#pw!

particularly this quote:

where like. okay, sure. you aren't attracted to guys but you find them attractive. but stating that in the same article where you say this:

of course i know it's a widely-held belief that pete wentz is bisexual on tumblr, so i'm not going to say i'm a pioneer in this in any capacity, but i genuinely believe that pete wentz doesn't think he's bisexual. or at least didn't at the time.

every time he's asked to elaborate on his attraction, he says he'd marry a man if he 'didn't have to have sex' but i've always found that not-quite believable because he always references his own dick as being undesirable, which some could link mostly to his self-image issues (and whatever's going on with his gender, but that parts a little murkier/less evidence-backed). but even if we were to believe peter 'lies-about-everything-for-fun' wentz, what he's essentially describing is biromanticism. he's into making out, living with, and 'sharing clothes' (lol. sure pete.) with guys, but he'd 'never have sex with them'.

(i could give you my half-baked theories about his internalized homophobia which he may not even realize he has being what makes him say that at every opportunity, but that would be pure extrapolation from my attempt to bury myself in his psyche supported with vague-at-best quotes from, once again, peter 'lies-about-everything-for-fun' wentz.)

and then we have to tackle this section:

he references the concept of bisexuality in the interview itself, which is really funny to me, because he also still boxes himself into a 'heterosexual' category despite literally admitting to a) being attracted to men/finding them attractive, b) making out with men, and c) believing sexuality is a spectrum and there are 'some people' who 'aren't gay, straight, or even bi'. while he doesn't personally group himself into that category directly, it's kind of heavily implied by the Everything Else of the interview.

to me, pete wentz and his sexuality have always been this tenuous sort of relationship where he's comfortable being the 'straight guy who looks/acts gay' but he feels the constant need to reaffirm his heterosexuality. sure, he's fine when people call him a faggot, but he constantly feels the need to clarify that he wouldn't fuck a man and therefore he's not bisexual. almost like 'it's fine for other people to be gay or bi or queer or whatever, but not for me because i didn't have the stereotypical Queer Experience that i see in my own head'.

he seems to have this idea of what it means to be gay or grow up gay that doesn't quite account for the fact that it's really fucking hard to realize you're attracted to the same sex sometimes because you're raised in a society that shows you heterosexuality as the only option for most of your childhood. made worse by the fact that he likes women too, which can frequently mask the attraction to the same sex because you can date the opposite sex and still feel like you're 'doing it correctly'. even when you're aware of queer people as a concept and supportive, if it comes to a person who doesn't think they're 'allowed' or is, for some reason or another too scared to explore, they're never going to actually embrace that part of themselves. he can be as woke as he wants about lgbtq+ rights, but he's been so cemented into straight relationships for his entire career that i doubt he ever really treated the idea of dating a man as anything but a joke or something that other dudes do, but not him.

that's all obviously pure extrapolation as well so don't take me too seriously, but every conversation about pete wentz's sexuality is tinted with this sort of 'i'm not gay i promise, but what if i were? that would be okay, right?' that feels like him testing the waters but not having declared himself 'gay enough' to be allowed to take on the label.

there's also a part of the pete wentz identity that just fully, outright rejects labels as a concept, which i think is kind of awesome, but i do think it's somewhat limiting and definitely a product of the time.