Why do some people seem to believe that everyone is innately bisexual? I've seen this claim every now and then online, and apparently some prominent bisexuals (e.g. Gore Vidal, Billie Joe Armstrong) believe(d) it. I've even heard it twice IRL; the second time, a lesbian acquaintance of mine said something along the lines of "I'm gay enough that I know straight people aren't lying about being straight", which I concurred with in my head (although I said nothing). Personally, I'm a gay guy, or at least that's what I call myself, but there have been a few rare instances where I briefly wondered whether I actually am attracted to women, only minimally and/or while repressing it, and although I have always ultimately concluded that I am just gay, it does make me think about the idea that everyone is actually just at some point or another on a spectrum of bisexuality. That being said, it still seems highly improbable to me. What are your thoughts?
unless you believe in some very strict sexual determinism, people have the "material conditions" to be bisexual: there is no physical obstacle stopping anyone from being bisexual. so sexual orientation is always, to some extent, a self-imposed restraint
for example, when a sharpie marker goes up my ass, my prostate doesn't care about the genitals or even the identity of the person pushing the marker
That's not really "being" bisexual though, since you can engage in sexual behavior with someone without being attracted to them. Anyone is free to "act" bisexual, but it doesn't necessarily make them bisexual in orientation, no?
these kinds of confusion occur because many, perhaps most people, have a tendency to reify language into a perfect and interchangeable analog to reality. they think the word is what the thing is and vice versa. instead of treating language as merely a tool with which to think and study and describe and understand the world, they use it as a substitute for thought itself and offload all of their cognition onto the words which they simply accept at face value without ever questioning or even considering their true meaning, or understanding that they are merely arrows or signposts and not the destination itself.