Heteroflexible
Mostly straight, with occasional exceptions.
Heteroflexible describes someone mostly attracted to a different gender, with occasional attraction to the same. It is a bisexual-spectrum term that emphasises the imbalance rather than the range.
The criticism it attracts is that it is bisexuality with a hedge attached, adopted to avoid the word bisexual and the assumptions that come with it. Sometimes that is accurate, and the people using it are often the first to say so.
It is also accurate for some people as a description. Attraction that is overwhelmingly in one direction with rare exceptions is a real pattern, and bisexual, while technically correct, does suggest something more balanced than it.
Homoflexible is the counterpart: mostly attracted to the same gender, occasionally to a different one.
Heteroflexible overlaps with bisexual and does not replace it
The usual criticism, that it is a hedge, is sometimes right. It is also true that a strongly weighted attraction is a real pattern that bisexual describes less precisely.
Most people who use it would accept bisexual as technically correct. The word is doing work on the balance rather than the range.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am heteroflexible.
- Mostly straight, with exceptions.
- Heteroflexible, though bisexual would also be true.
- Overwhelmingly one direction, rarely the other.
Not this
- So you are bi and afraid to say it
- Pick a side
- That is not a real word
- So you are experimenting
Questions people actually ask
What does heteroflexible mean?
Being mostly attracted to a different gender, with occasional attraction to the same.
Is heteroflexible just bisexual?
It overlaps heavily. The difference it marks is the imbalance rather than the range.
What is homoflexible?
The counterpart: mostly attracted to the same gender, occasionally to a different one.
Is it a way of avoiding the word bisexual?
Sometimes, and people who use it often say so themselves. For others it is a precise description of a weighted attraction.