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ABSTRACT
This article – originally published in a Dutch peer-reviewed journal but updated with extra theoretical discussions – is a tentative exploration of the positions that bisexuality/plurisexuality can occupy in romantic relationships. On the basis of interviews with 31 bisexual/plurisexual people (21 women, 10 men), I discuss how bisexuality is experienced in romantic relationships. Romantic relationships are not just an agreement between partners, but are also constituted by networks of emotions, feelings, and meanings from oneself, one’s partner(s), the social environment, and the wider social world. This article discusses the experiences of bisexual/plurisexual people’s in romantic relationships and reveals the importance of antibisexual stereotypes, mononormativity, and the institutionalization of monogamy as contextual factors but also interpersonal and intrapsychic factors in negotiations of bisexuality/plurisexuality in relations. Partners are, as the experiences of the participants show, not just “passive actors” but may also proactively create space for bisexuality/plurisexuality in romantic relationships.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Throughout this paper I use the term bisexual/plurisexual when talking about the population as a whole or my complete sample; I use specific terms when discussing work by other researchers and when discussing experiences of individual participants.
2 After publication of the original, Dutch, article, a study was published on domestic violence and sexual violence. It was the first large-scale study in the Netherlands to include sexual identity categories (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual). This study (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2020) concluded that bisexual people disproportionally suffer from verbal abuse (women), coercive control (men and women) non-physical sexual intimidation (women), online intimidation (women), and sexual violence (both men and women, but women more at risk) as compared to heterosexual and gay/lesbian people.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Emiel Maliepaard
Dr Emiel Maliepaard is a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA). In the recent past, he organized (with Dr. Caroline Walters) the First European Bisexuality Research Conference (2016), edited a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality on (inter)national research frontiers in Europe, wrote guidelines for bi inclusivity in Dutch (LGBT) organizations, health care services, and (government) policies, and co-edited (with Dr. Renate Baumgartner) the anthology Bisexuality in Europe (Routledge; winner of the Bisexual Book Award 2020 for best nonfiction book).