Page 84 - Cosmopolitan India (January 2020)

love & lust

LET’S acceptability of an ever-

widening sexuality spectrum,
says US-based Jane Ward,
TALK PhD, an associate professor
of gender and sexuality
studies at the University of
ABOUT California, Riverside. What
might have shocked us a few
years ago no longer does.
These days, when I hear of
SEXUAL a woman who has changed
sexual preferences, I think,
‘Well...she’s just like me’.
FLUIDITY SWITCHING SIDES

For most of my life, I
considered myself straight.
I crushed on boys in school,
It seems like more people—a slew of loved Channing Tatum,
celebs, some of your friends—are no and flirted with men at

longer strictly hetero or strictly not. bars. I always assumed my
dating life would limp along
Katie Heaney explores the increase until I found the right guy.
in elastic attraction. Now and again, though, I’d
wonder if my interest
in women went beyond the
ex has never authors Elizabeth Gilbert average straight girl’s.
been simple. and Glennon Doyle Melton By 28, I was ready to
But lately, (who had previously been find out. I created a lesbian
“Swe’ve been married to men) announced dating profile and started
flooded with examples of they were dating women. swiping. Within a span
just how nuanced it can be. Look around and you of three weeks, I met the
A text I received from my may realise that a growing woman who’s now my
friend Chiara framed the number of your pals—who girlfriend, and came out as
shift: ‘It kinda now seems once had serious BFs—are ‘gay, I think’. The idea that I than men, research suggests.
like everyone is gay...or at now in relationships with was gay all along doesn’t Evolutionarily speaking,
least a little.’ women, too. And although quite line up with the this may have helped them
The high-profile it seems to happen less genuine flutters I’d get when raise kids or reduce tension
examples? Kristen Stewart frequently, some men— I liked a boy. Yet I wouldn’t with other females in
and Cara Delevingne like Younger actor Nico call myself bisexual, either. polygynous (multiple wives,
publicly admitted they Tortorella—have admitted That grey area is where one husband) relationships,
were in love with their to dating guys and girls. the concept of sexual fluidity although some experts argue
girlfriends (now exes); Parks Such sexual fluidity— stems from. Attractions it could more likely be due
and Rec star Aubrey Plaza, being attracted to whomever, can swing back and forth— to social and cultural factors.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress regardless of gender—is sometimes once or twice Whatever the genesis,
Stephanie Beatriz, and It rising in popularity, partly in a lifetime, other times fluidity is common: in
Girl Bella Thorne all came because those outspoken more frequently. Women a study that spanned from
out as bisexual; best-selling celebs have increased the are more likely to vacillate 1995 to 2005, more than

IDENTITY Some people don’t want to be an American suicide-prevention non Gay
defined by a sexuality or gender
profit for LGBTQ+ youth, shares
Anyone who is attracted
GLOSSARY label, while others appreciate these definitions. Keep in mind, to their same sex or
though, that each person identifies
the validation of a name. Either
way, you should know the most with these differently, says Ashby gender. Some women
prefer to use the
common terms. The Trevor Project, Dodge, the group’s Clinical Director. term ‘lesbian’.
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