Labels

I've been thinking about labels for a while now. It's difficult to find labels that accurately describe my sexuality and gender. I thought I was straight and male for most of my life, but obviously neither of those labels fit me now. It took me a while to realize I was bisexual, but even that label is broad and doesn't come close to describing the nuances of who I'm attracted to and how that attraction manifests.

I am also on the Asexual spectrum somewhere. I recently discovered a graph that describes the various kinds of attraction: Platonic, Aesthetic, Sensual, Sexual, and Romantic. Someone is Asensual if they don't experience sensual attraction, Aromantic if they don't experience romantic attraction, etc. Allosexual means someone experiences normal sexual attraction.

I am Allosensual, maybe even Hypersensual. I love to cuddle and will 100% hook up with someone just to cuddle them. I'm pretty sure I'm Asexual, though, or at least close to it. In the past, I most likely mistook sensual attraction for sexual attraction. Every sexual encounter I've had has been somewhat disappointing, and how I feel about the experience as a whole depends on how much cuddling we did before and after.

One thought experiment that convinced me I am ace is this: Say you find a genie who offers you a deal. You can have a partner who will cuddle with you every day for the rest of your life, BUT... You can never have sex again, ever. I would take that deal with no hesitation. Whenever I have gone a while without having sex, I don't miss it at all. I do miss cuddling though, and I tend to get desperate if I go too long without it :'(

As for my gender, that's not clear either. I think I'm Agender internally, because my brain doesn't seem to have much of a reaction to either estrogen or testosterone, but I love being feminine, love the effects estrogen has on my body, and I love being a girl socially. So my gender is the word "GIRL" but when you look close, the lines that make up the text are microprinted "Transfeminine Non-Binary Agender".