THE SEXUALITY SPECTRUM

Disclaimer: This blog post might be a bit sensitive as it has to do with sexuality. I have tried my best to write this as delicately and “politically correct” as possible but if it still does not suffice to your taste, I apologize as I do not mean to cause offense. Although I have done a few sociology subjects and even a gender-studies class as an elective at university, I am by no means an expert so there may be a few errors in here.

As a preface to this, the catalyst for writing this particular blog post is because I am a fan of fighting games, especially STREET FIGHTER. In Japan, there is a famous competitive player named named 佐藤 かよ(Kayo Sato) who often plays under the name KAYOpolice.

Here is a video of KAYOpolice playing SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV

Here is another video

If you can understand Japanese then I’m sure you’ll get it. If you can understand written Chinese then perhaps you may get the jist. If you have a sense of empathy, you might be able to get it, but just in case you missed it, KAYOpolice’s “sex” is male.

Please note, there IS a difference between gender and sex.

- Gender has to do with what society perceives to be male or female and usually can easily be changed by the individual.

- Sex has to do with what sexual-reproductive organs you have physiologically that being whether you produce sperm and are male, or produce eggs and are female and so far cannot be changed.

So back on-topic, prior to KAYOpolice revealing her true sex, I honestly admit I found her to be “physically” attractive. I also thought that KAYOpolice would probably be one of the very few good looking girls who were actually good at STREET FIGHTER. Nobody knew KAYOpolice was a male, not even the modeling agency she worked for. This is in spite of her doing photo shoots revealing outfits including bikinis. It was only up until rumors surfaced that KAYOpolice was forced to come clean. Even now upon realizing KAYOpolice is a male, I still must concede that I find her to still be “physically” attractive, although as a heterosexual male, I guess it does muddle things up.

In either case, I’m not too fond of using labels as you can see with this mess I’ve brought up right here. As a result, I concocted up spectrum below which is what I sometimes use (and would rather use) as an alternative to the usual sexuality labels such as straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, etc.

 

To make sense of this, you just choose where your tastes lie along the spectrum.

So rather than coming up with an outright sexuality, with the way I look at things, I guess it just depends where on the spectrum your tastes lie. As you can see, the combinations are endless as everybody has different tastes in what they find to be physically attractive.

When you begin to look at sexuality under this light, you begin to see some of the deficiencies under the normal sexuality-label system. It is evident that there seems to be some overlapping. For example, what do you make of a female lesbian who has a thing for tomboys, considering the fact that tomboys are females who deliberately put effort into being (or at least appearing) more masculine? To further complicate the issue, what if there was a tomboy who found herself attracted only to other tomboys? You could also apply the inverse of this to males and obtain similar results. Likewise, what do you make of males who are attracted to tomboys, or females who find pretty boys attractive? I’d also like to add that for the record, I am aware that society often circumscribes upon people what is traits are to be considered feminine and masculine. My guess is that I’m sure there are specific labels associated for such people with such tastes, but as you can see, to the everyday person this kind of stuff can get a bit confusing.

I also believe that highlighting stereotypes under a negative light and holding prejudice against people who fit under certain labels makes the world a less pleasant place to live in. Conversely, without stereotypes, how can we highlight difference? We all are unique aren’t we? I guess it’s not the idea, but the execution which is more crucial in society.

On another tangent, it is said that in Ancient Rome, sexuality wasn’t determined by whether you were heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, but rather by if you were the dominant or the passive person. This though has flaws in itself for example, if you were to say a person performing fellatio was to be the passive person, what if they were to be so good that the person receiving it succumbed to them? Then who would be considered dominant (sic. Superior) in that case?

So in wrapping-up this blog post which could be likened to as a “messy situation”, I shall leave it in a mess. I guess we should all live and let live and leave people to do what they wish so long as the collateral damage isn’t too much. In summation, I don’t think my idea of the sexuality spectrum is the solution to the prejudices that those who of different sexual orientations face, but rather, a different way of looking at it.

Peace~ (^_^)