings on them either way. I think some of them are redundant or vague, but I also have no idea how to sort out the mess that is figuring out people's attractions and some of the paradoxes.

Pretty much, people should do what they want with their own labels for better or for worse.

 

It's difficult for me to understand.. but if people feel it solidifies their identities or makes them feel more comfortable with themselves, I'm all for it. I mean, I also don't think it's fair to expect everyone to understand what the label means but it's not like you approach people with "hey, I'm so-and-so and I'm a demi-romantic lesbian" so I guess that doesn't matter too much. I know that if someone informs me that they identify as something like this, I would try to understand for their sake.

 

I don't care how people label themselves, but I do think it complicates things somehow. Not for me -- I understand what the labels mean -- but even for people trying to figure themselves out. You see a lot of posts on EC asking "Am I this or that complicated label?" when it seems like the first question you should ask is "Am I attracted to this gender, or that gender, or these genders?"
I feel it would be simpler to reduce the number of labels and figure out the basics of your orientation, and then learn to understand yourself better.

As for using them with non-LGBT folks... I like the word pansexual very much, but I hardly use it in non-English-speaking, non-LGBT places. Bisexual is accurate and much easier to put out there. And I'm only pansexual, not X-romantic Y-sexual.