How many sexualities are there? The ultimate sexuality dictionary

Sexuality Aug 20, 2021

So you thought straight, gay and bisexual were the only existing sexualities? Gone are the days when things were as simple as L, G, B and T.

Different sexual orientations have been sprouting over the years to help people explore and figure out who they really are. And by “sprouting”, we actually mean that people created a new language to describe these nuances of sexuality that have always existed and been around us. Now, there’s a handful of sexual orientation types, many of which you might have not even heard of.

Here we have the crash sexuality terms glossary you didn’t know you needed.

Androsexual

People who consider themselves androsexual feel attracted to very masculine people, whether or not they were assigned male at birth. It has everything to do with how those people present themselves; androsexuals like folks with strong masculine identities or presentations, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Autosexual

Have you ever wished there could be two of you so that you could date and bang yourself? Then chances are that you’re autosexual. Someone who’s autosexual won’t find complete sexual satisfaction in sleeping with others because they are sexually attracted to themselves. This doesn’t mean that autosexuals won’t have sexual relationships with other people, but they might simply prefer masturbation to sex with a partner.

Demiflexible

We cannot mention demiflexible without explaining demisexual and demiromantic first.

Demisexual: a person who doesn’t experience sexual attraction until they have formed a deep emotional connection with someone.
Demiromantic: a person who doesn’t experience romantic attraction until they have formed a deep emotional connection with someone.

Demiflexible, for its part, is someone who needs a strong connection with someone in order to feel sexual, romantic or both attractions. However, they may occasionally develop that attraction without said connection. So you can say that demiflexible people are mostly demisexual or demiromantic, but with some exception cases.

Gynosexual

Gynosexual individuals are the opposite of androsexuals. Therefore, they feel attracted to people with strong feminine presentations or features, regardless of their gender.

Heteroflexible or homoflexible

An heteroflexible person is someone who’s mostly straight, but might occassionally find themselves attracted to people of their same gender. Likewise, a homoflexible person is mostly homosexual though they might sometimes feel attracted to the opposite gender. Just like it happens with bi-curiosity, there’s also an ongoing debate over whether the terms heteroflexible and homoflexible stem from biphobia.

Pansexual

People who identify as pansexual experience attraction to individuals regardless of their gender. So what’s the difference with bisexuality, you might be wondering? Some people consider the term bisexuality outdated, as it assumes that there are only two genders, which is not the case. That’s why the term pansexuality was created, to encompass everyone, of any sex and gender identity.

Skoliosexual

A skoliosexual person is someone who’s attracted to anyone who isn’t cisgender or binary. That is, people who are trans of non-binary (neither male or female).

How many of these terms did you already know or were you able to guess? Now you won’t be caught off guard next time someone talks about sexual orientations other than straight, gay or bi ;).