Ah, but suppose this fictional person replies: “Sure I did. I had crushes on guys and girls. But when I actually tried to do something with a guy, I wasn’t as turned on as I thought I’d be. But when I was with a girl - wow! That’s why today, I’m exclusively attracted to girls.”
Hey, Bricker… what’s the difference between posing this as a hypothetical question, and hiding behind a fictional person who’s acting as your mouthpiece, and actually asking the question?
I don’t know what I’d say to that…
Well, to jump in, I’d say that just because I’m young, doesn’t mean I’ve never messed around with a guy/girl/whatever. So to act as if the person has never experienced anything (regardless of <b>Aslan of Narnia</b>'s personal experiences are), is simply silly, because most teens, have, gosh, surprise, messed around, or had intercourse.
Damn.
I came out at 17 to my family, nearly a year before I had sex for the first time. Coleen(the gestation unit) posed the same question to me. I just knew.
The first time I had sex, it was with a man, and it was the right thing.
Aslan of Narnia, Are bisexual people (and you in particular) someone who is attracted to both sexes, or someone to whom the gender of the individual you are attracted to doesn’t matter?
Does that make sense? I think there is a subtle difference. If i’m not making sense, tell me. I’ll spend a few minutes trying to word it better.
The difference, MrVisible is that I wouldn’t ask that question. If I had been asked that question myself when I was a teen without any actual flesh-on-flesh experience, I might have replied to such a question as follows: “Sure, I acknowledge that, although I fantasize about girls now, the possibility exists that when it actually comes time to experience intimate contact, things may change; tne years from now, I may find myself only attracted to men.”
“But,” my teenage self would have continued, “I don’t see how that admission changes anything. Right now, my plan is to get with girls. If that changes, then it changes, and undoubtedly many things will change as I grow older, and I’ll simply have to plan to respond to changing circumstances as best as I can. But right now, the best information I have, based on my feelings and fantasies, is that I’m straight. Who knows what the future may bring?”
So if Aslan were to adopt my answer, he might have responded to the fictional questioner, “The best information I have, based on my feelings and fantasies, is that I’m bi - but who knows what the future may bring?”
But Aslan is not me, and is in no wise obligated to adopt my reasoning or conclusions. He may well have some utterly different take on the situation, which is what I was exploring.
Does that answer your question, MrVisible?
- Rick
Well, iydkiwty, I (or my fictional alter ego) didn’t make this assumption out of the blue. I had asked Aslan this specific question, and his response was that he hadn’t messed around with either a guy or a girl yet. So far from being “silly,” I’d argue that it’s a very well-grounded assumption, insofar as Aslan goes.
Don’t you agree?
- Rick
As a semi-bisexual (Kinsey 5ish, I’m young and I drift 
), my experience has been attraction to both sexes. Gender is relevant in that attraction, because what is attractive in a male is not the same as what attracts me in a female. I can’t grasp how it could ever truly be irrelevant. But YMMV
Perhaps you should word it slightly different, because the question doesn’t really make all that much sense to me.
And Bricker has me confused.
Let me see if I can rephrase Criven’s question, because it does draw a fine distinction.
Some bisexuals I’ve spoken with in the past have stated that they fall in love with personality, not physique. Thus gender makes no difference for them.
Others say that they are attracted to both genders. They find specific attributes attractive in a male, and different attributes attractive in a female.
I suppose there’s a middle ground of finding certain physical attributes attractive in both genders, but maybe thats placing too much grey in an already fine line.
If I understand correctly…
What I find is that in general, what I want in a personality is usually the same for both sexes. I am attracted to some parts of the body, some more so in one sex than the other. I also prefer physical traits in one sex that I don’t for the other.
Is that what you mean?
Asexual people are people who are not attracted to either sex. If you’re attracted to both, I’d say it’s bisexual, even if it’s not a sexual attraction… which would clarify the funky business of whether it’s a sexual attraction or emotional, psychological, or even strictly physical but non sexual. Now… if you’re attracted to neither sex sexually speaking… then you’d be asexual. I think that’s the clearest I can comprehend it at the moment.
[hijack]There’s a common silliness, and while it’s a joke, I think some people actually take it seriously, that bi people are attracted to ‘everyone’. Yeah, like straight people are attracted to every member of the opposite sex? Suuuure. [/hijack]
I responded, as I did, because, given that it were a fictional person, the person would not know Aslan of Narnia’s (whew) sexual history. Forgive me for that simple assumption… after awhile one gets so used to being assumed about, you become far too suspect and jumpy about it. My apologies.
Someday I’ll get VB not confused with HTML. :smack:
Er… that you were referring to all teens. Many people have that viewpoint, oddly enough, which is why I was so touchy. Someday I’ll learn to make sense, too.
Okay. What would you do if you got word that the world was about to end in a week, two days, fourteen hours and eleven minutes, and you had a tiny spaceship which could only hold five people and seven houseplants but had no indoor plumbing whatsoever and the navigation system was messed up to the point where you might end up on either Mars or Oompaloompaland, but that mad scientist from down the block and his beautiful young daughter and handsome young son had a radical new idea for an interstellar drive, except in order to make it work everybody had to act like chimpanzees the whole time they were on the ship?
Well, I believe I would dismantle the rocketship, and rebulid it into a rocket pack that could travel thru the annals of space. Then, I would blast off into the sun, letting it’s heat melt me. Then I would rise out of the ashes of my former self, ignite the moon into it’s crispy, cut it up and serve Moon calamari to please the sun and the other celestial lords. Then, I would race back down to earth, and take all the people of the earth and teleport them to the moon, where they’ll live off of Baked Moon for the rest of the human races life.
Thank you Priam that was perfect.
Yes A O N that was what I was asking. I think from your answer you are “attracted to both sexes”.
Erm, another question…
Do you believe in a God? If so, can you describe him? e.g: The doctrinal Christian God, or something different? Is this something you’ve ever discusses with anyone?
No, I don’t believe in god, or any other christian stuff. It is very interesting to study, though. I’d say that I’m atheist, but I’m willing to believe in most things with sufficient proof. I’ve discussed God with a preacher at the church I used to go, and I didn’t find that what she was saying was what a god, if one existed, would act like.
How would a God act?
(This will be my last question on the subject, before we break out in a Great Debate