[ad_1]
The isolation caused by repeated lockdowns has given many people the opportunity to analyze deeper elements of their lives and identities, whether it’s the places they live, the jobs they work, or their romantic and family relationships.
Among these familiar changes, some research shows that people’s attitudes toward their sexuality have also evolved amid the pandemic.
Dating app Bumble surveyed more than 4,000 users in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada in August 202o.
Tο 21% said they planned to “express their sexuality differently… compared to a year ago. ” Another Bumble survey found that the 14% changed their sexual desires during the 5th pandemic choosing, for example, same-sex relationships when previously it was only with people of the opposite sex.
Additionally, a survey conducted between March and July 2020 of LGBTQ+ respondents by the Social Relations, Attitudes and Diversity Lab at Ontario’s Trent University found that 11% “felt that their ability to know their identity had changed as a result of Covid-19”. Of those, several said this was because during the pandemic, they had “time to myself to figure out my sexual identity.”
Although many people have discovered a new side to their sexuality, bringing these changes to the fore with friends and family can still be difficult.
Once too overwhelming to contemplate – or at all unreal – these “big life changes” are now on the table for a growing number of people, especially women, as some find themselves questioning the cultural norms they’ve always subscribed to.
Reevaluating “default settings”
Nowadays everyone is always so busy in life that it is very easy to try to escape and it comes naturally to put self-discovery on the back burner.
When it comes to sexuality, that means it’s easier for many people to adopt a “heteronormativity” mindset and not question the heterosexuality they grew up with, according to Karen Blair, head of Trent University’s Lab on Social Relations, Attitudes and Diversity .
“A lot of our media and culture still sends us the message that most of us are going to be straight,” says Blair. Since sexuality exists on a spectrum where “many, if not most, people fall somewhere in between,” he adds, there isn’t much incentive for people to question their sexuality if the “default settings” fit well enough.
But when people could “press the pause button during the lockdown it was noticed that many people started to explore their sexual orientations.
[ad_2]
Source link
