It's probably a difficult conversation, but in light of all these new labels for different sexual preferences and orientations I think it's important to remember these three popular misconceptions about sexuality and sexual orientation.
MYTH ONE: Christianity didn't cause mass repression of homosexual urges and that society "has always hated gay people"
This is an obvious one. Anyone who's taken any ancient history class knows homosexuality was rampant in even the most "masculine" cultures like Roman and Greek. It's one of those situations where we can say they built amazing things and had such a powerful culture, but ignroe the fact that they totally didn't agree with us about homosexuality being worse than heterosexuality or of the former being a form of sodomy. The reality is modern religions are some of the biggest reasons that mass hatred and repression of homosexual urges which even animals experience is still very much alive in the 21st century.
MYTH TWO: You wanted the same thing forever and ever...
You just like certain things because you're young and others because you're old. You could be into nothing but blowjobs and anal sex when you're 20 and nothing but slow tender missionary when you're 45. Neither is better, but it's a little strange when one person's sexual tastes never evolve into something else and is certainly not the norm.
MYTH THREE: You're attracted to "containers" instead of "features"
The truth is most hetero people are attracted to certain features namely the sexual organ of the opposite gender, but often one person does not have all of one or the other. For instance, Orlando Bloom has many feminine features in Lord Of The Rings, but he is still a "man." Many women were attracted to the face and yet by the logic that liking a trait of the same gender makes you gay--a lot of women were gay in their attraction to him. Yet, because we like to catagorize sexuality, on a conscious level, a straight woman could never enjoy masculine featuers like big muscles on another girl and a straight man could never enjoy long blonde hair on a man the same way he does on a woman. Yet, on a subconsious level, it's very possible you are attracted to a variety of people of both genders.
The reason no one wants to talk about these myths is because people are incredibly insecure about their sexualities and want to fit in. Yet, even as a man who has never been attracted to anything but the most feminine girls, I can admit that these myths are simply that...fabrications of reality that society generally reveres as holding some truth but actually holding none. I don't care if you don't want to let go of the boxes of straight or gay or demixsexual or asexual or whatever. Obviously, it brings a lot of comfort for people to think that they'll be one way their entire lives. But once you realize that no one is really "straight" or "gay" in the sense we use the word. (It's more of a lifestyle we choose rather than a sexuality.)
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