Stereotypes In The Bisexual Community

As humans we have consistently searched for definitions, meanings, and vocabulary to describe feelings we otherwise could not express. This phenomena is especially prominent in regards to sexuality. Members of the LGBTQI+ community are members because of the titles they adhere to that give name to the feelings, expression, and attraction they experience. Individuals in the bisexual community specifically focus on labels, as many of them either adhere to or actively distance themselves from them. Despite said distancing, labels are, for the most part, helpful and create communities where individuals can relate to one another, but labels are not necessary in order to validate an individuals identity. Many people who fit the definition for bisexuality

All individuals, whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, or otherwise have been influence in some way by the biphobic rhetoric that persists in our culture. “Even the most independent individual can be affected by external feedback” (Ochs, 73). There are two key traits that contribute to this victimization: internalized biphobia and hostility towards bisexual people. This hostility generally stems from either fear of bisexual people creating a worse image for an already marginalized and misinterpreted community or from individuals who are upset that bisexuals do not experience the same type of oppression or lesser oppression than they

An example of external biphobia is the erasure or denial of bisexual existence. This persists through media having bisexual characters who either embody stereotypes or never verbally refer to themselves as bisexual. Another contribution to this harmful idea is the reduction of bisexuality as a “phase” or as a means of partially escaping the oppression that coming out as a completely homosexual could present. Because we live in a society that clings to binaries, it is hard to view bisexuality as anything other than fifty/fifty. This expectation is unrealistic and therefore makes the concept of bisexuality seem unrealistic. Secondly, because there are such little bisexual role models and the primary consensus on the sexuality is that it is invalid, many bisexual people experience internalized biphobia. It can either manifest as biphobia towards other bisexuals or as biphobia towards oneself. Casual discrediting of one’s own sexuality or others’s sexuality as “not bisexual enough” is a direct effect of this. Many bisexual people find they do not want to label themselves as such because of negative stereotypes such as being hyper-sexual, more likely to cheat, or liars looking for