And another short one!
Nov. 4th, 2019 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fuzzyredAnother story, with Genevieve learning some things about herself.
Title: Realizations
Prompt: Confusion
Word Count: 505
Rating: PG?
Warnings: Mentions of self discovery, being different, and sexual attraction, though all in the abstract.
Summary: Gen learns some helpful new words.
Realizations
Genevieve sat at her kitchen table, staring blankly at her laptop. There were kinds of attraction?! Why did no one ever tell her that you could feel sensual attraction (wanting to hug/kiss somebody), without feeling sexually attracted to them (wanting to have sex with them)? Or that romantic attraction, wanting to date, was something separate from both of those? It would have made so many more things make sense.
The longer Gen looked at the list, the more she could see how people were always confused by her. The majority of society was used to seeing romantic or sexual attraction, usually at the same time. It didn’t seem to acknowledge sensual attraction at all, and had a habit of assuming all platonic attraction between friends of opposite gender was moments away from turning into romantic and/or sexual attraction. So when she gave someone a hug, or showed any interest that wasn’t purely platonic, they assumed she was after more.
Thankfully the misconception usually came from outsiders looking in, and not the person she was interacting with, but outsiders had a tendency to gossip. Which could get annoying when they constantly made wrong assumptions about her, or filtered her actions through their perspective; they wanted romance and sex, so therefore she must want the same thing.
It was enough to make her scream sometimes. She just wanted to watch a movie with her best friend on the couch and cuddle. Did it have to be something more? Gen couldn’t even begin to find the words to describe how much of a relief it was to know that, yes, she could just want to cuddle on the couch without wanting a candle lit dinner or sex. It also helped seeing that there was a term for feeling sexual attraction but not always wanting to act on it.
It had never been particularly important to Genevieve to have a word to describe who she was, she was just Gen. But it certainly might help explain to others how she was now that she had specific words. It might still be a struggle and she might not even have all the answers for herself, but at least now she had a starting point. And she had evidence that she wasn’t the only one, and perhaps wasn’t quite so strange as she thought. It was nice to think that maybe, she wasn’t alone after all, and one day, instead of confusion and miscommunications, she would meet someone who went “Oh, I get it! Me too!”
For now, it was enough to know that she wasn’t crazy, and that there wasn’t anything wrong with her. She could take her time and explore, and see if she learned anything else new. It didn’t need to be done right away, she could take baby steps, look up a word here, leave a comment there, and slowly, who she was would become clearer, until she knew with certainty who “Gen” was and how to tell the world without preconceived notions getting in the way.
Title: Realizations
Prompt: Confusion
Word Count: 505
Rating: PG?
Warnings: Mentions of self discovery, being different, and sexual attraction, though all in the abstract.
Summary: Gen learns some helpful new words.
Realizations
Genevieve sat at her kitchen table, staring blankly at her laptop. There were kinds of attraction?! Why did no one ever tell her that you could feel sensual attraction (wanting to hug/kiss somebody), without feeling sexually attracted to them (wanting to have sex with them)? Or that romantic attraction, wanting to date, was something separate from both of those? It would have made so many more things make sense.
The longer Gen looked at the list, the more she could see how people were always confused by her. The majority of society was used to seeing romantic or sexual attraction, usually at the same time. It didn’t seem to acknowledge sensual attraction at all, and had a habit of assuming all platonic attraction between friends of opposite gender was moments away from turning into romantic and/or sexual attraction. So when she gave someone a hug, or showed any interest that wasn’t purely platonic, they assumed she was after more.
Thankfully the misconception usually came from outsiders looking in, and not the person she was interacting with, but outsiders had a tendency to gossip. Which could get annoying when they constantly made wrong assumptions about her, or filtered her actions through their perspective; they wanted romance and sex, so therefore she must want the same thing.
It was enough to make her scream sometimes. She just wanted to watch a movie with her best friend on the couch and cuddle. Did it have to be something more? Gen couldn’t even begin to find the words to describe how much of a relief it was to know that, yes, she could just want to cuddle on the couch without wanting a candle lit dinner or sex. It also helped seeing that there was a term for feeling sexual attraction but not always wanting to act on it.
It had never been particularly important to Genevieve to have a word to describe who she was, she was just Gen. But it certainly might help explain to others how she was now that she had specific words. It might still be a struggle and she might not even have all the answers for herself, but at least now she had a starting point. And she had evidence that she wasn’t the only one, and perhaps wasn’t quite so strange as she thought. It was nice to think that maybe, she wasn’t alone after all, and one day, instead of confusion and miscommunications, she would meet someone who went “Oh, I get it! Me too!”
For now, it was enough to know that she wasn’t crazy, and that there wasn’t anything wrong with her. She could take her time and explore, and see if she learned anything else new. It didn’t need to be done right away, she could take baby steps, look up a word here, leave a comment there, and slowly, who she was would become clearer, until she knew with certainty who “Gen” was and how to tell the world without preconceived notions getting in the way.
