Kinsey and the Politics of Bisexual Authenticity

Abstract

This article examines the epistemological status of bisexuality in North America since the mid-20th century. It argues that the status of bisexuality remains marginal because of its capacity to destabilize a monosexual order. Using Alfred Kinsey's research to anchor the discussion, the author demonstrates that the persistent rejection of bisexuality as a sexual identity category (and as a critical perspective) acts to contain the crisis of identity that haunts the supposed naturalness of the two privileged subject positions: homosexuality and heterosexuality. It also demonstrates how that same order is upheld by the epistemological and material banishment of the intersexed.