I am sure that I will rebuked for my opinion on sexuality by some, however it is only my opinion. One opinion that I have recently been reminded of; hence why I have decided to write about it.

The history of my thinking is as follows:

I know there are many old-school nurses out there that will absolutely slate the modern way of training nurses as you can’t beat (apparently) learning on the job, however I was born far too late to undergo SRN or SEN training so had to make do with a degree instead. (that is, in part sarcasm, in part knowledge that the NHS would be better off without over qualified brow wipers – but that is another opinion entirely)

Anyway, as part of the theory of nursing we were taught a lot about sociology and psychology. (Inequalities in Health (the Black Report) and Pavlov and his dogs are sure to be mentioned at some point soon) and sometimes we were just exposed to some pointless exercise that you never saw the point of. Until afterwards, that is.

I still remember being sat in a lecture hall in the Clinical Sciences Building at St James’s in Leeds with my IPS (interpersonal skills) tutor and about 50 other students and we were asked to discuss sexuality, openly and honestly. The group ranged in age from 19 to 50+ (I was probably 21 at the time). We had to volunteer rude / offensive / sexually motivated terms that we knew, without explanation. You can only imagine what was said, nurses are so knowledgeable about these things!! It was only after we had stalled with our ‘brain storm’ did we go back through the list and explained what they meant. Apparently it wasn’t a tutorial to get us friendly with each other, it was to teach us what language some of our future ‘patients’ may use.

Anyway one bloke; I remember him ‘til this day, big bushy beard, Guardian reader, Mental Health student nurse (says it all!) came up with something that has always stuck in my mind and unusually for a Guardian reader, I actually agreed with him.

As far as sexuality is concerned we should all disregard our gender. Gender and sexuality are very different things in the first instance, that is.

Imagine a horizontal line (and if I was any good I could animate this, but I aren’t) and at the left side was feminine (female) and to the right was masculine (male).

Without being who you actually are, gender wise, where would you put yourself? Ignoring the brackets for a minute, of course.

Where in the feminine /masculine continuum are you?

I know that I am a girl but I also think (know) that I am probably close to halfway between the feminine and masculine.

I act like a bloke in some instances. I enjoy and can deal with one-night stands, I am useless at returning calls and I forget birthdays and anniversaries. However I am still on the feminine side of the continuum (and within the side that has the brackets of being a female too) so not only am I still nearly feminine I am also a girl so therefore heterosexual.

I know that this is very simplified interpretation but can’t go into this too deeply here, but I am sure you will get my point.

Where are you?