Sexuality....
I like this post from TWP at Unknown Conscience and hope she doesn't mind that I am linking to it. On both personal and political levels I was able to relate to what she writes. Sexuality, for me, isn't something that can be straitjacketed or pigeonholed accompanied with expectations about how to behave correctly.
I grappled with my own sexuality as a teenager and felt lost as I couldn't tell my friends or family (yep, good wholesome homophobic god squaders. Who could ask for more????) that I was attracted to women. I mean, my mum never ever came into my bedroom as just the posters on my wall scared her half to death and once when she ventured in (I was around 15 years old) she found me lounging on the bed reading Socialist Worker. My mum's response was: "Stop all this nonsense and find yourself a boyfriend"! When I replied that I wasn't interested in blokes she looked like she was ready to have a coronary.....!
But that is the thing with sexuality is that it is not static or inflexible it changes. At different times in your life you can be looking for different things. I have been sexually attracted to both men and women and still am. I am not championing bisexuality as the end of the day it should be about who you are attracted to, and to be open about that and not feel obliged or under duty to be someone you are not. Sexuality shouldn't be a prison it should be liberating. And free to fancy who you want without the ignorance, the pressure and the oppression.
I grappled with my own sexuality as a teenager and felt lost as I couldn't tell my friends or family (yep, good wholesome homophobic god squaders. Who could ask for more????) that I was attracted to women. I mean, my mum never ever came into my bedroom as just the posters on my wall scared her half to death and once when she ventured in (I was around 15 years old) she found me lounging on the bed reading Socialist Worker. My mum's response was: "Stop all this nonsense and find yourself a boyfriend"! When I replied that I wasn't interested in blokes she looked like she was ready to have a coronary.....!
But that is the thing with sexuality is that it is not static or inflexible it changes. At different times in your life you can be looking for different things. I have been sexually attracted to both men and women and still am. I am not championing bisexuality as the end of the day it should be about who you are attracted to, and to be open about that and not feel obliged or under duty to be someone you are not. Sexuality shouldn't be a prison it should be liberating. And free to fancy who you want without the ignorance, the pressure and the oppression.