As many of my other archive posts play out, this next one stems from that of the previous post. This time, the topic will be on Bisexual Erasure: what it is, why it is harmful, and how it should be approached.
Here we have an article titled 5 Ways That Bi Erasure Hurts More Than Just Bisexual People in which addresses 5 groups of people/audiences on how they are contributing or at least not preventing the overall erasure of this sect of non-monosexuality.
To make this simple, I will go through the list in numerical order in similar fashion to the article at hand.
- Female Identified People and Feminists:
We start off the article addressing female-identified people and their role in the anti-bisexuality brigade. Of course, with this group and the other to-be-mentioned groups, these points do not necessarily apply to every single person in their respective community, but more so the majority.
So it is blatantly obvious that the patriarchy is real, and females have the shit end of the stick – we have unequal pay, we are constantly sexualized, and in order to maintain our vaginas, we are limited to birth control and our feminine hygiene projects are luxury taxed.
As much as monosexual women are already overtly sexualized, non-monosexual women are even more so. There has always been this belief that bisexual women are greedy, sluts, and just outright selfish because they want whatever is in front of them. This is simply not the case. While yes, bisexual people enjoy more than 1 gender, that doesn’t mean they are asking for every single person in the universe to sleep with them. Because bisexual women are held to a stereotype of being more sexualized than their monosexual counterparts, depictions of bisexual women’s sexuality in the media and even porn is intensified. It is always seen as sexy or scandalous to have a threesome with two females and one man – rarely are there scenes with two men and one female. While Bisexual women are overly represented as sexual deviants, bisexual men have a different stereotype lingering around them.
- Male Identified People and Male Liberationists:
Carrying on with the topic of bisexual men, this part of the article addresses male identified people, as well as male liberationists (those whom believe the patriarchy is flawed, similar to feminists, but address issues in which the patriarchy is damaging to males as well – like not living up to the machismo idealism, and devaluing femininity in males).
As stated earlier, bisexual men are far less represented than bisexual women; but that doesn’t mean that either is represented in a fair light. Bisexual men have to tackle the eyes of their fellow male peers, fearing the idea of losing their bro-card if they so much as hint at the fact that they are attracted to males. While homosexual males also have to tackle this idealism, bisexual men have it harder in a different way – because they themselves have attachments to being that manly man, women lover: its just that they want to be able to be with men as well, without being criminalized for their attraction to both sexes. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any example of a bisexual man being represented in movies or television – its almost as if males are held to an ‘all or nothing’ scale when it comes to femininity and masculinity. You’re either outright flamboyant and homosexual, or overtly masculine and heterosexual. It’s as if there is nothing but limbo in between, leaving bisexual men isolated and confused. Bisexual males if you are reading this, your sexuality is worthy and you shouldn’t have to worry about losing your bro card just because you like another bro – if anything, you’re more of a bro in my book lol.
- Trans Sexual, Trans Gender, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Gender Non-Conforming
This section addresses those that identify as gender nonconforming, and how bisexual erasure is damaging to not just cisgender bisexuals, but gender nonconforming bisexuals as well.
There is this ridiculous idea that your gender identity and your sexual identity are intertwined – heteronormativity exists everywhere, even in the queerest of spaces. Trans men and women have to face the idea that they are automatically labeled as heterosexuals for some reason, even though they are a part of the queer community. Surprise, you can be Trans and be attracted to the same gender. Just because you transition into a woman, doesn’t mean you are expected to be attracted to men now. You can very much be a straight person pre-transition and remain attracted to that same gender when you are transitioned.
This part of the article also begins to address the stigma of the actual definition of what bisexuality is. What most of us are taught is that bisexual people are attracted to both genders – bi meaning, the gender binary. But what many people, even in the queer community do is criticize bisexuals as being transphobic because they are believed to only like both cisgender identities, and that bisexuality automatically excludes nonconforming gendered people. This is simply untrue and brings up the question of how the rest of the queer community feels about this definition.
- People who identify as Gay, Lesbian, or Straight
Carrying on from the last section, I called to question the rest of the queer community’s views on the definition of bisexuality. Bisexuals not only are overtly sexualized as well as erased in many cases, but they are also labeled as being transphobic because people believe they aren’t attracted to people under the trans umbrella. Bisexuals get a bad rep even amongst their fellow queer peers – while the monosexuals believe that bisexuals are greedy and slutty, some also believe that they are upholding the gender binary because they apparently only like cisgender men and women. But what about themselves? Aren’t typical gay and lesbian people upholding this same idea with their own attraction? I don’t see any fine print saying that gays and lesbians are all inclusive when it comes to all male or female identified peoples. The same goes for heterosexual people. Straight people are definitely not believed to be attracted to transgender people – so why is everyone else criticizing bisexual people for this idea that they are transphobic, when they themselves identify as a sexuality that ALSO doesn’t imply attraction towards gender nonconforming people?
- People Who Identify as Queer, Pansexual, or Another Non-Monsexual
And finally, we have the last sect of people – those who arguably have the most say when it comes to bisexuality, being the fact that they themselves are riding similar boats. Pansexual people are attracted to all individuals, regardless of gender, sexuality, or previous gender. Some believe that bisexuality is transphobic because it excludes gender nonconforming people. Some believe that bisexuality and pansexuality are the same thing. There are a lot of blurred lines when it comes to categorizing these identities, and I believe it all comes down to preference.
The article highlights something that I believe everyone should hop on board of – and that is the redefinition of Bisexuality: In all, bisexuality shouldn’t be seen as the unity of the binary between cis men and cis women – it should instead be seen as a binary based on attraction between the own individual’s identity, and those that they don’t identify with. Of course there will be bisexuals that have preferences for only cisgender people, but I mean come one, gay, lesbian, and straight people do the same thing – they themselves can identify monosexually while still including nonconforming genders.
I think that this article tackles a large audience and brings up a lot of ways that not only straight community allows the erasure of bisexuality, but the remainder of the queer community as well. Remember, just because you fall under the queer umbrella, it doesn’t give you a free card to criticize those of other sexualities and gender identities. We are all in this together as Troy Bolton once sang.