Ambiguous Identity in an Unambiguous Sex/Gender Structure: The Case of Bisexual Women

Abstract

This article explores bisexual identity as an ambiguous social category within the dominant dualistic sex/gender structure. The article documents the stigmatization of the bisexual category in the discourse of both the Religious Right and lesbian feminist communities, then examines the impact of dual stigmatization on bisexual women, who often see bi identity as disrupting the dominant sexual binary. Drawing from interviews with bisexual women, the article argues that bisexual women's discourse on sexual subjectivity does not escape the influence of binary structures, although it does at times reconfigure the binary along the queer/nonqueer and bisexual/monosexual axes. While the bisexual identity category may work as a discursive stabilizing device during the sex/gender crisis provoked by the AIDS epidemic, its politicization by bi feminists also allows the category to be strategically deployed for feminist and queer political projects. At the present time, the regions where the grid is tightest, where the black squares are most numerous, are those of sexuality and politics; as if discourse, far from being that transparent or neutral element in which sexuality is disarmed and politics pacified, is in fact one of the places where sexuality and politics exercise in a privileged way some of their most formidable powers. ‐Michel Foucault No wonder people think we [bisexual women] are all sleazy. ‐Bisexual woman

British Bisexuality: A Snapshot of Bisexual Representations and Identities in the United Kingdom

“…However, it still seems, from the focus group discussion, that a main challenge bisexual people face is to articulate and perform a bisexual identity which resists the dominant binary constructions of gender and sexuality. In common with participants in United States of America and Canadian research into bisexual women's subjectivities (Ault, 1999;Berenson, 2002;Bower, Gurevich & Mathieson, 2002), participants in the BiCon survey and discussion group employed a range of discursive strategies to resist these dominant discourses. Yet, as Ault notes, "despite bi women's conscious objections to the binary structures of sex, gender, and sexuality, their own discourse on sexual subjectivity is inescapably marked by these discourses" (Ault, 1999, p. 173).…”

“…The difficulty of articulating and performing bisexual identity in the context of dominant dichotomous constructions of sexuality and negative stereotypes of bisexuality is well documented in activist and academic literature on both sides of the Atlantic (Ault 1999;George 1993, Rust 2000aUdis-Kessler 1996). Participants in the BiCon discussion group (all referred to by their chosen pseudonyms here) argued that bisexuals are perceived as "greedy" (Vicky) or as "gigantic hos [whores]" (Georgina).…”

“…However, it is clear that participants in this discussion group, like those in Ault's (1999) research, struggle to talk about and understand their sexuality without reference to dominant constructions of gender. Just as it is very difficult to write this chapter without using the words "male" and "female", "opposite sex" and "same sex", participants drew on these concepts too, for example when several of them agreed that when they were in a relationship with one gender they responded by becoming either more or less attracted to people of the "other gender".…”

‘A Real Lesbian Wouldn't Touch a Bisexual With a Bargepole'

“…Many of these ideas have been circulating since the 1970s but continue to find currency and relevance in some gay communities. In the mid-1990s, Ault (1994Ault ( , 1996 and Rust (1992Rust ( , 1993) encountered negative attitudes towards bisexuals among US lesbian interviewees, and more recently such attitudes were found still to be at work in lesbian contexts in both the USA (e.g. Hartman, 2006;McLean, 2008;Thorne, 2013;Yost & Thomas, 2012) and Europe (e.g.…”

Kinsey and the Politics of Bisexual Authenticity

“…The only way that bisexuality can be rendered intelligible is through co-option into one or other of the two legitimate sexual categories such that bisexuals are "really gay," or "really straight." People are rarely deemed "really bisexual" (Ault, 1996;Eadie, 1993;Esterberg, 2007;Hemmings, 1993Hemmings, , 2002. As a result, bisexuality becomes an abstract theoretical concept that does not, and cannot, exist in the here and now (Angelides, 2001;Esterberg, 2007;Hemmings, 1993Hemmings, , 1995Hemmings, , 2007Rust, 2000a).…”