Is there a difference between questioning your sexuality and being bi-curious. I feel or it seems as though some women/men, who may be farther along in knowing who they are with regards to their sexual orientation would be apprehensive in dating someone who is starting out. So, I'm wondering if there's a difference for women/men who date people who consider themselves to be "questioning" or "bi-curious"?
Questioning might be about anything- eg a person might be questioning whether they are gay, or asexual, or anything else- basically it is used to describe a situation where people are unsure what they like/what their orientation is. "bi-curious" is more specific- It usually is applied to people how have some degree of certainty that they already like one gender- or are not questioning this. Eg- a person usually like the opposite sex, or at least sees themselves as capable of it, but they are curious about exploring the same sex. It is usually used to describe people who identify as straight- and who want to see if they also like the same sex- but it can also be used to describe a gay person who is curious about trying to be with the opposite sex. Bi- curious is more of a temporary identity - because people who try it usually either liked the experience and identify as bisexual, or discover it is not really their kind of thing- and stick to their previous identification. Bi-curious- also has more connotations about actual sexual activity- it usually literally means that a person is curious about trying sex with the gender which outside of their current sexual identity, whilst 'questioning' is more about trying to figure out whom you are attracted to, and whom do you want to date- and not just about having sex as such.
opps- I thought you were asking about what is the difference between the terms. I think I'd avoid outrightly using either terms- just go with a vague "I am interested in dating women". If you must, eg. for reasons of putting it on a dating site I think 'questioning' sounds better, because of the above mentioned purely sexual connotations of the term "bi-curious". Commonly people might be a bit put off by the 'bi-curious' term when it comes to dating because the people who most often use it are straight women who 'want to experiment' sexually with another woman- and nobody likes to be somebody's sexual experiment.
Thanks, LooseMoose. I figured it had negative connotations, which is why I'm not a fan of the term bi-curious. Nor do I consider myself to be so. I believe I'm queer, I just don't know what label I fit under. I know that given my age (28), a lot of women are going to be trepidatious to date me, but I'm a fan of transparency, so it is what it is, I suppose. I guess it's difficult, because I'd rather someone get to know me before they form conceptions regarding who I am. But if you're farther along in your journey, I don't know how fair it is.
