Because we lack the cultural vocabulary to be more specific. And because people defy such attempts at categorization.

I'm fundamentally attracted to women and turned off by men. It's the simplest way to describe my sexual orientation. The fact that I'm not attracted to all women doesn't change that.

Liking ice cream doesn't mean you have to like every single flavor.

Most people don't like every single movie, so why do people say they like movies?

What?

I like burgers

But not every burger

The dry composition of the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and oxygen, It also contains fractional amounts of argon and carbon dioxide and trace amounts of other gases, such as helium, neon, methane, krypton, and hydrogen

We make is simply by calling it air

I would consider myself generally attracted to an entire gender. The degrees of attraction is what varies. It goes from low to high based on something mysterious in my brain. I also recognize that is how I happen to be wired but others are wired differently. In the end, that diversity of wiring keeps humans interesting and diverse in both thinking and biology.

Because most people have basic limitations for who they’re willing to accept/connect/make sex with. Most people tend to be heterosexual, so they’re only going to go with male/female pairings and that’s the only gender pairing they’re going to look at. Other people are going to be more open-minded, or were born with different preferences, and going outside traditional societal norms is fine for them. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either viewpoint, it’s ok to have personal preferences and to have limitations about who you’re comfortable getting intimate with. We frame attraction based on our personal preferences.

So, no, I’m personally not attracted to literally every single female on the planet, but women are my personal preference/limitation, I’m only attracted to females. As a hetero male, there’s just no other way to frame my attraction, that’s just what it is. HOWEVER, there’s a vast array of other orientations out there where that sort of binary attraction doesn’t make sense and is probably counter-productive. I think that’s why we see so many different expressions of sexuality now, because people see the limitations that come from the mainstream male/female model and it can’t be used to properly explain their preferences.

RIGHT!????!?

FUCK.

Do you know how many times I've heard "do you like black girls" just for me to reply "only the ones who don't generalize"? Wayyy too many fucking times! It's no wonder why people subscribe to the identities media sells them. They think they can just slot themselves into a lifestyle for ticking some arbitrary boxes. I don't have any fucking people category fetishes! I have TASTE.

People like to put things into a box, to classify them, make them tangible, to understand at a glance. Thinking of sexuality and identity as a spectrum isn't too complicated. Instead of male or female, you have maybe something ranging from masculine to feminine, and everything in between. But where it gets confusing is how you'd describe either being somewhere on that spectrum, or to what exactly your sexual preferences range. A classical bi person would be right dead center in the middle, or maybe sway a little to one side over the other, but would you still call it bi? Maybe pan? Someone formerly hetero or gay would also be easy, being at the far end of the spectrum. But what about people who are a little more flexible in their attraction? "Girls" with dicks? "Guys" with vags? Maybe they don't even strictly identify as either one. Whether one's more hetero or gay leaning, you'd be likely somewhere halfway towards the middle of your sexual attraction spectrum, just like the people identifying & looking accordingly, but how would you describe that yourself, and others - without being disrespectful for their own identify? Maybe you're gynosexual for the feminine side? Androsexual for the male one? How many people would understand those terms though? "I like girls, including those with a little extra" - "I'm into femininity"? Terminologies are constantly changing rapidly on top of all that too, and for many things there aren't really much established terms either. This further makes it harder for people to move away from the old binary classifications, even if generally supportive in principle. But those who aren't, will obviously just see a very confusing mess of things they don't understand.

Lol it is bizarre, people do suggest having a "type"