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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Hannah Jane Parkinson

‘I can’t just decide to not fancy Cate Blanchett’: what does it mean to be sexually fluid?

Male/female symbols interlocking

When asked, I define my sexuality as “around 84-87% gay”. I suppose this would equate to the upper end of the Kinsey scale, which rates nought as exclusively heterosexual and six as its opposite. But there is plenty of disagreement as to whether sexuality is innate or acquired, immutable or fluctuating, and even what certain terms mean.

“Fluid”, originally attributed to the psychologist Lisa M Diamond, has become a buzzword for those who do not “fit” into traditional categories. Fluidity is different from, for example, bisexuality, because a person who is bisexual might be bisexual for life, whereas fluidity suggests oscillation. But fluid is, I suppose, what I am.

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