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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To decide that my lesbian fantasies are just that and don't mean I'm gay

146 replies

user1493797837 · 03/05/2017 10:48

I've always been very interested and involved in the gay community and all my friends are gay. I however, am straight.

I can find a man objectively handsome and can be very attracted to a mans smile and eyes.
I am completely convinced that I just haven't met the right guy for me yet. I'm 27 and I have wasted a lot of time by dating men that I had no sexual feelings for and never falling in love. At 23 I started dating a man and we got engaged/had a child after 3 years. I thought I was in love but it was only after having my son I realised the love was purely platonic and sex became so upsetting for me I ended the relationship so that he could be free to meet someone who could be right for him.

I've done some online dating but not met anyone I'm remotely interested in. I'm sure I will bump into a guy soon and everything will make sense once I've met my soulmate.

Even if I never meet the one, that still doesn't make me lesbian.

Anyway. On another point. I find some women striking to look at and notice their beauty. There's a few women I seem to have 'feelings' for but I don't actually even understand what I mean by that. My manager is a lesbian and despite my very very best efforts I cannot stop thinking about her. It's absolutely destroying me. She joked when drunk that I was 'exactly what she goes for in a woman' and now I feel completely in turmoil.
So much so that I feel physically ill.

I spend my days daydreaming about being in a relationship and buying some kittens Grin and settling down. We have so much in common.

I've now put it at the back of my head and decided it's nothing more than a fantasy like children have on their teachers but I keep noticing how pretty women are around me and no longer noticing men. I joined POF as a lesbian not straight and I deleted my profile before I took it any further.

When I have to fill out equality and monitoring forms I now say 'gay' not straight as it feels more true.

When people talk to me about hot men I feel sad and like i don't fit in to this conversation anymore. I don't masturbate, but if I were to, it would definitely be a woman I would think of. I'm too scared to even go there.

I constantly daydream about finding a nice woman to marry, coming out as gay, being involved as a lesbian in the gay community, kissing a woman, having sex with a woman. I have googled 'how to know you're a lesbian' so many times I can memorise the pages off by heart.

I just don't understand what on earth is happening to me. Can someone really go from straight to gay at the age of 27 with no previous lesbian feelings? I think I'm just lonely maybe and saying I'm gay as I've not found the right man for me. I'm still sure I'm straight but this is absolutely all consuming and it's destroying me if I'm honest. I don't want to be lesbian and my life would be so much easier if I was not. AIBU to work on putting all these thoughts behind me, and finding myself a man who will be right for me.

I feel at peace finally that these thoughts are simply fantasy. Not to be taken seriously and I shouldn't be feeding them. It's self destructive and time consuming/a waste of time. People have crushes and fantasies all the times and they don't mean anything. This is how I've always felt.

Do you think this is hugely unreasonable? Surely what I think and feel is my business and no one else's? I ask because my best friend wants me to go to discuss the possibility of being lesbian but I feel there's nothing to discuss.

OP posts:
GirlcalledJames · 03/05/2017 11:36

I'm not straight, but I don't think straight people spend much time wondering whether they are straight or not.
They just know.
I think you know, too.

AceTenSuited · 03/05/2017 11:40

*I don't have a low sex drive. I just don't like having sex with men.

I'm not sexually attracted to men.*

This is the very definition of not being heterosexual. You are in major denial.

AceTenSuited · 03/05/2017 11:42

OP, put it this way, imagine if I said this to you:

I don't have a low sex drive. I just don't like having sex with women

I'm not sexually attracted to women

I fantasise about marrying a man and settling down

I can't stop thinking about this man at work. I'm head over heels for him

... Am I straight?

user1493797837 · 03/05/2017 11:45

I am not sexually attracted to men but that's because I haven't met the right guy for me.

Also, while I fantasise about being with women, if never actually do anything about that or want to do anything about it. In reality being with a woman isn't something I would enjoy.

It's just a fantasy.

OP posts:
GirlcalledJames · 03/05/2017 11:47

If you like women in some way, and you are single, why not explore it? What would you have to lose? Nobody else needs to know until you want them to.
Seriously, being with a woman is amazing if you're that way inclined, why deny yourself that pleasure of life?

QueenofallIsee · 03/05/2017 11:48

Sexuality isn't something that you choose OP, it is an inate quality. You are attracted to women sexually but don't see yourself in a relationship with one - that is OK if you are happy, look at Andrea Dworkin and John Stoltenberg, they did it their own way.

That said you don't sound happy or reconciled to any of this, you sound in denial

Wormwoodm · 03/05/2017 11:49

My best friend was with a man for 15 years. She loved him and was very happy but didn't enjoy sex at all. She could never understand how she had the perfect boyfriend but yet something always felt wrong. She fell in love with a woman in her 30s and has left her boyfriend and now happily gay. Sometimes you can't decide who you fall for, she wasn't looking to become a lesbian. Her life just made much more sense when she fell for a woman.

GirlcalledJames · 03/05/2017 11:50

Some people are hetero-romantic and bisexual or homosexual, perhaps that's you?

QuietNameChange · 03/05/2017 11:50

I think you sound super duper gay. But I'm just a stranger on the internet...

Anyhow, sounds as if you desperately want to find the one guy to fit in with your faimily's notions of morality etc...

I wish you all the best and hope you actually do find that man and are happy with him.
Or that you feel free and confident enough to pursue your lesbian fantasies and find a great woman.

Either way, it sounds like a difficult situation. Good luck.

I also suggest seeing a therapist.

Simply because I don't want you to look back and regret not doing what would have made you happy.

Seriously, I wish you all the best and good luck!!

RainbowJack · 03/05/2017 11:51

user1493797837 You sound like those people who say they like gay people but wouldn't want one in their family.

You like gay people but can't deal with being bi/gay yourself.

It's clear from your posts you are not straight.

MitzyLeFrouf · 03/05/2017 11:51

'I am not sexually attracted to men but that's because I haven't met the right guy for me.'

But most people who are straight are attracted to members of the opposite sex before they meet the one the settle down with. And even then they still find people other than their partner sexually attractive.

chocatoo · 03/05/2017 11:54

My teenage DD says that it's about the person that you are attracted to not what gender they are. I think she is very wise. Just keep an open mind and enjoy meeting new people of both sexes. Let the future take it's course.

redjoker · 03/05/2017 11:54

"but I don't want to be gay myself"
"I am not sexually attracted to men but that's because I haven't met the right guy for me"

Go with your feelings, why are you so determined to put a hold on your own happiness and well being; you clearly have strong feelings for woman, explore it. Don't pigeon hole yourself into Straight and Gay.

Regardless of the 'right' man or not your lack of fantasy and sexual attraction to men should ring a bell in your head.

Start being honest with yourself; it's hard if those around you aren't ready to support your decisions but why force yourself to a life of what if's

oohloolala · 03/05/2017 11:55

You don't have to label yourself as anything but you could just stay open minded and say what's meant to be will be. Aim to meet the person who makes you happy, whether it's a man or a woman and then work the rest out later. If you campaign for gay rights surely you're willing to fight for those rights for yourself?

sheepashwap · 03/05/2017 11:56

There are men who have sex with men who are married to women they don't want to sleep with, but do, who call themselves heterosexual. Not bi. Not gay.

Forget labels.

Forget your family and your friends - who they love and sleep with us up to them. Not you. And vice versa.

What if you miss out on the love of your life because you're waiting for it in a form that everybody else accepts.

Having fantasies about women isn't a sign of being bi or lesbian (if we have to use restrictive labels). But not wanting to have sex with men is a sign of a) being a straight asexual person or b) lesbian.

And I can imagine when you know first hand the prejudice a group is subject to, it could be very scary to join that group officially.

frigginell · 03/05/2017 11:57

"I am not sexually attracted to men but that's because I haven't met the right guy for me."

^^This sounds like the fantasy. Do you really think that if you were a heterosexual woman you wouldn't have been attracted to men you've actually met by 27?

And the "It's all in my head" - what else is there, but what's in our heads?

This has got to be a reverse. Are you the friend op?

MariafromMalmo · 03/05/2017 11:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Catsize · 03/05/2017 11:59

I rather think you haven't met the right woman yet OP.

And your internalised fears are holding you back.

Have you posted about this before by the way? The bit about your boss is something I seem to remember.

anastasia38494032010 · 03/05/2017 12:00

Place marking - will come back with a reply for you!

ChessPlayer09 · 03/05/2017 12:01

OP I think you're afraid.

For years I described myself as "straight but finds women attractive". It's only recently I'm able to say "bisexual".

TinselTwins · 03/05/2017 12:03

There is a word for this and it fits me, I can't remeber what the word is

But most of my fantasies involve women (because willies are just funny looking Grin ) but in practice / when it comes to real people I've only ever had relationships with men

Fantasy people aren't "real" people. I've never denied myself a relatinship with a woman because I've never fallen for a woman, I've fallen for men.

But, if I want some "alone time" I find mental images of women more pleasing.

PushingThru · 03/05/2017 12:05

Are you a gay friend of a closeted person? This post is bizarre.

UndersecretaryofWhimsy · 03/05/2017 12:07

TinselTwins a good amount of research has found that more straight women fantasise about other women than don't, so I would say that makes you... average. Grin

I don't think this is the OP's situation though.

I ID overall as bi. However, I'm heteroromantic; I fantasise about and enjoy sex with both men and women, but I've never met a woman and wanted her to be my girlfriend. I only have the drive to form romantic relationships with men. If OP were 'straight' as most people define it, she'd have drive towards men, and she doesn't.

Branleuse · 03/05/2017 12:08

well youre obviously not completely heterosexual, even if you dont class yourself as gay. It is perfectly possibly for the genders you find most attractive to change at various points over your life and not uncommon. It doesnt mean youve always been secretly gay, but we dont have a fixed personality/identity that stays exactly the same thoughout life

honeycheeerios · 03/05/2017 12:08

You say

I find some women striking to look at and notice their beauty.

but I keep noticing how pretty women are around me and no longer noticing men.

When I have to fill out equality and monitoring forms I now say 'gay' not straight as it feels more true.

I don't masturbate, but if I were to, it would definitely be a woman I would think of.

I constantly daydream about finding a nice woman to marry, coming out as gay

I'm not sexually attracted to men.

Yet you are adamant you are not gay and think everything will fall into place when you meet the right man?!

You sound like you are in denial, not willing to accept you are gay, because of your family and their views on being gay.

Based on everything you have written, I think you are gay. There is nothing wrong with that, you just need to work on accepting who you are.

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