SexED: 11 Unusual Types of Alternative Sexuality You Should Know About

EDTimes brings to you a brand new series on alternative sexualities, where we explore the world of sex and attraction a step further. Apart from LGBT community, the dialog for the other sexual identities has remained limited. Here we try to explore and decode, the basic conceptions and misconceptions associated with these alternative sexualities to familiarize ourselves with narratives that still stay a step away, hidden in the darkness.

Disclaimer: This article on sexuality is based on internet research and general consensus, I am no professional. Feedback is welcome, but before calling me bats#!t crazy, do your reading too. Thanks!

It’s 2016. And talking about alternative sexuality has only expanded itself to debates either about being gay or being straight.

But, the sexuality narrative doesn’t stop there. Gay or straight, it is a whole lot more complicated than just that binary. There is a rampant ignorance about how sexuality functions and is perceived, therefore, it’s about time we initiate an open and free discussion about alternative sexualities beyond homosexuality and transexuality, without prejudice. People are mostly shameful about what they do not understand.

We have progressed too much to be this kind of intolerant; the joke is on us who cannot accommodate conflicting narratives on sexual choices and freedom without a gasp.

Let’s get the ball rolling, shall we? So, here we present to you the beginning of a series of articles where we decode lesser known but equally relevant queer identites. We will discuss alternative identities like asexuality or pansexuality, which push the boundaries of sexuality even further, thereby exploring the psychological research and trending consensus that inform these labels, to make them more relevant for you and me!

Starting with an icebreaking listicle about some very unusual kinds of sexuality that have been raising eyebrows on internet forums, but you may not have known about them yet. You never know, you may even identify with one of them…

1. Autosexuality:

Feeling sexual attraction for oneself.  It’s not narcissism typically, but rather a type of sexuality where the person is unable to feel any kind of sexual feelings for anyone other than themselves. In another fluid interpretation, it is suspected that we all maybe some sort of autosexual ourselves!

2. Demisexuality:

Feeling sexual attraction only towards people with whom you have bonded with. Such people give more importance to attraction towards the personality of a person, and prefer to be familiar with their subjects of sexual interest before even dating them. (So me.)

Read More: SexED : Why Indian Men Are Bad At Flirting And Picking Up Women

3. Sapiosexuality:

Quite the quirky celebrity here, it is characterized by feeling sexual attraction only towards intelligence in other people. As gray-asexual as demisexuality, they are not commonly aroused by other physical traits.

4. Haemosexuality:

Feeling sexually attracted to the sight/taste/smell of blood during sexual intercourse. Some find menstruating women extremely attractive. Clinical vampirism? I wish I could unsee what I saw when reading this up.

5. Objectumsexual:

Feeling sexual attraction towards inanimate objects. Google Erika Eiffel and you’ll see that I am not joking.

6. Lithosexuality:

Feeling sexual attraction without wanting it to be reciprocated. People identifying as lithosexual form a group of gray-asexuals, who aren’t interested in acting upon their feelings. In fact, they lose interest in sexual relationships if the attraction is reciprocated, so prefer not to be touched or embraced in return. Oh well.

7. Zoosexuality:

The word explains itself here, feeling sexual attraction towards animals. Mostly mammals. It is not be confused with Zoo-sadism. And it’s illegal in a lot of places, because animals like babies, cannot consent.

8. Cupiosexuality:

Feeling no attraction towards any gender but still desiring a sexual or romantic relationship. Thus, though explicitly having no sex drive, they want to be nurturing relationships and have deep emotional bond.

9. Gerantosexuality:

Feeling intense sexual attraction towards elderly people, being attracted to wrinkles, stooping, frailty, etc. Being backed by much clinical research, it is considered pretty genuine and harmless when involving consenting adults.

10.Skoliosexuality:

People who are not attracted to cisgender people. They look for sexual companionship among people who do not identify with the gender-binaries of man or woman, but are queer or transgender.

11. Pomosexuality:

Quite the perfect umbrella term. Coined by sex-positive netizens who are really tired of the standard normative categories of LGBTQA+. So, this basically encompasses almost all alternative queer identities. It is the short for post-modern sexuality, basically – do anything they want with anyone they want to with. No judgments.

There’s more. It is important to understand that expression of sexuality is very fluid, and what one chooses to identify as should not be anybody’s headache as long as it is not harmful! There is nothing to be shameful about here, at large.

The discussion doesn’t end here. A lot needs to be talked about, like about the gray-asexual spectrum, why Miley Cyrus calls herself a panromantic, what is life like as a hetero-romantic asexual? Yes, sexuality is way more intricately dynamic than we understand it to be, and isn’t actually as ‘straight’ (pun intended) as we think. Romantic attraction or sexual attraction, big difference between the two…. Don’t get your head in a tizz just yet, we will be back with more!

So, have you secretly always had an alternate sexuality but didn’t understand it? Like maybe, always felt more demisexual? Comment below; let’s talk about it openly today!

You might also like to read:

http://edtimes.in/2016/07/rare-psychological-disorders-know/