Threesomes, throuples and polyamory became hot topics ever since Zendaya's Challengers released. In the film, Zendaya's character is in love with two men. And now, "symbiosexuality" is the latest in the long list of sexual identities that has caught the attention of the social media.
So what is symbiosexuality? Symbiosexaulity happens when someone is attracted to an already existing couple. According to Seattle University researchers, symbiosexual is an "attraction to the energy, multidemensionality and power shared between people in relationships".
The study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior revealed that a large group of participants have felt a romantic and sexual attraction to a third person's "synergy". Besides Challengers, symbiosexual relationships are protrayed in Gossip Girl and Tiger King.
Dr Sally W Johnston, who conducted the study, says the nature of human attraction and desire as only one-to-one experiences should be reevaluated. She said she first encountered symbiosexual relationships while researching about how "unicorns" are treated in a polyamorous bonding. Usually, "unicorn" refers to a bisexual woman who is in a relationship with a heterosexual couple.
Johnston says she is currently looking at the relationship dynamic among general public to get a deeper understanding of symbiosexuality. "I hope that this work will reduce stigma in both monogamous and non-monogamous communities and expand conceputalisations of desire in sexuality studies," she told PsyPost.