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Abstract
The increase in chatter about bisexuality in Western, predominantly American popular culture might at first appear to be a promising development for the future of bisexual politics. Unfortunately, the actions of the celebrities who spurred discussion by openly admitting to being bisexuals ultimately reinforce stereotypes commonly associated with bisexuals. Furthermore, these stereotypes are deliberately promoted by media and news outlets that report en masse the actions and follies of these celebrities. A possible approach for bisexuals to counteract this widespread conflation is to then use these celebrities as foil for differentiating between “brands” of bisexuality.
I thank Jennifer S., Lucy S., and Richa B. for proofreading this article and providing indispensable comments.
Notes
1. Wherein the researchers took crudely elicited arousal patterns in self-identifying bisexual men to suggest the participants were confused about their sexuality.
2. What constitutes a bisexual concern, politic, problem, and so on is far from ambiguous. Broadly speaking, rallying points for specifically bisexuals might include better guided discussion of identity politics, acknowledgement of triadism and polyamory as alterative relational dynamics, and so on. Further discussion is warranted elsewhere.
3. Such theories, however ridiculous, still find supporters, for example, Benedict Cary of the New York Times.
4. It is a limitation of this article that I was unable to survey a significant sample population and methodologically determine the top five or six names that come to people's minds when asked about contemporary famous bisexuals. I instead relied on my own answers as well as those of a number of associates, bisexuals included.
5. Note that pithy statements like “I am bisexual” invariably make broadcast and reproduction easier.
6. This immediately raises another question: how often can and do poets, athletes and (especially) politicians reveal themselves as bisexuals? This tangential consideration need be explored, but not here.
7. Although Wikipedia and several Green Day fan Websites reference the relevant portion of the interview, there is no evidence of the topic ever arising again in the numerous interviews with him since.
8. The publication dates of the articles retrieved ranged from October 13, 2009 to May 20, 2009.
9. Of note, she also trounced any suspicions of her like exclusively women with her blunt, “Look, I'm not a lesbian.”
10. The common explanation for how Tila Tequila became famous to begin with is that once she made friends with over million people on MySpace, studios and agencies started to pay attention to her—how she got those friends probably rested on not only her willingness to be friends with anyone, but also on her appeal as sexy young Asian woman who also happens to be bisexual.
11. A search of her name on thehollywoodgossip.com elicits hundreds of articles, all with titles like “Sex and the City to Blame for Lindsay Lohan Looseness,” “Police, Counselors Descend on Samantha Ronson's House After Huge Fight; Lindsay Lohan Not Arrested,” and so on.
12. “The foundation's mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications” www.danielpearl.org
13. Mickey Eliason discusses these and other bisexual stereotypes comprehensively (2001).
14. Of course, such consideration occurs in spite of the resounding improbability of ever meeting Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan, and so on, let alone bedding them.