A proposed monosexual flag
Monosexuality is an umbrella term for anyone whose sexual orientation involves attraction to one gender only. It can include individuals who are gay, lesbian, straight, etc. It is the opposite of multisexual[1] or bisexual. The bisexual community was using the term monosexual by 1991 to mean non-bisexual people. According to the anthology Bi Any Other Name, the term was created by the bisexual movement.[2]
Previously, the term "monosexual" was in use among psychoanalysts with a different meaning. In 1922, Wilhelm Stekel—a contemporary follower of Sigmund Freud—elaborated upon it. Stekel believed that everyone was born "bisexual," which Freud and Stekel used to mean possessing male and female psychological traits. To Stekel, people only behaved as if they were monosexual—purely homosexual or purely heterosexual—but no one was monosexual in actuality. They believed everyone repressed either their heterosexual or homosexual tendencies during puberty, and anyone who seemed monosexual had repressed their bisexual nature to an extreme. Stekel framed a "normal person" as a heterosexual who became a healthy adult by suppressing their homosexual tendencies without becoming neurotic, while all homosexual people were neurotic and needed to stop repressing their heterosexual tendencies.[3]
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- ↑ "Multisexual Youth Mental Health: Risk and Protective Factors for Bisexual, Pansexual, and Queer Youth Who are Attracted to More than One Gender" by The Trevor Project on The Trevor Project. Published 2021-04-23. (Archived on 2023-09-30)
- ↑ Bi Any Other name: Bisexual People Speak Out, with Loraine Hutchins and Lani Kaahumanu (editors). Published 1991 by Alyson Publications. ISBN 1555831745. (web archive)
- ↑ Bi-Sexual Love: The Homosexual Neurosis by Wilhelm Stekel, with James S. Van Teslaar (translator). Published 1922 by The Gorham Press. English translation from the German of approximately half of Dr. Wilhelm Stekel's Onanie und Homosexualität: Die Homosexuelle Neurose, which was just one volume of a series. Wilhelm anglicanized as "William" in credits. (web archive)