• Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    137
    ·
    10 months ago

    I’m fifty. I have known that I am bi since childhood. I lost my virginity with a man a year before I ever had sex with a woman. I can count the friends and family that know I am bi in one hand and I would still not drop the chopstick.

    Gen-Z isn’t more queer. Gen-Z just has had the privileged of fearing the closet door less.

    The fight against bigotry and homophobia has been slow, long, and arduous, but the progress is undeniable. That’s why you see so much push back now. Some snowflakes quickly melt without the safetynet of their bigoted gender norms.

    • MagicPterodactyl@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      10 months ago

      Absolutely. Older conservatives will tell you that young people are being manipulated into believing they are queer when they are just less afraid to admit that they are. I expect this percentage to keep rising as more bigots die out and eventually plateau in another generation or two.

      While I don’t expect bi sexualities to become more common than straight, I do think it will become common enough that the stigma will eventually nearly disappear. There’s a reason my parents don’t know I’m bi but I’ve never felt afraid to tell a gen z person that I am.

      • Zworf@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Especially for women I found that most women I hang out with are kinda bi-oriented and have had sex with a woman at least once and liked it. It’s really the majority. For men it’s a bit more of a taboo still. Personally I don’t find men attractive as such but penises as such don’t put me off. It’s not about the genitals, it’s more their faces and behaviour that just doesn’t attract me. If the guy is a bit feminine/queer and I like them I’m sure I would end up doing something 😆 (though I haven’t as of yet). So I’d put myself down as heteroflexible.

        Now, I have to say that the people I hang out with are mostly in the kinky and swinger community so they are definitely not “normal” 🤭 and neither am I obviously. But as far as I can tell the amount of bi oriented people is indeed way way higher than the 10% we’ve always been told. I think it’s a spectrum even and not many people are on the absolute edge of it.

        But most of the people I hang out with are not in the Gen Z age range but a lot older. It’s not just Gen Z’s that are becoming more open about sex. But one thing I really like is that the taboos are dropping. I can openly talk about these things with all of my friends. I always hated that taboo about talking about sex with people you’re not intimate with.

    • noxfriend@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      10 months ago

      Agreed. I would add that that this applies to self-reflection, too. As social pressure reduces people are more likely to be more open minded and become aware of, or admit to themselves, their own same-sex attractions.

      So there is coming out to your friends &family, but also there is coming out to yourself.