✈️ 'geosexual'? really? ✈️

QUEER WORD
GEOSEXUAL

What It Means:

A tongue-in-cheek term for someone whose sexuality or sexual desire apparently changes depending on where they are geographically.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

‘With this oil shortage pushing up the price of flights, it’s getting harder and harder to be a practicing geosexual,’ Carmelita sighed.

Another One??

Ok, so I like to think that I’m usually fairly open-minded about these things. I figure that if you have found a label that works for you, then what business is it of mine? You should feel free to identify that way and live your life.

But, this one?

This one is garbage.

And, yeah, I’m a total hypocrite here. By my own logic, I shouldn’t have a problem with it. Still, when I first heard the term, my immediate reaction was an involuntary eye-roll, a tut and an exasperated shrug.

But why does it annoy me so much.

Or, perhaps more importantly, who am I actually annoyed with?

When In Rome…

Ok, I went straight into ranting mode there, so let’s back up a bit and take a look at where this all started.

Though the term was coined years ago and has been used to describe a range of different things (from being attracted to rocks, to enjoying having sex in the great outdoors), the definition we’re talking about today came to my attention after news outlets started reporting that the popstar Kesha (or is it Ke$ha?) had apparently declared herself geosexual, following an interview she gave on the podcast Call Her Daddy in May 2026.

Except, that’s not actually what happened.

Sure, in the conversation, Kesha had casually joked that she was ‘celibate except for when I’m in Italy.’

But she never announced to the world that she identified as geosexual. She hadn’t even so much as uttered the term.

Still, it seems that some journalists saw an opportunity for a juicy headline. And, for a few days, at least, those headlines kept popping up on my social media feed, triggering the same involuntary eye-roll every time.

And, even though the story is yesterday’s news, the whole thing has kind of stuck with me.

I mean, I know that it was just a quippy soundbite. And I know it was just a clickbait headline designed to suck in readers. And I know that the original conversation was all a bit of nonsense and banter. And, yet, something about it all really annoys me…

Why Are We Legitimising This?

We already live in a world where lesser-known queer identities are routinely held up for ridicule.

Over the last few years it seems that every grifter with a right-leaning tendency has started to ramp up their blethering on social media about ‘wokeness gone mad’ and all the ridiculous new identities people are supposedly inventing.

Geosexual, to me, feels like a term perfectly suited to that kind of bad-faith argument.

And if they can get their followers riled up about the ridiculousness of geosexual, it's not much of a leap for them to start lumping it in with greysexuality, berrisexuality and any number of other identities that people already struggle to have taken seriously.

That’s probably where my initial reaction comes from. I'm so conscious of how increasingly hostile the world feels towards queer people that I find myself wishing we'd stop giving these people any more ammunition than they already have.

But, then…

I’ve Got This Twisted, Don’t I?

Why the heck am I directing my frustration at people who are clearly just having a bit of frivolous fun on the internet? Why isn't my ire pointed towards the people who seize on that joke and use it as proof that the ‘alphabet mafia’ has finally gone too far?

People are allowed to be silly. They're allowed to play with language.

In fact, that's what I love so much about the queer community. Our inventiveness and playfulness with language.

(also, that's literally why Queer Word exists!)

So, why am I suddenly suggesting that people should stop making jokes just because someone hostile to queer identities might deliberately take them seriously?

Surely the problem isn't the person having fun with language.

It's the person looking for an excuse not to respect somebody else.

Am I turning into a fuddy-duddy? Is this respectability politics infecting my thinking?

No More Pearl Clutching…

Ok, so I still firmly believe that geosexual is a load of old nonsense. And I'm not entirely comfortable with seeing it presented as just another sexual identity, particularly when there are people fighting to have their identities recognised and respected.

But I'm also not sure that people should have to stop making silly jokes about sexuality just because there’s the risk that somebody else might use them as an excuse to be a bit of a dick.

One of the things I hate about the internet is how easily nuance and context get lost. And I worry that, in trying to avoid giving people something to attack us with, we end up losing some of our playfulness and silliness along the way.

I've always loved the queer community's ability to find humour in the face of all the crap that's flung our way. And I don't particularly want to become one of those droning voices that’s lecturing other people about what they should and shouldn’t be joking about.

Even if that means I occasionally stumble upon rants about fridge-sexuals on my TikTok feed.