What is a finsexual, and how do I know if I am one?

Written on 21 Jun 2025 • Last updated 22 Jun 2025

Happy pride month! Despite not being a very broadly known sexual identity, finsexuality is likely among one of the most common sexualities out there. It is perhaps the best label I’ve found for my sexual orientation.

So you are probably wondering, what is a finsexual and how is it one of the more common sexualities out there? Have you ever spoken to a man/masc enby that identified as straight or a woman/fem enby that identified as a lesbian, for them to tell you that while they are generally attracted mostly (or even "exclusively") to women that they also once in a while find a femboy that they are attracted to? Do you yourself relate to such an experience? That person (or you) may very likely be a finsexual.

Unlike some more broadly known sexual identities, finsexuality incorperates both gender identity and gender presentation. Finsexuals experience attraction to people who have a feminine gender identity and/or feminine gender presentation. This can include masculine women/fem enbies, feminine women/fem enbies, and feminine men/masc enbies. Finsexuals generally don’t exeperience attraction to masculine men/masc enbies. Finsexuality belongs to the multisexual spectrum.

There’s a good chance that you know some finsexual people, even if their current identity is something else. Some finsexual people may continue to identify as straight/lesbian ignoring the fact that they find feminine men attractive, and some may identify as bisexual, pansexual, or even bi-lesbian. While I can’t tell you what sexual orentation your are nor what label you should use, hopefully those of you who experience your sexuality in this manner now have a label that describes your sexuality more precisely.

For those wondering where the term “finsexual” comes from, the "fin" part is acronym for “feminine in nature” stemming from the attraction to people who are feminine in nature regarding gender identity, presentation, or both. With this being a fairly common yet previously nameless sexual orientation, there have been a few other words that have tried to describe the same sexual orientation. Gynesexual or gynosexual are two other terms for roughly the same sexual identity. These terms are different from gynephilia/gynophelia, which is a gender neutral word for those who experience attraction to women.

If you’re wondering if I identify as gynesexual or finsexual, it’s both since effectively the same thing, as long as you are using this definition of gynesexual. I personally prefer the term finsexual because it has a more consise definition, where gynesexual has a few different definitions. I also prefer it because many confuse gynesexuality for gynephilia which are two different sexual orientations where finsexual is less likely to be conflated in a similar manner.

My journey

I can’t quite say that I’ve been exclusively finsexual my entire life, either in label or in actual attraction. Along with being finsexual, I would also consider myself to some degree sexually fluid, although chances are that fluid has hardened into a solid by this point. For the first few years I experienced sexual attraction, it was exclusively androphilic. I would eventually shift torwards a more gynephilic direction once I hit my teenage years, and for a while thought that I was exclusively gynephilic.

In 2020, I would find out about my attraction to femboys which really threw a wrench into my sexual identity at the time. Later in 2020, I would figure out that I was trans and shift the label around but still identified as a lesbian despite the fact that I also found some femboys attractive. Later on, I would try to find a label that suited me and identified as bisexual and later bi-lesbian for a little while. Since neither of those labels were doing it, I would identify as just queer until I could find a label that describes my sexuality even better.

Now, I understand my sexuality to be finsexual/gynesexual. I think I remember seeing someone else use the term in social media, searching it up and finding out that’s exactly what describes me as far as my sexual identity goes. While I do identify as finsexual, I identify as sapphic as far as romantic attraction is concerned at least right now.

Pride flags

There are a few pride flags for finsexuality and gynesexuality, however this one is my favourite:

While I did not technically create this flag myself (I don’t remember who did exactly) this is my recreation of that flag and put into an SVG format.