Is it possible to become bisexual at the age of 22?

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dirttdan1008
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07 Apr 2015, 11:14 am

I'm a 22 year old "straight" male. I never thought that I would actually say this, but I think I might be actually questioning my sexuality. For some reason I've taken a strong fascination with bisexuality, and I don't understand why. It's freaking me out.

No, I can't say I've ever been sexually attracted to anyone other than a girl, but I have also had strong reason to believe that i have Asperger's, and you could say that my interests in women have changed over time. Like, there's women that I find attractive now that I never would have so much as glanced at four years ago. And I have a tendency to like... well, masculinity in women. I've had several crushes on bisexual girls, and I think that strong muscles (not like WWE kind of strong, but the type of girl that hits the gym) and a male persona are very attractive qualities. I like all kinds of girls, but I think that "special" kinds are, well, special.

I also have reason to believe that I'm at least slightly feminine. (I have strong emotions, and have many of the same kinds of feelings that typical girls do about relationships and finding someone to love you. I even mimic certain feminine behaviors, but its hard to describe them in detail.) I've heard that there are several aspies that are LBGT and/or "third gender", but I'm not sure if some of my personality traits are just typical aspie traits or "queer" aspie traits.

I've come across several LBGT recently. I've even gone into a gay bar once that my gay cousin invited me to, and had a good time. Some gay guys have glanced at me, and I don't know how to handle it. Like me and a guy met eyes once, and he just walked away laughing. (I have no explanation for why I looked him in the eyes.) Other times I've "checked out" other guys at the gym, but I think that this is because I'm making a point of comparison between them and me, because I recently lost 30 lbs and am trying to get sexier at the gym. I can look at a guy and think "wow he's good looking" or "he's cute" and I'm not sure what it means. And for some reason I always seem to know which guys are attractive and which aren't. I though that these things were explainable, but could these be signs that I have subconscious "guy crushes"?

But no, I've never had sexual/romantic fantasies for a man. I have a ton of friends, and none of them I've ever felt "attracted" to. I've "taken the test" by watching gay porn. I can't say I was "turned on", but I can't say that I was bothered by it either. Like, I could watch it without saying "ewwww!" and freaking out. Sometimes I wonder, if I tried having sex with a guy, could I possibly get pleasure from it? I've done anal with a girl. Could a guy feel the same way?

But I haven't always felt this way. I was raised in a very conservative christian family, and I'm ashamed to admit this but I was a bit of a homophobe myself. I had to train myself out of this mentality as I learned to think for myself both politically and emotionally. Could it be possible that my upbringing was what made my mind "push things away" the way that I did?

I'm 22 years old, and I though that if I was born bisexual, I would certainly have had a guy crush by now, but is that truly the case? The thing that makes me "bicurious" is the theory of "fluid sexuality". I though that sexual orientation was 100% something that a person was born with, until I started having the strange experiences that I just described. I know that as aspies, our mental development is different than neurotypicals, and lots of things we experience later in life. Could it be possible that my sexuality was "delayed" as well, and that I could be in the early stages bisexual fluidity?

If anyone has had experiences similar to these, please share. I'm probably straight, but I'm trying to think objectively, and just don't know why I'm having the feeling that I do.



Magneto
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07 Apr 2015, 11:29 am

Weeeelll, people don't finish developing until some point in their mid 20s, and they develop at different rates anyway, so...

You could turn out to be bisexual. Or you could just turn out to find guys aesthetically appealing, but with no desire to do anything with them. Or other possibilities.



Soomander
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07 Apr 2015, 11:31 am

"watching gay porn. I can't say I was "turned on", but I can't say that I was bothered by it either." Sorry I can't actually quote because I am on my phone and don't know the script. There was a study done about two years ago showing that straight males without homophobia aren't bothered by gay sex. Also you may just have a relatively large experience with homosexual people. As you stated your cousin is homosexual and you went to a bar with him so I suspect you having a good experience with homosexual people allows you to be relatively comfortable around materials that would invoke arousal in homosexual men.



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07 Apr 2015, 10:11 pm

Here's some ideas -
22 is quite young, and your brain hasn't fully developed as such by then. As you said, people on the spectrum can tend to develop later than neurotypical people. Perhaps what an NT man would have realised at say, age 15, you hit at 22? It has been said that sexual orientation undergoes changes in puberty. It's also possible that your conservative upbringing and the mental conditioning of that has further delayed the realisation - you didn't want to admit it to yourself or suppressed it. I know that here in my late twenties, I have had all sorts of surprising realisations sexually that I would not have anticipated even at 22, due in large part I think due to transition. I also saw a story on a man who was straight, had a stroke, and woke up 100% gay.
Then again, there are many guys who are into butch women - they're not just attractive to lesbians you know :wink: Maybe you just have a thing at this stage in life for strong women? Find their aesthetic appealing?
Just because you're not homophobic doesn't necessarily mean you're gay/bisexual. Maybe your sympathies for your cousin and exposure to LGBT culture has just made you cool with it?
I don't think the male comparison thing is specifically bi-curious. That sounds more like an aspie information-gathering tactic, trying to observe what you like in others and mimic it.


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mr_bigmouth_502
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07 Apr 2015, 10:19 pm

I don't think people "become" gay or bisexual, though I'm pretty sure there are a number of people who go through life with gay or bisexual leanings without realizing it, and some people discover it earlier than others, if at all.



cathylynn
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07 Apr 2015, 10:24 pm

it is possible to discover that one is bisexual at any age, but you sound fairly hetero to me. no fantasies about males and not being turned on by gay porn make bisexuality unlikely.



Caprine
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08 Apr 2015, 12:09 am

Although I haven't read much from the male perspective, there are many, many essays out there about women discovering/accepting/admitting/becoming/(insert other verb of choice here) lesbian or bisexual throughout adulthood. "Dear John, I Love Jane" is a diverse collection of these, for example.

I tend to think of my young adulthood as being "confused," because although I came out as gay as a teenager, I went on to have a child and enter a heterosexual marriage (and then leave it because...obviously, still gay). I can't say exactly why I did that and I think the reasons are complex, but one of those reasons is probably having been raised in a heteronormative culture. We are essentially being trained from birth for how to behave in a heterosexual relationship (e.g., movies, television, books, fairytales, toys, role models), and as humans (perhaps even more so as aspies?) a lot of our behavior is learned and imitative. So whether or not your sexuality is defined at birth or during infancy, there are layers and layers of "Mother Culture" on top of that, and particularly for someone who is bisexual (and thus has the expected reactions to the opposite sex during puberty), and particularly for someone raised in a very religious household, I would imagine that is often hard to sort through.

As for whether your behaviors and thoughts suggest that you are bisexual -- shrug. You're the only one in your head, and I believe you're the best judge of that. But luckily you don't have to pick a label anytime soon...or ever.

As a post script, in my experience many people who consider themselves bisexual tend to have differences in their orientation of sexual attraction vs. their orientation of romantic attraction/love/bonding. I guess my point being that I would warn you against paying attention to any specific "test," because you're unique and there's no one criteria that is going to pass or fail you.



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09 Apr 2015, 10:12 pm

Whatever your sexual attractions are, they are, at any given moment. You might change and have some bi feelings, or maybe just bi attractions but not sexual desires. There's nothing WRONG with anything you've posted. It just is what it is.

Also, I think it's entirely normal for a guy to notice which guys he thinks are attractive and which ones he thinks aren't - even completely hetero guys. Obviously hetero guys have to be able to size up and gauge their competition. Just because a guy is hetero doesn't mean he's blind to the fact that another guy is good looking.

Same goes for me as a gay guy. I could point out which guys I'm sexually attracted to, as well as which guys I think are attractive guys but I have no sexual interest in. I could also tell you which girls I thought were attractive people, too.

You like what you like. Do whatever you want to. Try whatever you want to if you're the experimental type. Or don't. There's no right or wrong answers when it comes to attraction/sex etc. There's also no "normal" that people must adhere to, either. Annnnd as you're aware, not everyone's sexuality is set in stone from birth, either. So, whatever yours is at any given moment in your life - well, it is & that's that. Just accept it and roll with it, whether you simply have non-sexual same sex attractions or sexual ones.


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lostonearth35
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09 Apr 2015, 10:16 pm

I think people are born a certain sexuality. It's something you can't help any more than you can help being born a certain eye or skin color. But no one in the world is 100% heterosexual or homosexual.



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13 May 2015, 7:03 pm

Sexuality for many people is a moving target.


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Girlwithaspergers
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20 May 2015, 12:41 pm

I realized I am bisexual at age 19, so it is possible. I started out as biromantic asexual, because I found all people to be attractive, but I wasn't into sex. Gradually, I became interested in sex with guy and girls as well. Unfortunately I have no experience but some of the things that would happen is I might crush on a guy and feel romantic, but then I see a girl with a nice body and think I would like to see/feel her breasts or have her go down on me, etc. Then I would also have racy thoughts about the guy crush. I would often find myself picturing my girl friends naked or trying to see them naked in the gym. I also had some comparative thoughts but I found them to be "hot." I enjoy most the pornography that most men would find appealing rather than female-oriented. :)



jimmyboy76453
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20 May 2015, 5:13 pm

My partner realized his bisexuality in his 20's. He only dated women before that. He says he thinks he had crushes on guys in high school without realizing it was a crush; he just thought they were cool and he wanted to hang out with them. Now, he notices a little when a girl is pretty, but he really only looks at guys. Sexuality moves throughout life, and it's different for everyone. You may never be sexually attracted to guys, or you might be very much so. The great thing is that you have the personal freedom and open mind to consider every possibility truly a possibility.


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Peachypops
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25 May 2015, 3:49 pm

I think thats totally possible. I'm a female that has always dated men up until the age of 28. I'm now 29, engaged to a female, we've bought a house and are thinking of having children! I realised that maybe because of my Aspergers I wasn't able to work myself out until an older age than many, but I have NT friends who are LGBT and came out much later on (i.e - 30's and 40's). These things just take time.

My only advice is follow your heart - if it feels right, then it probably is. Don't worry about what people think, just go with what feels right. :)