“There Has Been No Phase in My Life When I Wasn't Somehow Bisexual”: Comparing the Experiences of Finnish Bisexuals in 1999 and 2010

Abstract

In 1999 the author interviewed 40 Finnish self-identified bisexual people for her master's thesis. The interviews focused on experiences of living as a bisexual in Finland in the late 20th century. Most of the interviewees were active in sexual minority subcultures and politics and found it imperative to increase the visibility of bisexuality. Now, after 10 years, the author has interviewed some of these informants again. What do their experiences and thoughts reveal about the change in Finnish sexual culture during the past 10 years? The visibility and equality of sexual minorities has improved considerably since 1999. The law for registered partnership for same-sex couples passed in 2001, it became possible to adopt the child of a same-sex partner in 2009, and there have been various national projects on sexual equality at work and in education. Furthermore, the media often explores sexual minority issues—one could almost say that bisexuality has become a product to be consumed by different audiences. What does this increase in visibility of bisexuality mean for people who identify as bisexual? What kind of contradictions do bisexuals meet when tackling with everyday life? What kind of meaning does the concept of bisexuality have in their lives?

KEYWORDS:

• bisexuality
• Finland
• legislation
• work
• LGBT communities

Acknowledgments

Phil.lic. Jenny Kangasvuo graduated from the Department of Art Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oulu with a Master of Arts in 2001 and a Licentiate of Philosophy in 2006. Her licentiate thesis concentrated on the experiences of Finnish bisexuals and the discourses used in Finnish media while discussing bisexuality. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation on Finnish bisexuality. She has also been locally and internationally involved in bisexual activism. Her other interests include Japanese popular culture, which is also one of her research subjects, as well as writing science fiction, role-playing and doing amateur theatre.

Notes

1. The research plan was accepted by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Oulu, but it was not reviewed by an Institutional Review Board.

2. The quotations have been translated by Jaakko Meriläinen. I want to thank him and Heidi Tihveräinen for their determined effort to improve my text. My sincerest thanks also to the anonymous reviewers.

3. The main title of this article “There Has Been No Phase in My Life When I Wasn't Somehow Bisexual” (Pirkko 1970:2010) is a quotation from Pirkko's interview.