Abstract
ABSTRACTMany negative portrayals of bisexuality within Western culture relate to relationships, yet only a small body of research has explored bisexual people’s experiences of their bisexual identity within their partner relationships, particularly in relation to the wider cultural context of binegativity. Twenty qualitative interviews were conducted with bisexual men, women, trans and genderqueer/non-binary people in relationships. Participants were based in the United Kingdom and ranged from 18 to 40 years old. We conducted a thematic analysis of the data and identified two key themes: 1) The case of the disappearing bisexual: Invisible identities and unintelligible bisexual relationships and 2) That’s not my bisexuality and not my bisexual relationship: Defending self, relationships, and partners against bisexual negativity. In the first theme, we report how bisexual identity was understood by participants as largely invisible, particularly when they were in relationships, and discuss how the notion of a ‘bisexual relationship’ was seemingly unintelligible. In the second theme, we discuss how participants engaged in identity and relationship work to defend themselves and their partners against binegativity in order to protect their bisexual identity, their partners and their relationships. These results contribute novel findings to our understandings of how bisexual people experience and manage their identities and relationships within the wider context of binegativity. We conclude with a discussion of the importance and implications of our findings.
Highlights
In January 2015, the online campaign #StillBisexual was launched in response to enduring misconceptions around bisexuality
The aim was to dispel two key t assumptions: that bisexual identity is temporary and that if a bisexual person commits to a rip relationship the inevitable result is abandonment of their bisexuality in favour of a c heterosexual or gay/lesbian identity
In this paper we report our thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with M bisexual people in relationships
Summary
In January 2015, the online campaign #StillBisexual (stillbisexual.com) was launched in response to enduring misconceptions around bisexuality. It is understandable that bisexual relationships research has focused mainly on documenting the experiences of bisexual people in consensually non-monogamous/polyamorous relationships (e.g., Klesse, 2005; 2006; Moss, 2012). Relationships with multiple partners are often as invisible as bisexuality itself, or represented only in negative ways (Moss, 2012; Pallotta-Chiarolli & Lubowitz, 2003) For those who are consensually non-monogamous, having to refute accusations of an inability to be t monogamous may be problematic (Klesse, 2005). Running head: Managing the marginalisation discrimination (Feinstein et al, 2015) Arising from these gaps in the literature, our broad research question was: How do bisexual people make sense of their bisexuality when they are in partner relationships, within the wider context of bisexual marginalisation?
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