There’s still a few hours of 2025 left, meaning there’s still time to add a new word to the national lexicon: Heteroflexible.
According to one dating app, it’s the fastest growing sexual orientation in Britain, describing people who are straight but open to same sex experiences.
Heteroflexible is an umbrella term for a broad range of sexual preferences, covering people who wouldn’t rule out a same-sex encounter, to others who consider themselves as being nearly bisexual.
Heteroflexibles may have sex or relationships with members of the same sex, or may just be open to it theoretically without seeking it out, or be open to participating in group sex rather than one-on-one same sex intimacy.
The app bosses at Feeld—which is aimed at users who are exploring ethical non-monogamy (ENM), polyamory, and kink—will not reveal exactly how many people are currently signed up to the platform, but claim that of all the sexualities their users identify with, ‘heteroflexible’ has risen by nearly 200 per cent this year.
Of the heteroflexibles, two thirds are Millennials (people born between the early 1980s and 1996) and 18 per cent are Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012).
However, it’s not just younger people having their minds opened to new sexual escapades. They claim that 15.5 per cent were Gen X, individuals born between 1965 and 1980.
Dr. Luke Brunning, a lecturer at the University of Leeds who specialises in the philosophy of love, sex and relationships collaborated with the dating app.
Identifying as ‘heteroflexible’ may offer some people freedom but others may face criticism
‘The explosive growth of heteroflexibility suggests curiosity is becoming culturally acceptable, especially among younger users,’ he said.’For some, heteroflexible will describe accurately how they experience attraction or typically behave.
‘For others, it might be more of a promise-to-self, something they want to look into further, explore, or which they hope they will be in a position to experience in the future.’
The dating app says it has no clear origins where ‘heteroflexible’ came from, but is first noted in US college vernacular from around 2022.
Dr Brunning says identifying as ‘heteroflexible’ may offer some people freedom, he added that they may face criticism.
‘For some, any flexibility is a deviation from the heterosexual standard, and will be judged negatively; particularly for men who suffer extensive bi-erasure,’ he said
‘For others, perhaps those firmly within the queer community, heteroflexibility may be viewed with suspicion, as indicative of a reticence to be open about somebody’s “true” bisexuality, for example. Or as evidence of internalised homophobia.’
There is also homoflexibility which the dating app explained is being mostly attracted to the same sex but having the potential to be attracted to someone of the opposite.
