I was reading a book on social life of the upper-middle class and new rich of the American 1920s and realized so many things we now do proudly were considered socially taboo back then. This was especially the case for clothing, makeup, women in certain public spaces, etc. What do you think will be different in the 2120s? Or maybe even the next 50 years?
I dunno about taboo, but I think there’ll be a lot fewer “monosexual” (homo/hetero people) and a lot more bi/pan people. I think we’re seeing an increase already in acceptance that most people have at least a few people of their non-preferred gender they’re attracted to, and those kinds of mentalities will permeate to a mushy continuum of sexuality, rather than hard categories.
This is just a personal opinion but I suspect the trend is not linear. There will be a surge in acceptance and then possibly a calm in popularity. Social pressures aside, I feel there may be some portion of the world that is bi/pan but not in numbers so large that it would be a huge shift in current status quos. We’re also at a time when mental health is seeing an identity crisis and we’re trying to label every quirk. Gender identity almost seems like part of a shotgun approach to try and fix other issues.
I do not want to sound like I’m downplaying the importance of sexual orientation and gender identity, but there’s just so much going on socially with how fast we’re moving as a culture with the Internet that it’s hard to predict what is real and what is trendy.
Of course I could be entirely wrong.
I think it’s similar to what happened when left handedness was destigmatized. Suddenly, there was a sharp increase in the number of people saying they were lefties. It wasn’t that more people were becoming lefties. It was that more people felt free to be who they really were.
A trans person 100 years ago couldn’t really come out as trans. If they did, they’d likely face a violent response. So they lived their life in suffering - maybe not even knowing why they felt so different from everyone else and thinking that there was something wrong with them.
As being trans is destigmatized (and hopefully the anti-trans stuff recently is short lived), more and more people will “come out” as trans. It’s not that the actual number of trans people is increasing, but that trans people don’t feel like they have to hide who they are. Eventually, like lefties, the rate will level out and stabilize.
A hundred years from now, people will be referencing trans people instead of lefties when talking about the next marginalized group that’s being destigmatized.
In a more general sense, this is leaving out people who want to try something different or people who are confused. They may or may not be bi/gay/trans or whatever, but the mental health damage is from being pigeonholed. Everyone should be able to try a few things without repercussions.
I don’t know if this is still true, but it seemed like a few years ago it was considered ok for women to “experiment”, but I don’t think it ever was for guys. They should all be able to figure things out without worrying about labels or face social pressure to be one thing or another
I feel like there is relevant xkcd for all these comments
I hope you’re right. When my kids started asking questions and wondering what they might be, my answer was that labels are just a convenience and you should never worry about fitting any one. Be yourself first, then decide out if there is a close enough label you want to use. This needs to be the fururey
The Kinsey report looked at this objectively in the 40’s and 50’s. Everyone is on a spectrum of homo/heterosexuality. Labels, social norms, politics, etc change with time and mostly exist to for “othering” people.
It’s worth looking back at history. Ancient Romans make for interesting reading. Things change and tides change without logic or reason. Just be who you are and be good to others.
This is already rapidly becoming a thing, the younger generations are far more open about their sexuality than any that preceded them.
Younger generations are so hung up about sex they’re practically puritan
Drama
lol nope
Wtf even is pan? Is it just bi + more horny? It seems redundant.
I use bi personally, but pan people argue that they’re more than two genders and they are attracted to all of them. I use bi because my sexuality is dualistic – I have both heterosexual and homosexual attractions. The two are effectively synonymous.
What’s the difference between emocore, metal core, hard-core , speedcore and death jazz?
People like to pick their own labels.
I’m neither so take this with a cup of salt:
Originally they were the same. Pan (and some others) faded from use and was largely forgotten.
When it first came back into use, there was a lot of “you’re attracted to both genders; we’re attracted to all genders” but this got a lot of pushback as being bi-phobic because it paints bisexuals as being transphobic (although if you really think about it, the accusation that this is transphobic is itself transphobic as it implies trans people are not included in “both genders”. Perhaps enby-phobic would have been a more appropriate accusation).
These days the generally accepted distinction is that pansexuals are attracted to people regardless of gender, as in gender plays no part, as opposed to bisexuals who may (or may not) be attracted differently to different genders.
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I certainly hope so. There’s definitely a taboo that comes with bi and pan folks - at least what I’ve seen anyway. The idea that we must conform to either this or that is becoming more and more outdated. The pushback from certain groups however continue to be fierce.