Bi for pay? On notions of authenticity and women’s ‘compulsory bisexuality’ in US adult video

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the vexed relationship between female bisexuality and adult video. Ubiquitous in mainstream ‘straight’ porn production (even as guy on guy content remains taboo), girl on girl scenes are often perceived as inauthentic by lesbian, bisexual, feminist, and queer scholars, critics, and spectators alike. The article asserts, however, that the phenomenon of women’s bisexuality in moving image pornography is more diverse and complex than it may appear. Comparing the omnipresence of actresses’ bisexual behaviour in mainstream adult media to alternative articulations of female bisexuality in lesbian/dyke and queer porn, the article recuperates a form of queer creative labour that tends to be dismissed due to its industrial context, and argues that girl on girl porn constitutes a viable ‘bisexual space’.