(no subject)

[teddywolf]

I'm as fond as any other straight or bi adult male (or bi or gay adult female) of looking at pretty women in their underwear. Still, some underwear is significantly sillier than others.

Comments

[dpolicar]

Sometimes what's relevant to the conversation is the fact that I'm male, and the word "male" is available for my use... I'm male.

Sometimes what's relevant is the fact that I'm attracted to both sexes, and the word "bisexual" is available for my use... I'm bisexual.

Sometimes what's relevant is the fact that I'm not exclusively attracted to women, and the word "heterosexual" is available for my use... I'm not heterosexual.

Similarly, I'm not homosexual, and there's a word for that.

Sometimes what's relevant is the fact that I'm attracted to men... and there's no word for that.
Sometimes what's relevant is the fact that I'm attracted to women, or members of the same sex, or of the opposite sex. There's no word for those.

Wolf had the same problem in the post I was responding to... he wanted to refer to himself as a member of the community of people who find women attractive, and there's no word for that.

I think there ought to be. That's all.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

true. but your sample phrase, "I'm as fond as any gyno adult..." has an error in it, in that it still implies attraction to one gender. I suspect that using it would lead to 'any gyno or bi adult', still slightly shorter than what was said, but not ideal.

But if you can come up with something describing the fact that I think the sexiest people on the planet are black drag queens, I'd be indebted.

(No, really. I might be attracted to any given woman, I might be attracted to any given man, I'm *always* attracted to black drag queens; anyone who is being true to themselves despite all those strikes against them is invariably an incredible strong, fierce person, and they completely blow me away)

[dpolicar]

but your sample phrase, "I'm as fond as any gyno adult..." has an error in it, in that it still implies attraction to one gender.

Does it?

There's no obvious reason "gynosexual" needs to imply "exclusively gynosexual," any more than my describing myself as a dog-lover needs to imply I'm not fond of squirrels, soap, or sandwiches. And I certainly didn't mean it that way when I introduced the term.

On the other hand, there's no obvious reason "heterosexual" needs to imply "exclusively heterosexual" and yet, in our culture/language, it does. And "homosexual" is always teetering on the edge of meaning "male homosexual," though there's more resistance to that.

People seem to want to use these kinds of words to define boundaries rather than centers. I try to avoid thinking that way, not always successfully, but of course the point of language is to communicate to others, and there's no use ignoring the most likely interepretation of what I say.

So, OK. I'm willing to admit defeat on this one and allow you (and others) to insert the implication of exclusivity.

In which case, as you say, you'd end up with "gyno or bi adult," which is still quite a bit more felicitous than "straight or bi adult male (or bi or gay adult female)".

WRT black drag queens... if it comes up often enough that I find myself wanting a concise way to express it to enter the common language, I'll let you know what I come up with.