Gen Z TikTokers are sharing their experiences embracing a little-known sexuality called “abrosexual.”
Sexual preference means being attracted to different genders depending on how you feel at a given moment.
In other words, you may be attracted to men for a while, sometimes for several years, before switching to women, and then back again.
On social media, people who identify as “abrosexual” describe their sexuality as a part of their personality that is “changing” and “fluid.”
However, some say they have faced cruel comments from friends and family when they opened up about their newfound identity, accusing them of saying their sexuality “doesn’t sound real.”
On TikTok, social media user @luciaismagic, who considers himself genderfluid, told his 444,000 followers: ‘abrosexual is used to describe people whose sexuality changes over time’
Emma Flint, 32, first came out as abrosexual, to friends who questioned whether it was ‘even a label’ and claimed it ‘didn’t sound real’
One woman who talks openly about her abrosexuality is journalist Emma Flint.
The 32-year-old admitted that growing up in the 1990s, she had never heard of the term.
“You were either straight, gay or lesbian,” she says, adding that it was often assumed that “everything was made up.”
But two years ago, when she turned 30, she realized that her sexuality was rapidly fluctuating between lesbian and bisexuality.
She came across the Instagram page of Zoe Stoller, an American creator and LGBTQ+ campaigner, where she first saw the term abrosexuality.
She decided that abrosexuality suited her best, despite the unpleasant comments from her friends, including that ‘sHe was still a lesbian last week.
She describes discovering her true identity as a “eureka moment” that helped her understand herself.
In another video, posted by @zoebriskey, she told her 74,000 followers that abrosexuality is “fluid,” adding that “it is not pansexual, although an abrosexual person may identify as pansexual at some point in their life.”
When she talks about her sexuality, she is often met with a blank stare, followed by the question of what the term means.
But as long as people are respectful, Ms. Flint admits she doesn’t mind explaining what the term means.
Elsewhere, on the social media forum Reddit, hundreds of people debate the meaning of the term.
One of them said, “It’s different for everyone, but it really just means that your sexuality is fluid (just like gender is fluid for some people).”
Another noted, “It’s not a choice, the changes just happen naturally.”
‘Sometimes I’m only attracted to men, but then suddenly I’m attracted to women again.
‘And then suddenly it’s only men again. I can’t control this, if I could I would probably choose to always be pansexual.’
It wasn’t until she read the Instagram page of Zoe Stoller, a US-based creator, educator, and social worker who aims to improve the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, that she first saw the term abrosexuality
On TikTok, social media user @luciaismagic, who identifies as genderfluid, told his 444,000 followers: “abrosexual is used to describe people whose sexuality changes over time.”
In another video, posted by @zoebriskey, she told her 74,000 followers that abrosexuality is “fluid,” clarifying that this sexuality is different from pansexuality, where someone is attracted to someone else’s personality, rather than a specific gender.
Ms. Flint emphasizes that the identity has no impact on her love life or her romantic relationships.
She explains that just as being bisexual doesn’t make someone think differently about their partner, neither does being abrosexual.
“I love the person more than their gender, so it doesn’t matter if my sexuality changes when I’m with them,” she said.
The only way people can accept different identities is by learning new terminology, she says.