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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How do you know if you're gay?

6 replies

EricTheDinosaur · 28/02/2012 12:51

I don't know where to start. I just looked for a talk page on here specifically for the discussion of LGBT issues but couldn't find one - come on Mumsnet, surely there's a need?

Anyway. In spite of the nickname, I'm a woman with a long-term (male) partner and a son. I've never had any sort of sexual or romantic involvement with another woman. However I think about women sexually all the time. Apologies as I need to get a bit graphic now; when I masturbate on my own, usually (though not always) fantasizing about women, I orgasm really easily. I can even sometimes orgasm spontaneously, i.e. without touching myself at all. But with my partner, though I can enjoy having sex with him, having an orgasm is really difficult; with other men it has been impossible. I just find it hard to tip over the edge and even if I do it is somehow not as satisfying as when I do it my own. I can?t bring myself to orgasm in his presence either, so I believe it?s a psychological rather than technical issue.

I sometimes meet women I think are attractive but I've never had a crush on a woman, not like the painful crushes I had on guys in my teens and early 20s, where I'd daydream about what it'd be like to kiss them, to do more with them. The women I fantasize about are unavailable and anonymous, women whose pictures I've seen in magazines or online etc. As a teenager I didn't have pictures of male pop stars, boy bands etc. on my bedroom walls - I had pictures of models I'd cut out of magazines, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Cher in bondage gear. Not surprisingly looking back, my mum asked me a few times if I was gay. I honestly couldn't understand why. At the time I thought I wanted to be like those women (a boyfriend once told me he thought Sarah Michelle Gellar was the perfect woman), now I wonder if there was an element of sexual attraction. I?ve never fantasized about celebrities, male or female.

I can see myself having sex with a woman in real life but I can?t imagine what it would be like to have a romantic/day-to-day relationship. Not that I?m in a position to be having relationships, as I have my partner.

Argh! Women in their 30s are not supposed to be confused about their sexuality. I just feel there is something missing from my sex life. Every time I masturbate afterwards I lie back and think ?I?m gay, I?m gay as the day is long? but in the cold, hard light of day I begin to doubt it. And by gay I suppose I mean bisexual, as I?ve had lots of enjoyable, albeit orgasm-less, sex with men over the years.

At university I even went as far as joining the LGBT Society and describing myself as bisexual to a few people, though not ?coming out? as such, but I don?t know if I just did that because my boyfriend at the time, who definitely was a bisexual, was a member and they had good socials (the gays know how to throw a party Smile). My partner know about this, and knows I think about women, but hasn?t taken it very seriously. After all, you a bit of a rubbish female bisexual if you?ve never even kissed another woman, right?

Please help/advise. I?ve never discussed this in detail with anybody before.

OP posts:
EricTheDinosaur · 28/02/2012 12:55

Sorry, my partner knows.

OP posts:
foolonthehill · 28/02/2012 12:56

Gay Parents talk forum may be helpful??

HotDAMNlifeisgood · 28/02/2012 12:57

"Women in their 30s are not supposed to be confused about their sexuality."

Sexuality is a spectrum. And it clearly evolves for many people.

For example, there are quite a few women with male partners and children in their most fertile years who enter lesbian relationships later in life.

How do you feel about your partner? There's nothing to say you can't be attracted to women AND to him. Similarly, if you're looking for an out, there's nothing to say your next relationship can't be with a woman.

ThatllDoPig · 28/02/2012 13:00

Does it matter?

If you are committed to your partner then sex with someone else, man or woman wouldn't be a good idea.
Do you feel you need to define yourself or label yourself? It's no-one elses busines what you fantasise about.

TooEasilyTempted · 28/02/2012 13:03

www.shybi.com

You might find this website helpful.

EricTheDinosaur · 28/02/2012 13:08

Me and my partner have had some problems. But I agree, Pig, that it wouldn't be a good idea to sleep with somebody else whilst we're together, male or female. I am committed to trying to make the relationship work for our son's sake. I just sometimes wonder about this sex stuff. It's confusing. I'm just trying to work it out.

OP posts:
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