Through the rise of social media platforms and overall resources over the past few years, young people overall have become increasingly aware of sexual fluidity and the growing presence of sexual diversity. Bisexuality, pansexuality, and other queer identities are far more prevalent expressions of identity than years past when our modern sexual culture was formed. But when the conservative era of sexual repression and the slightly nuanced, liberal ideology of sexual exploration touched, they synthesized to form an unfortunately compromised social norm. And though this societal change allowed for a higher rate of acceptance of a binary sexual system, it prohibited a social recognition of those that considered themselves outside that system.
Consequently, we have created a society in which sexuality is pressured and refined into a subject that can be made uncomplicated and served to the masses simply in order to be understood quickly. As a result, in such a society, identifying as bisexual, pansexual, asexual, or any other ‘unorthodox’ queer self-expression is not only disregarded, but completely not recognized in many cases. In a sense, our society has grown to be able to digest once-radical identities and has replaced those with more taboo sexual identities.
This atmosphere is toxic for two main reasons. First, living in a so-called progressive society while holding up values of a sexually binary system is completely contradictory. If the true goal of our society is to advance hastily towards achieving social justice, then we would not still be normalizing a culture of sexual repression. We are thereby normalizing hypocrisy and oppression in the same breath. Secondly, we are teaching our children to subscribe to one standard level of thinking about their own sexual orientation, which limits sexual freedom and only invites a suppression and an overwhelming confusion of sexuality.
As we progress into the future, we must shift our culture into a state of total sexual acceptance, breaking free from the mold of masked repression that we have laid stagnant in for decades. Queer people, especially young queer people, must be liberated sexually in order to fully realize themselves and to escape the confusions of repression. And though the queer community has already realized itself as a sexually liberated entity for decades, the first step to true liberation is the world’s recognition of true sexual freedom and diversity.
