Expanding the Sexual Orientation Continuum

The new movie Breakfast on Pluto (no, it’s not a sci-fi flick!) forced me to re-evaluate parts of my self-concept, more specifically that of my sexual orientation. Despite the numerous identity crises I’ve experienced since childhood, I believed I’ve at least managed to determine my sexual preference. At the start of my 23rd year of life, I never gave my heterosexuality a second thought. Until now, that is.

My first encounter with Irish actor Cillian (the “C” is pronounced as a “K”) Murphy occurred when Batman Beings opened in theatres. I greatly admired his acting skills as the devious Scarecrow, but I didn’t consider him to be an attractive man. However, when my beguiled eyes fell on Kitten, his sweet-natured, male-to-female transvestite in Breakfast on Pluto, it was lust at first sight! Decked in a pink hat, curly blond wig, heavy mascara, cerise lipstick, coloured fingernails, dress and heels, I thought he was sizzlin’ hot! Tssssss! (My friend and I even agree that Murphy is more sexy as a woman than we are!) The feminine mannerisms he adopted for the role added fire to his character’s irresistible charm. Sheesh, no wonder it took so long for me to uncover this facet of myself. I rarely meet transgendered individuals (real or fictional) in my daily life, and Kitten is simply the first who happened to meet my standards of beauty.

As I continued to watch the film, I thought, “Surely it’s not considered ‘normal’ by our society for a non-transgendered woman to find a male-to-female cross-dresser sexually attractive!” I’m quite certain that I’ve deviated from the heterosexual norm, but where exactly do I fit on the sexual continuum now? It’s very unclear to me where my new position should be. I can’t be a true bisexual because I possess no desire for the female body. The male morphology remains an absolute necessity; it’s just that I can fall head over heels for an extremely feminine disposition (even to the point where the person identifies solely with the female gender).

I keep in touch with Prof. Olivia Jensen, whom many students are aware is a transgendered male-to-female in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department, and she told me once she found the current sexual orientation continuum restricting because it made no distinction between an individual’s sex and his/her gender. For instance, if a female-to-male transvestite found a man sexually attractive, is he homosexual because of his gender, or is she heterosexual because her sex?

I think I’ve found a way to remedy this problem. To borrow a term from particle physics, this is the social sciences’ Standard Model for the sexual orientation continuum, which I consider to be incomplete:

Homosexuality--------------------Bisexuality--------------------Heterosexuality

I believe it’s far more accurate to use two scales, one for body type and one for temperament:

Female-----------------Equal Preference for Both Sexes-----------------Male

Feminine------------------Fully Androgynous Traits------------------Masculine

In the latter case, the sex of my potential partner must be male, so I guess I’m still fully “straight” on that dimension. However, when it comes to his personality, my range is anywhere from fully androgynous (an equal mix of feminine and masculine traits) to completely feminine.

See, isn’t my model more inclusive than the standard one? It may not be perfect (i.e. it doesn’t take into account asexuality), but it removes any ambiguity for transgendered cases. Sexual preference is more complex than merely which kind of body we go for. This is an important idea that should not be ignored, and I sincerely hope one of you dear readers will be inspired by my article to continue in sociology and research this subject further at one point during your career because, alas, I’ll be moving on to physics after graduation! (Speaking of physics, I will have quite a bit to say in next month’s issue about how I’m treated by the males in that department relative to the ones that I’ve met in the social sciences, so stay tuned!)