
I often forget how shocking I can be to the uninitiated eye.
My love for dramatic color and flair is something that I have embraced with such abandon. The fluorescent colors and hyper-pigments of my make-up, clothing, and hair have been accepted by most of the people that see me on a daily basis. What to many seems garish, outlandish, and outrĂ© to me just seems…well, normal!
I live by the rule, do what makes you happy (with the proviso not to harm anyone or thing). And, what makes me happy are colors. Lots of them!!!
It seems too, that my colorful shell matches a lot of my inner energy. So, it might be said that I’m a loud, colorful, and intense personality. Hell, I like to call it amiable and dazzling, but I think more would say that I am very assertive. The more charitable of the bunch would say that my personality is simply strong. But, I am as mushy and sentimental as they come. Rather, the more you know of me the more you will realize that I am quite gentle of spirit, even if somewhat flamboyant in appearance.
It made me wonder and protest to myself, just because I have a loud appearance doesn’t necessarily mean that I have a loud personality!!! Ok, I admit, I am high-energy and I do have a flair for the dramatic. But, I also have a deep, spiritual side that can be still. My capacity for this is not overshadowed by my love for color or vividness in all things.
I found this dichotomy interesting and pondered about what I might be projecting—sexually—that is.
A memory from a few years ago came to me in my musings. I remember being hit on by a guy in a bar at a local hotspot, Sino at Santana Row, then a swanky-singles-meat-market, if you will. This yokel’s S.O.P. was to grab the hands of girls, read their palms, and tell them their future. While I laughed this guy’s flimsy attempt at a gimmick, his “reading” of my palm did give me pause.
“You appear very sexual, but in point of fact and reality are not!” Putting aside the artless and terrible application of reverse psychology and pop-metaphysics, the guy's proclamation nonetheless made me stop and think.
Perhaps, though I appear exuberant and vocal about my sexual appetites, much like that of my appearance, I am not really as “freaky,” or as outlandish, or eccentric in my sexual demands or desires. So it lead me to thinking about other friends that seemed sexually open and vocal. After segregating the sexually vocal to who I deemed in my mind as almost-sexually mute, I began to think that there is no real correlation between being sexually outspoken to that of being sexually peculiar.
Just because you are loud doesn’t also mean you are freaky!
For example, I like guys that take the lead and are in control; they’ve got to be firm and make me feel feminine and overwhelmed. I’m rather opinionated about this and tell just about anyone that asks me what my preference is to lovemaking. However, if you think on it, this is not that uncommon for a lot of women. It seems that it is simply easier for my very sexually vociferous friends and I to talk about what we want in the bedroom.
Others, however, require a much more quiet and intimate setting before they give up their secrets. I had the privilege of learning some of the sexual proclivities of some of my quieter, less flamboyant friends in past few months; and I will be honest, they shocked me! Some of these quiet, unassuming, yet very layered and complex people have some really layered and complex desires. It makes sense and yet perception seems to be so counter-intuitive.
So, having this on the brain, I got into a rather long, but fun, debate with my friends a few weekend ago regarding the idea that strong sexual personalities, or rather seemingly strong sexual personalities, also tend to project strong sexual proclivities—i.e. they look like they rank up in the Freak-O-Meter because they are vocal about their sexual appetites.
Ahh, yes, we’ve come to the very scientific Freak-O-Meter. It's really just an arbitrary scale measuring sexual penchant—basically, it’s a freak-flag measuring stick. It’s foundation relies mostly on observation, conjecture, sneaky surveys that I've peppered into normal conversation, and at present, from some long, but very friendly debates.
I argued with everyone that just because I told everyone what I liked didn’t make me high on the Freak-O-Meter scale! In fact, I tried to make a case that I was a good, solid 6.5. I was laughed home and given a 9 unanimously by the group that I was debating. Yikes!
So, I can’t argue that I’m a 9 since they’ll all just think what they want to anyways. However, doesn’t it make you stop and think about the quiet ones; the ones who seem reserved and patient; the ones that seem ready to explode?
I explode with colors and excitement all the time at all things, I don't perceive myself to be pent up and feel rather secure in emphatic gestures or sentiments. However, others that aren't nearly as comfortable with being sexually brazen, we might mistake to rank at 4.5 or a 5.2 on the scale because they have more mellow attitudes and are less ostentatious. And, more often than not, we'd be wrong!
Think about it!
Doesn’t anyone remember a quiet lover that completely took them by surprise because they didn’t seem to be so freaky, so nasty, so dirty from first blush? And haven’t a lot of them been the ones that don’t necessarily have to be so expressive about it?
I hate to conclude that simpler tastes and minds express themselves more simply or more readily, because I don’t believe myself to be that simple. However, I do know and believe that despite my complexities, I tend to express and think in simpler terms; less in layers and rather more in singular interconnected ideas. And so, I also tend to express my sexuality and desires in simpler, singular, yet interconnected ideas.
On the flip-side, it can’t be summarily said that quiet, less-vocal people are more complex and, so too, that means their expressions and ideas, especially about sex and their sexuality, are equally so. I think we all have layers and unique idiosyncratic sexual appetites. In truth it’s subjective as to where one falls on the Freak-O-Meter. If I’m judging the gal next to me based on my Freak-O-Meter, she might fall higher or lower based on what’s comfortable for me and what shocks my socks off. But, if the same gal were to rate me based on her own scale, I may or may not be as high or low as I think I fall on mine as the scale now has a new barometer--now it's based on the imaginary, invisible gal's freakiness-factor sitting next to me.
I’d really love to Trade Mark the Freak-O-Meter, but since it’s a sliding scale, it might be difficult to get peeps to buy into it if their subjectivity is a variable in determining benchmarks. Besides, someone beat me to it, check out http://www.freakometer.net/
I'd like to challenge the idea that I'm a real "9," as I may appear to rank high because of my seeming expressiveness. My friends, or anyone else for that matter, will need to examine their own Freak-O-Meter scale before I can fully rank on it. In turn, I'll have to look at my own scale and determine why I think I rank a 6.5, because if I perceive myself as such, then what the heck does it say about what shocks and awes me if a 6.5 on my scale is really a 9 on others?
Well, for now, I’m freaky until proven otherwise!
How do you rate on your Freak-O-Meter and why? I’d like to know!?
***Wave Your Freak Flag Fly Gear Pic courtesy of http://waveyourfreakflag.com/ ***
****Freak-O-Meter website http://www.freakometer.net/ ****