When most people think of orientation they
think of sexual orientation but the reality is that it is more
complicated than that. Who people are attracted to sexually is only
one aspect of orientation there is also who people are attracted to
romantically as well as what other people attribute your orientations
to be. These different aspects line up in most people, though the
attribution can be different for some who aren't heterosexual or
obviously homosexual but for those who aren't of a 'mainstream'
orientation or whose sexual and romantic orientation this aspect of
who they are can be rendered invisible.
Sexual orientation can be divided into a number
of categories, not all of which many people have heard of. The
categories are hetero, homo, bi, pan, omni, a, demi, and sapio.
Heterosexual people are those who are sexually attracted to people of
the opposite sex (whatever that means, usually this is used for
people in a binary-identification of sex or gender). This is also
called androphilia when people don't want to attach a gender to the
people involved. Homosexual people are those who are attracted to
people of the same sex, this has the same binary implications as
heterosexuality does. This is also called gynephilia for similar
reasons to androphilia. Bisexuality is the last binary identification
and is sexual attraction to 'both' genders.
Pansexual and omnisexual are sexual attraction
to all genders and attraction that isn't based off gender
respectively. These two orientations are often put together into the
same category. Asexual people aren't sexually attracted to other
people and demisexual people require a relationship before sexual
attraction occurs. Sapiosexual people are attracted to intelligence
without regards for gender or sex. Romantic attraction has the same
categories as sexual attraction but deals with who a person is
attracted to have a romantic relationship with.
Orientation attribution is what other people
assume your sexual and romantic attribution. Usually people assume
that these two attributes match but that isn't always the case.
Unless yours happen to not match however there is a distinct
possibility that you have never realized that they are two different
orientations. People who are assumed to be heterosexual/romantic are
given cis privilege even if they aren't hetero, even the assumption
of homosexuality and bisexuality give a person cis privilege that the
other orientations don't get. Far too often a person who is of a
non-binary orientation is rendered invisible, even in human sexuality
classes where the professor should know better.
One thing that happens far too often,
especially in homosexual communities is the assumption that
orientation must be stable. A person changing their orientation is
seen as a traitor to the community and even if that doesn't occur in
many cases they aren't welcomed back into the community to the extent
that they were previously. The reality however is that all
orientations have some degree of fluidity. While many people have
relatively stable orientations, like with gender, orientation can
have a small, moderate or high level of fluidity. These fluctuations
may just be for one person, or just every so often but in others
there is a significantly greater level of fluctuation. Maybe the
person identifies as homoflexible – a designation that says that
the person is mainly homosexual but isn't entirely objecting to the
possibility of an attraction to a person of another gender.
There is a lot of research into sexual
orientation already, though most of it is on hetero, homo, and bi
sexual people. Research is minimal on asexuals, and nearly
non-existent for the other orientations. I think the best way to do
this research would be to do a survey of people to find their sexual
and romantic orientations both via self report and adaptations of
scales previously used to detect sexual orientation. A lot of these
scales can easily be adapted for use on looking at romantic
orientation as well.
Looking into orientation attribution would be
done in the same way as the other attributions; asking a group of
people to identify peoples orientation based off of a profile of the
person. In this case a written case report of various people from a
variety of sexual and romantic orientations and having the people
involved write down what they think the case studies orientations
are. Another way to do this would be to have a staged video of a
dance or party then have the participants watch and determine what
the people at the event have for orientation.
As with the other categories that deal with
fluidity sexual and romantic orientation fluidity can be measured
retrospectively via a survey asking people how their orientations
have changed over time. This can then branch out into a more in-depth
set of research where people journal their orientation perhaps on a
monthly basis over the course of time to see if it changes. The
longitudinal study would have to take place over a number of years so
that there would be a complete picture of peoples fluidity. This
would be the most difficult to develop a measure to test because
orientation fluidity isn't socially acceptable in may areas and many
people have a goal of finding one person to settle down with and thus
don't do a lot of changing of orientation after that.
As for practical uses of this I think that the
best place this information can be used would be in couples therapy
to establish a background on the clients. I am not sure that this
orientation information alone would have much practical use beyond
that but used in suite with the other areas of sexuality and gender
this can give a clinician working with a person a lot of information
to go on when they are assessing someone for gender or sexuality
related problems. Establishing a clear baseline that doesn't deny the
person's identity is vital so that a good therapeutic outcome can be
reached.
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