Bisexual Erasure Research Articles

The Unrepresentable Takes the Stage: Bisexual Legibility and Theatrical Monosexism in Contemporary English-Language Drama

Abstract This article brings contemporary theatre studies into dialogue with the growing range of bisexual scholarship across disciplines. This scholarship argues, among other things, that bisexuality must be understood not as a blend of hetero- and homosexualities, but rather as a unique experience that is subject, at various times, both to homophobia and to another form of discrimination: monosexism. I argue that bisexual erasure, discrimination, and oppression – monosexism – in theatre reinforces and is reinforced by bisexual erasure in the broader culture. Building on the work of Judith Butler, Jill Dolan, Sam See, and others, I suggest that greater awareness of bisexuality in theatre studies might play a part in destigmatizing bisexuality and making offstage bisexual lives more legible and more liveable. The article goes on to analyze representations of bisexuality in three contemporary English-language plays: Stop Kiss (2000) by American playwright Diana Son, Cock (2009) by British playwright Mike Bartlett, and Smoke (2022) by Canadian playwright Elena Belyea.

The Association Between Mental Health and Different Sexual Orientations

In society, many bisexual or homosexual people suffer from depression and other mental diseases because of social factors such as social prejudice and social opinion. This work will focus on the relationship between mental health and sexual orientation, and it will also develop a detailed understanding of the factors that affect sexual orientation. By combining these factors, the paper concluded that bisexuals are more likely to suffer from depression, and heterosexuals are less likely to suffer from depression. This article also summarize some factors of mental health problems led by bisexuality, which are sexual orientation-based discrimination, bisexual invisibility and erasure, and lack of bisexual-affirmative support. In addition, this paper also involves a survey, which research about teenagers opinion toward sexual orientation, it emphasizes that people should always maintain an objective and tolerant attitude towards all kinds of people. People do not need to understand people with different sexual orientations, but they should respect them.

Tackling bisexual erasure: An explorative comparison of bisexual, gay and straight cisgender men’s body image

Previous body image research often grouped both gay and bisexual men into a single category: sexual minoritised men, limiting our understanding of how sexual identity influences body image. However, there is strong reason to believe that bisexual and gay men experience distinct body image concerns. Here, we explored motivations to alter one’s leanness and muscularity, as well as (dis)satisfaction with body fat, muscularity, height and penis size, and functionality appreciation across gay, bisexual, and straight cisgender men. We sampled 378 white participants aged 18 to 85 (nbisexual = 125, ngay = 128, nstraight = 125). We found that bisexual men were significantly less motivated to be lean and showed lower muscularity dissatisfaction relative to gay men but showed comparable levels to straight men. Our findings demonstrate that despite research perceiving the body image of bisexual and gay men as homogenous, they experience differences in their body image concerning leanness and muscularity dissatisfaction. Future body image research should incorporate this understanding by not artificially grouping bisexual and gay cisgender men and instead acknowledging the potential uniqueness in their experiences.

Bisexual erasure and homophobia: attitudinal patterns under consideration of sexual identity

With the increasing visibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and other (LGBTQ+) individuals, sociological debates about attitudes towards the group and their intergroup dynamics have intensified. This article investigates the link between factors explaining homophobia and negative attitudes towards bisexuals, often referred to as ‘biphobia’ or ‘bisexual erasure’, using original data collected in August 2021 from Germany (N = 1,342). The study reveals that while factors influencing homophobia and favouring bisexual erasure are similar, they are not identical. Our findings indicate that when bisexual (N = 72) and homosexual (N = 70) individuals are grouped together, they exhibit lower levels of homophobia compared to heterosexuals (N = 1,200). However, we find no significant difference between them and heterosexuals regarding bisexual erasure. This effect is primarily driven by homosexuals’ prejudice towards bisexuals. Furthermore, bisexuals, in comparison with homosexuals, are less likely to disagree with the notion that homosexuals are less capable of being good parents than heterosexuals.

Bi-Invisibility in Academia; the Intentional and Accidental Erasure of Bi + Parents in Research and Recommendations for Future Research

It is incredibly common for research focusing on bi + populations generally, and bi + parents specifically, to cite a lack of research as a reason for their own study. However, few papers have explored the research practices that contribute to bi-invisibility, and the specific erasure of bi + parents. This paper identifies four commonplace research practices that make invisible bi + parents’ experiences in academia: 1. ignoring bi + parents, 2. erasing bi + parents, through unlabeling and accidental or intentional mislabeling, 3. aggregating bi + parents with other groups, generally lesbian and gay parents, and 4. adopting recruitment strategies that lead to bi + parents being underrepresented. This article discusses how these research practices are related to monosexism, heteronormativity, and the epistemic contract of bisexual erasure (Yoshino, 2000). It also identifies certain groups of bi + parents who receive a disproportionately low amount of research attention. Recommendations for researchers are provided, with the aim of improving the field of research concerning LGBTQ parent families.

The Bisexual Erasure Of Emiliano Zapata: Obscenity And Censorship In Postrevolutionary Mexico

In December 2019, roughly two hundred protesters stormed Mexico’s Palace of Fine Arts to denounce Fabián Cháirez’s painting La Revolución (2014). The image, which depicted the revolutionary icon Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919) dressed only in high heels and a pink sombrero, reignited debates about obscenity in Mexican art and Zapata’s long-disputed sexuality that excludes any discussion of bisexuality. In this article, I take up bisexual erasure as a conceptual tool to understand the erotic tensions in Zapata’s legacy. Bisexuality’s slippery signification regarding varying romantic interests has often been characterised as multifarious and unrestrained. These characterisations, furthermore, are most often applied to racialised minorities who are seen as “premodern” and resistant to a “true” sexual identity. Bisexuality thus exceeds and subverts regimes of sexual desire, encompassing what Deborah Vargas terms “lo sucio”: the lewd, obscene, and undisciplined behaviours that oppose normative respectability and comportment. Embracing this radical, multifarious methodological potential, I use bisexual erasure as a recuperative project to historicise the desire to know – via rumour and speculation – Zapata’s unknowable sexual desires and to highlight how Zapata’s erotic legacy offers a lesson in the plurality of sexual pleasures that resist the globalised mandates and colonial dictates of sexual identification and decency.

Hegemonic Monosexuality

Recent scholarly work has focused on the erasure and mistreatment of bisexuality in histories of sexuality. Such erasure is not only observed in academic work but also in the lived experiences of people who identify as plurisexuals. The present paper brings together studies on bisexuality, hegemony, and sexual politics to explain the discursively produced demarcation between sexualities and forms of sexual expression, and it supports a focus on monosexuality as a theoretical construct that productively addresses issues of discrimination and marginalization that people identifying as plurisexuals endure. What is put forward and challenged through this paper is the functional potential of monosexuality to maintain a sociodicy whereby the nuclear family and its contingent material implications remain not only unchallenged and normative but also inevitable.

Dispelling Myths Regarding Cisgender Sexual Minority Women and Breast Cancer

Lesbian and bisexual cisgender women have higher rates of breast cancer and breast cancer mortality than their heterosexual counterparts (Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities, 2014). There is not much known about why this is the case, although most researchers revert to the common hypotheses that the increased prevalence of obesity, substance abuse, and nulliparity (not having given birth) among lesbian and bisexual women contributes to incidences of breast cancer (Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities, 2014). These hypotheses place individual responsibility on sexual minority women with breast cancer as opposed to identifying complicated, underlying structural problems. This literature review argues that homophobia and bisexual invisibility, in conjunction with fatphobia and inaccurate research methodology, have prevented clinicians and scientists from thoroughly examining the ways in which increased rates alcohol abuse, the physiological effects of stress due to discrimination, and a lower rate of receiving mammograms caused by perceived negative judgment from healthcare providers contribute to the higher prevalence of breast cancer among lesbian and bisexual women.

Doing Sexuality: How Married Bisexual, Queer, and Pansexual People Navigate Passing and Erasure

ABSTRACT Society’s binary understanding of gender and sexuality often render the identities of bisexual, queer, and pansexual (bi+) people invisible in everyday interactions. Furthermore, when a bi+ person gets married, they are often mistakenly presumed to have “made a choice” regarding their sexual preference or identity. What are the consequences – both negative and positive – of this perception? Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with 23 married bi+ individuals, this research extends the theory of doing gender to the context of doing sexuality to explore if and how married bi+ people attempt to make their sexual identities known in everyday interactions. Findings suggest that being married increased feelings of bisexual erasure. However, married bi+ people who were presumed by others to be heterosexual during interactions frequently reported taking advantage of passing to situationally avoid prejudice or discrimination. Applying a queer theoretical critique of heteronormativity and the binaries it reinforces, this research considers how increased visibility of married bi+ people could contribute to the deconstruction of gender and sexual binaries and the inequalities they create.

Through the Lens of Invisi-Bi-Lity : Perceptions of Female Bisexuals on the Representation of Bisexuality and Bisexual Erasure in the Philippine Televised Media

Through the Lens of Invisi-Bi-Lity : Perceptions of Female Bisexuals on the Representation of Bisexuality and Bisexual Erasure in the Philippine Televised Media

Bisexual Erasure, Marjorie Rowland, and the LGBT Rights Canon

Bisexual Erasure, Marjorie Rowland, and the LGBT Rights Canon

The Monogamous Temporalities of Marriage Law: Explaining Bisexual Erasure in Australian Same-Sex Marriage Debates

The Monogamous Temporalities of Marriage Law: Explaining Bisexual Erasure in Australian Same-Sex Marriage Debates

Reverie

Reverie

Bisexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody: A Queer Study

This research was meant to describe the shape of sexuality in Bryan Singer's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018) by analyzing the main character from the Queer perspective. Bisexual is a term used to describe relationships of people both with the same sex and the opposite sex for a certain period, including being attracted to or having sexual activity. Bohemian Rhapsody discusses Queen's career journey by showcasing the lead singer as a highlight. Freddie struggles to live in a world of hedonism and stigma, preconceptions, and the erasure of Bisexuality as a social identity. It will answer how to construct binary desires and how society shapes them by applying theory from Butler's work "Gender Trouble." to fulfil this study; In this study, either textual or visual film analysis will be applied to the subsequent discussion. 1.) Determine forms of Bisexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody; 2.) Reveal Bisexuality towards the character interactions in Bohemian Rhapsody. Through this interpretation, bisexual visibility is frequently devalued and forced to join monosexism with similar terms such as gay and lesbian, resulting in the erasure of Bisexuality. This behaviour is predicated on the social and cultural stereotypes attached to "bisexual."

Suicidality among bisexual youths: the role of parental sexual orientation support and concealment.

Compared with the heterosexual population, the prevalence of mental health outcomes such as suicidality (suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts) is higher among sexual minority youth, particularly those who identify themselves as bisexuals. Bisexuals are at an even elevated risk within the LGB populations due to biphobia, monosexism, bisexual invisibility or erasure, and lack of support resources. These experiences may bring about issues regarding concealment of their sexual orientation linked to suicidality. Studies have also identified that parental support is a protective factor against suicidality among the youth, particularly their sexual orientation. The present study used a cross-sectional, predictive research design to examine parental sexual orientation support and concealment and their associations and predictive abilities in the suicidality of 151 Filipino bisexual youths aged 18–24 years old. The participants were recruited online within six months, from July 2021 to December 2021. As measured by the Parental Support for Sexual Orientation Scale, Sexual Orientation Concealment Scale, and Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, results showed that among our bisexual participants, parental sexual orientation support and concealment did not have a significant relationship with and could not predict their risk for suicidality. Limitations and suggestions for further research were discussed, considering our findings.

We're Here, We're … Queer? On the Enduring Harms of Bisexual Erasure

AbstractThis article highlights three epistemic practices, which, taken together, create conditions that worsen the problem of ‘bisexual erasure.’ Though bisexual people constitute a significant portion of the larger LGBTQ+ community, their identities and experiences and routinely erased — in queer communities and broader society alike. This article argues that we have both an epistemic and a moral obligation to attend to the epistemic conditions created for bisexual people, and to work to make those conditions more just. Specifically, I highlight the detrimental influence of testimonial injustice, testimonial smothering, and epistemic microaggressions on bisexual people's ability to challenge and resist their own erasure.

Bisexual erasure: Perceived attraction patterns of bisexual women and men

AbstractBisexual individuals face identity denial and erasure and qualitative analyses suggest that it may be gendered, such that people stereotype bisexual women as truly heterosexual and bisexual men as truly gay. Across three studies (total N = 787), we examined perceptions of bisexual targets’ attraction patterns. Participants rated the attraction of either a female or male bisexual target to both the same gender/sex and opposite gender/sex. An internal meta‐analysis revealed that heterosexual, lesbian, and gay participants all perceived bisexual men as more attracted to men than to women. No such pattern emerged for bisexual women. These differences between the perception of bisexual women and bisexual men were also reflected in the endorsement of an explicit measure of bisexual erasure. Our findings add to the understanding of the unique bias bisexual people face by showing that perceived attraction patterns may underlie the labelling of bisexual men as “actually gay”.

Internalized Binegativity, LGBQ + Community Involvement, and Definitions of Bisexuality

Bisexual people can internalize stigma from both heterosexual and gay/lesbian communities, which often occurs in the form of monosexism, the belief that people should only be attracted to one gender. Although community involvement is protective for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer+ (LGBQ+) people, bisexual people may benefit more from bisexual-specific communities than LGBQ + communities because of monosexism. Further, how bisexual people define their identity may be related to internalized binegativity, especially given the historical invisibility of bisexuality in mainstream media and recent debates about the definition of bisexuality within LGBQ + communities. We examined LGBQ + and bisexual-specific community involvement, definitions of bisexuality, and internalized binegativity among an online sample of 816 bisexual adults. Multivariate regression analyses showed that those with spectrum definitions, which acknowledged a nuanced understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality, reported lower internalized binegativity than those with binary definitions, which described sexuality as consistent with mainstream norms. Involvement in LGBQ + communities, but not bisexual communities, was associated with lower internalized binegativity. There was no interaction between type of definition and type of community involvement. Our results suggest that broad community involvement may be protective for internalized binegativity, but findings should be considered in light of a lack of well-funded, local bisexual communities. The current study adds to a growing literature on sexual minority stressors among bisexual people, a population that continues to be understudied.

THE INVISIBLE “B”: bisexual erasure and biphobia on the television series Glee

This article seeks to understand how female bisexuality is represented on the television series Glee, a worldwide phenomenon in the first two decades of the 21st century, through the analysis of the character Brittany Pierce. For this, the content analysis technique was used, based on a qualitative, exploratory, bibliographic and documentary research. It was concluded that Glee abuses negative stereotypes related to female bisexuality, such as indecision, promiscuity and infidelity, despite being a series known for its diversity and positive representation of the LGBTQIA+ community. Glee missed the opportunity to portray bisexuality in a valid and legitimate way, reinforcing the diverse stigmas that hover over bisexual women.

Combating Bisexual Erasure: The Correspondence of Implicit and Explicit Sexual Identity

Both straight (i.e., heterosexual) and gay/lesbian individuals still question and erase bisexual identities. Skeptics contend that people adopt bisexual identities for strategic motivations, such as avoiding the stigma associated with identifying as gay, or for attention-seeking purposes. Across two studies, self-identified gay (N = 168), straight (N = 237), and bisexual (N = 231) participants completed a sexual identity Implicit Association Test, a measure that can provide insight into automatic associations and lessen the influence of impression management strategies. All three groups displayed implicit sexual identities that were consistent with their self-ascribed identities. Gay men and lesbians implicitly identified as more gay and less bisexual than bisexual men and women, who in turn identified as less straight and more bisexual than straight men and women. These findings show that self-reported sexual identities converge with implicit identities and have implications for understanding the psychology of sexual orientation.