Gen Z TikTokers are sharing their experience of embracing a little-known sexuality known as ‘abrosexual’.
The sexual preference involves being attracted to different genders, depending on how you feel at any given time.
In other words, you may be attracted to men for a period of time — sometimes as long as several years — before switching to women, and then back again.
On social media, those who identify as ‘abrosexual’ describe their sexuality as a part of their personality that ‘changes’ and is ‘fluid’.
However, some say they’ve been met with cruel jibes from friends and family when telling them about their newly-discovered identity, including the accusation that their sexuality ‘doesn’t sound real’.
On TikTok, social media user @luciaismagic, who identifies as gender fluid, told their 444,000 followers, ‘abrosexual is used to describe people whose sexuality changes over time’
Emma Flint, 32, first came out as abrosexual, she was greeted with friends who questioned if it ‘was even a label’ and claimed that ‘it didn’t sound real’
One woman who has gone public with her abrosexuality journey is journalist Emma Flint.
The 32 year-old told Metro that growing up in the nineties, she had never heard of the term.
‘You were either straight, gay, or lesbian,’ she says, adding that it was often assumed ‘everything else was made up’.
But two years ago, when she turned 30, she realised her sexuality fluctuated rapidly between lesbian and bisexuality.
She came across the Instagram page of Zoe Stoller, a US-based creator and LGBTQ+ campaigner, where she saw the term abrosexuality used for the first time.
She decided abrosexuality aligned the most with her, despite friends’ unpleasant comments, including that ‘she was lesbian only last week’.
However, she describes discovering her true identity as a ‘lightbulb’ moment, which has helped her understand herself.
Another video posted by @zoebriskey, told her 74,000 followers, that abrosexuality is ‘fluid’, She added that ‘it’s not pansexuality though an abrosexual individual may identify as pansexual at some point in their lifetime.’
She is often greeted by a blank expression when discussing her sexuality, followed by a question of what the term means.
But as long as people are respectful, Ms Flint confesses she doesn’t mind explaining what the term means.
Elsewhere, on social media forum Reddit, hundreds of commentors discuss the meaning of the term.
One said: ‘It’s different for everyone but all it really means is your sexuality is fluid (much like how gender is fluid for some people).’
Another commented: ‘Not a choice, the changes just happen on their own.
‘Sometimes I’ll be only attracted to men and then suddenly start being attracted to women again.
‘And then suddenly back to only men. I can’t control this, if I could I’d probably choose to be pansexual all the time.’
It was only after reading the Instagram page of Zoe Stoller, a US based creator, educator, and social worker, who seeks to improve the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, that she saw the term abrosexuality for the first time
On TikTok, social media user @luciaismagic, who identifies as gender fluid, told their 444,000 followers, ‘abrosexual is used to describe people whose sexuality changes over time’.
Another video posted by @zoebriskey, told her 74,000 followers, that abrosexuality is ‘fluid’, clarifying that the sexuality is different to pansexuality — which involves being attracted to a person’s personality, rather than a specific gender.
Ms Flint stresses that the identity does not affect her love life or alter any of her romantic relationships.
She explains that in the same way being bisexual does not cause a person to feel differently about their partner, being abrosexual also does not.
‘I love the person, rather than their gender so it doesn’t matter if my sexuality fluctuates while I’m with them,’ she said.
The only way people can accept different identities, she says, is by learning about new terminology.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk