Abhay Deol refuses to define his sexuality

Abhay Deol said that he refuses the ‘Western way’ of identifying sexuality and believes in operating without any labels, which primarily exists for the comfort of others to ‘neatly slot’ an individual. He was asked how he perceives sexuality, to which he replied that it ‘as a spectrum’. He refuses the ‘Western way’ of identifying sexuality because ‘it’s so black and white’.

“The Eastern approach is so different as it recognises the whole of us. I don’t define my sexuality and this might sound controversial but for me, it’s not something that I think can be defined. I think it’s more for the other person’s comfort so they can put you in a box and neatly slot you. Why should I define myself in Western terms? I have embraced all experiences in my life and I continue to do so. I don’t know how to label that. I don’t want to label that. All of us have a masculine and feminine within us, so in my opinion, we are all they/them,” he said in an interview with ‘Dirty Magazine’.

For Abhay, masculinity is the ‘ability to make people feel safe and included’. The actor said that as a man, he does feel like a ‘protector and provider’, which he points out could either be an individual experience or ‘conditioning’.

“But there is a sense of taking charge and leading. Having said that I would happily give it up to a woman too if she wanted to take charge and lead, that’s also part of my masculinity.”

When noted that his views do not make him a ‘toxic’ man, Abhay added, “It’s very easy to be provocative through violence and sex.”