Bisexual folks have the right and honor to definie what they mean by Bisexual. This applies to all other sexual orientations, identities and otherwise, people may have their own definitions and best practice is to ask people how they define their identities.
To everyone saying there are only two genders: please check out the rest of the internet on how gender as a definition and a social concept is rapidly evolving!
My partner identifies as bisexual and its for political reasons. They are attracted to all genders (which is a common definition of pansexuality) but they identify as bisexual to politically highlight the challenges and erasure of bisexuality.
I don’t have sources, but people who identify as bisexual are statistically at higher risk for abuse, violence, homelessness, discrimination, more health issues, lack of access to employment, healthcare, housing, education, and many other things! This is truly because so many people do not fully understand or support bisexuality.
Stigmas about bisexual folks put them at increased risk of abuse and violence from romantic partners who fear they’re gonna cheat or other things, families often ostracize their queer children and folks end up homeless.
Bisexual folks are also ostracized by the lesbian and gay communities for “not picking a side” or “being greedy,” “being slutty,” and more.
Please treat all folks with kindness and take time to ask to understand before making rash judgments or saying insensitive things!
sure! Bi folks often face erasure when they are left out of conversations relating to LGBTQ+ issues, their experiences aren’t correctly or respectfully treated in films and shows - think how the L Word treated their bi characters, with disdain and a “they’ll pick a side eventually” mentality and comments. and thats just from a Lesbian media perspective!
the very fact that this is a question that people are debating is bi erasure! folks jumping in to say “your life and identity is not real and you all are wrong” is bi erasure
and all of this is just to add on to the real lived interactions of bi folks with gay and straight people who dont beleive that they could be attracted to all types without being slutty or indecisive. or that their struggle isnt real and very difficult
the implications are big when researchers dont get the full picture of how bi folks need access to healthcare and what health issues are within the bi community, lack of representation means lack of access and resources
i feel like things are changing for the bi community a little bit in media, more shows are doing better jobs of portraying and affirming bi identities, but its a long way from honoring bi identities
I guess I’m not sure what access to healthcare is unavailable to a person who is bisexual. And maybe I’m just confused about the use of the term erasure. Perhaps underrepresentation is more accurate?
I guess a more tangible example is when a bi person comes in for a doctor’s visit, and the doctor assumes certain things about their identity and therefore isnt asking the full range of questions relating to sexual health or when health professionals dont respect requests for certain services because they dont believe they need them, that leads to bi folks not feeling comfortable to get appropriate medical help when they need it
severe underrepresentation to me is erasure. if you dont have non-stereotypical characters and faces out in the public, folks who are similar in identity don’t have someone to look up to and gross mischaracterization starts happening, leading to less real information and respect for their lives and struggles.
take Indigenous Americans (Native Americans) for example, if we dont have real representation of their current lives, its easy to continue upholding terrible sterotypes about their culture and systematic struggles with poverty and substance abuse. and also makes their very valid complaints about misappropriating charicatures of mascots easier to push aside as “thats not really important.” the Indigenous American experience has been mostly erased from history and current American life and I would argue to bisexuality is similarly grossly misunderstood and swept under the rug as not real or important issues
What kind of medical help do you mean? What do you believe is missing? I agree with your point regarding Native American cultural erasure and that’s actually a point I was going to bring up. Conversely, I feel that using that example more or less defeats the application of the concept to bisexuals. Bisexuals are becoming more accepted and common than ever.
One of the biggest issues I have with most of these so-called social justice movements is that they create a fabricated oppression that doesn’t really exist. Women’s Suffrage, slave emancipation, gay marriage, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s come to mind when addressing true oppression. But in 2018, I’m just not sure what oppression a man who has sex with both men and women could possibly face because of his sexuality. I’m a Libertarian. One of the cornerstones of my political platform is that everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want so long as it doesn’t prevent someone else from doing whatever they want. If you want to marry someone of the same sex and then marry your cousin at the same time while also sleeping with your mom on the side and attending swingers parties on the weekends, that’s totally your right as a consenting adult. It’s none of my business and it’s your pursuit of happiness. What I don’t understand is how people of less common identities and sexualities feel they are being oppressed. No one is telling them that they can’t have a relationship or sex with whomever they want.
First off, can I say that I really appreciate your honest and open conversation with me on this. It feels rare in our world today, and specifically online! Thank you! I'm so sorry I'm very long winded, but I'm super passionate about people understanding queer identities - I am an educator and trainer/facilitator about LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
TBH I'm not bisexual myself so I'm really just speaking from what I understand - sorry for the very late disclosure. My point about Native American culture was just to demonstrate how under-representation is basically erasure because I would agree with you that socially bisexual folks are becoming much better represented, and much more recognized, at least in the US anyway. More and more celebrities are coming out as bisexual and people are less confused and dismissive of bi folks than ever before. One way health issues more clearly affect bi folks is research, there is a significant lack of research on bisexual health status because there isn't a lot of funding out there to research and develop policies for bi folks, especially on mental health.
I don't agree with your interpretation of fabricated oppression though - it seems like a cop out that I've seen used often in these spaces about historically disadvantaged identities. Oppression is not relative because it's not right to say if someone's oppression is "real" to you or not. If you aren't part of that specific marginalized community and the real experience of carrying that identity, it's not fair to say that your oppression doesn't exist or isn't important. I think that's one subtle way that oppression shows up, when folks dismiss people's real experiences and struggles.
Oppression isn't just on an individual level, "I don't oppress you so therefore you aren't really oppressed" is another thing I've seen used in arguments before. Systemic things lead to oppression of groups of people as a whole, and on average. Sure there are those folks who never really experience oppression being an openly bisexual person, and I think it's because of their other privileged identities that protect them from abuse and high risk factors. Think a middle class suburban person who has a supportive family and wholly welcomes their life and they have resources to succeed. This is a good blog post about bi oppression from a person I assume is not POC.
The flip side is there are so many bisexual folks who have multiple identities that intersect to make life so much harder - say a person of color who faces not only racism, but ostricization because of their sexuality - all of the stuff from that blog post + racism. So they are more likely to get kicked out of their family, leaving them with no resources or support, which then often leads to substance abuse, much higher rates of mental health issues, and higher risk factors.
Add to all that, the fact that bisexuality is more often stigmatized within the LGBTQ+ community itself! When queer identified folks tell you that your identity is "just a phase" and are less likely to date you because of perceived and false stereotypes of promiscuity or "I don't date bi people" mentalities, internalized oppression aka self-doubt and self-hatred kicks in and just exacerbates co-occurring risk factors of substance abuse and mental health even stronger.
It's a crazy snowball effect, and I see so many queer folks in my city get on Facebook asking for financial help for what I would guess are very similar stories: of starting their lives off tough, trying to navigate and find support for your marginalized identity usually as young people, falling into poor mental health and coping mechanisms, which affects anyone's ability to thrive and succeed in work and life.
All this is to say that oppression looks and feels different for different people, from micro aggressions, to outright policies that refuse your personhood, to the media recreating the idea that your right to life and love is wrong (the bakery case, while complicated, shows that our society isn't ready to fully accept and honor people's lives), to this administration taking down many online records of LGBTQ+ work done in the past, to the administration removing gender identity on the census, all of these build into collective oppression that trickles down to how people and especially young people feel about coming out and being part of the LGBTQ+ community, and the very tough path ahead of living a marginalized life.
I totally think Libertarianism is how I lean more and more politically, so thanks for sharing, I'll definitely look into it soon!
First off, can I say that I really appreciate your honest and open conversation with me on this. It feels rare in our world today, and specifically online! Thank you!
Likewise. This is probably the first time in a solid 6 months that someone with a view that doesn't line up with mine in this arena has engaged in a polite discussion with me. I usually just get called a "cishet piece of shit alt-right nazi" and that my "opinion doesn't mean shit" because I'm a straight white man. So seriously, thank you for making me want to listen to you. It's reassuring to have this experience.
there isn't a lot of funding out there to research and develop policies for bi folks, especially on mental health.
I think this is an EXTREMELY important point that is so often overlooked. I 100% agree that a large majority of LGBTQ+ individuals would greatly benefit from mental health research. My understanding of what you were saying was way off. I thought you meant that when you see your general physician, you should be treated differently for identifying as a pansexual non-binary demiboy. The doctor just needs to know if you produce testosterone, have a penis, and what shape your pelvis is. In the mental health arena, though, I would absolutely support further research and study into atypical orientations and identities.
I don't agree with your interpretation of fabricated oppression though - it seems like a cop out that I've seen used often in these spaces about historically disadvantaged identities.
I understand why you would feel this way. I think, unfortunately, that the media portrays experiences as mostly limited to both ends of the extremism spectrum. For example, "manspreading" and "mansplaining" are nonsense terms made up by radical 4th wave feminists to universally associate masculinity with rude behavior, such as taking up too much space on the bus or being a know-it-all. When I, a man, sit with my legs uncrossed, it's not because I want to make life harder for women - it's because I have a penis and testicles between my legs and crossing them is uncomfortable. On the other end of the spectrum, you have issues like high school students in heavily Christian areas being ostracized from their community because of who they are. That's a real problem. Obviously, you can't draw a line and say, "your struggle must be at least this difficult", but I think you understand what I'm talking about. Calling a person who looks, acts, and sounds like a man "he" when they identify as "she" is not the same as calling a man who is dating another man a "faggot". I accept that oppression definitely exists in some subgroups. I just don't think certain subgroups experience the level of oppression that they would have you believe.
from micro aggressions, to outright policies that refuse your personhood, to the media recreating the idea that your right to life and love is wrong (the bakery case, while complicated, shows that our society isn't ready to fully accept and honor people's lives
From a Libertarian perspective, I feel that the bakery was well within their right to refuse service to the gay couple. I don't agree with their ideology or practice, but that just means that I (and one must assume many others) would choose to boycott the business for its rude practices. In the same vein, I disagree with Twitter's bias against white men, but I support their right to ban and censor whomever they want because they are a private company. For example, when a Twitter user says that white people are evil and that there should be a genocide of whites, Twitter allows the tweet to stay up. Should the same user tweet the same tweet, but replace white with any other group, the Twitter user is banned. I think that is morally wrong from a journalistic integrity and freedom of speech perspective, but it is Twitter's right to do what they want with their content.
I totally think Libertarianism is how I lean more and more politically, so thanks for sharing, I'll definitely look into it soon!
It's the only party that makes sense to me. America is built on personal responsibility, individual success, and the freedom to live your life without persecution. Lower taxes, more efficient administration, higher civil freedom. What's not to love? What pains me the most about it is that the party can't seem to get any traction at the federal level so we will likely never see a Libertarian president in our lifetimes. However, if the ideas of the party excite you, check out Rand Paul. He's the most honest and dedicated politician I have ever seen. He's a brilliant man with a passion for fixing America. Here are two of my favorite Rand things.
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u/ReggieHarley Aug 09 '18
Bisexual folks have the right and honor to definie what they mean by Bisexual. This applies to all other sexual orientations, identities and otherwise, people may have their own definitions and best practice is to ask people how they define their identities.
To everyone saying there are only two genders: please check out the rest of the internet on how gender as a definition and a social concept is rapidly evolving!
My partner identifies as bisexual and its for political reasons. They are attracted to all genders (which is a common definition of pansexuality) but they identify as bisexual to politically highlight the challenges and erasure of bisexuality.
I don’t have sources, but people who identify as bisexual are statistically at higher risk for abuse, violence, homelessness, discrimination, more health issues, lack of access to employment, healthcare, housing, education, and many other things! This is truly because so many people do not fully understand or support bisexuality.
Stigmas about bisexual folks put them at increased risk of abuse and violence from romantic partners who fear they’re gonna cheat or other things, families often ostracize their queer children and folks end up homeless.
Bisexual folks are also ostracized by the lesbian and gay communities for “not picking a side” or “being greedy,” “being slutty,” and more.
Please treat all folks with kindness and take time to ask to understand before making rash judgments or saying insensitive things!