Not just bi the bi: the relationship between essentialist beliefs and attitudes about bisexuality

Abstract

In the literature about bisexuality few studies consider bisexual people’s beliefs about bisexuality and none examine essentialist beliefs about bisexuality. In the present study 244 participants (bisexual n = 58, lesbian/gay n = 54 and heterosexual n = 132) from the UK were asked via online questionnaire about their attitudes towards bisexuality, homosexuality and heterosexuality, and how stable they perceived bisexuality, homosexuality and heterosexuality to be. They were also asked about their essentialist beliefs towards bisexuality. Bisexual respondents viewed bisexuality as significantly more stable than lesbian, gay and heterosexual respondents. Analysis also showed that less belief in the discreetness of bisexuality predicted more positive attitudes towards bisexuality, as did positive beliefs towards homosexuality and heterosexuality. Belief in the immutability of bisexuality did not, however, predict attitudes towards bisexuality. Therefore, discreteness appears to be an especially problematic essentialist belief about all sexual minorities, as it is consistently associated with negative attitudes. However, beliefs about the immutability of sexuality are not consistently associated with negative attitudes for all sexual minorities.

Keywords:

• essentialism
• bisexuality
• stability
• discreteness
• attitude
• immutability

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank Prof. Peter Hegarty for his support and comments on various drafts of this paper and those in the Ph.D. laboratory group at the University of Surrey: Natasha Bharj, Tove Lundberg, Orla Paslow and Sebastian Bartos. We also would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This research was conducted under the supervision of the second author for partial fulfilment of the first author’s Social and Applied Psychology MSc at the University of Sussex.

Notes

1. Much like the Disability Rights movement of the 1990s, here we believe in the statement ‘nothing about us,without us’, meaning that representation of members of any group (especially in the case of sociallymarginalised groups) is highly important in research about that group. See Charlton (1998).

2. We recognise the cisgenderist nature of this type of exclusion within our data (see Ansara & Hegarty, 2014).

3. We recognise that the use of the term ‘homosexual’ is problematic due to the pathologising nature andhistorical use of the term.

4. Similarly for Question 14 the original is ‘The only true sexual orientations for women are homosexuality and heterosexuality’ and the adapted version reads ‘The only true sexual orientations for women are homosexuality/heterosexuality and bisexuality’. However Question 15 reads ‘Just like homosexuality and heterosexuality, bisexuality is a stable sexual orientation for women’ for bisexuality but ‘Just like heterosexuality/homosexuality, homosexuality/heterosexuality is a stable sexual orientation for women’ for the lesbian/gay and heterosexuality adapted versions.

5. When outliers were included within the analysis (n = 244) the model predicted 81% of the variance in positive attitudes towards bisexuality (F_{(13, 222)} = 72.81, p < 0.01, R² = .81) and perceived stability of all three sexualities were predictive. Within this model the significant predictors were: discreteness (β = –0.10, p = < .01), perceived stability of bisexuality (β = 0.10, p = .02), perceived stability of homosexuality (β = 0.13, p = .03), perceived stability of heterosexuality (β = –0.10, p = .03) and attitudes towards homosexuality (β = 0.70, p = < .01).

However attitudes towards heterosexuality was no longer a predictor (β = –0.06, p = .07).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Hubbard

Katherine Hubbard, M.Sc. Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of Peter Hegarty at the University of Surrey. Research interests include the history of psychology, particularly projective testing and the Rorschach, LGBT Psychology, intersectional feminism and queer approaches to history and psychology.

Richard O. de Visser

Richard O. de Visser, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in School of Psychology and Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Research interests include: gender and health-related behaviour; young people’s health-related behaviour; sexual behaviour and health; linking quantitative and qualitative methods.