Jun 10 2009
Is any news good news?
I have to confess I’m not normally a reader of The Sun newspaper, but sitting in a Chinese takeaway yesterday, flicking idly through a copy of it, I was struck by the sight of the word ‘bisexual’ in a headline. It appears that a number of American female celebrities are acknowledging that they are bisexual. The most recent to have done so being Fergie, who sings with the Black Eyed peas (helpfully distinguished by the paper from a certain football manager and the Duchess of York), and the actress Megan Fox. It may be that this report reflects nothing more than a certain titillation on the part of male editors, who find the thought of attractive women getting flirty together a bit of a turn on (but then again, who doesn’t?!). The report certainly contained one reference to ‘lesbian sex romps’ which might tell us something of the mindset of the reporter, and we cannot know how it would be reported if a male celebrity were to identify himself as bisexual.
But I was struck by the fact that the word ‘bisexual’ was actually used. The article didn’t talk of the celebrities being confused, or of having had a phase, nor was there any suggestion of a crisis in Fergie’s marriage to Josh Duhamel - it simply stated that that was the sexual identity of the women named. It’s probably too early to get too excited – I’m old enough to remember the excitement when Brett Anderson was identified as bi in the mid-nineties, which is now all but forgotten. But part of me just dares to hope that a tiny advance might have been made for bi visibility.
Or have I just been duped by some clever PR for a few American celebrities?
- Marston
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3 Responses to “Is any news good news?”
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Tricky to say. Seems there have been female celebs define themselves as bi every so often. Sometimes they do get accused of just seeking PR.
Oddly I’ve always had the impression that female bisexuality has always been more visible than male sadly. I could be wrong on this, it is just how I’ve seen things.
As an aside, I’ve oddly never understood the fascination with girl on girl sex. That is aside from the ability to look at two women at once, the fact they’re doing things together didn’t add much extra appeal for me.
Female bisexuality does indeed enjoy a much wider public visibility than male one does. The titillation about girl-on-girl sexuality that most men have does go a long way, since that gives them ~50% popular approval. Moreover, straight girls tend to feel significantly less icky about same-sex contact (to the point of often doing it “for fun”) than straight men do (at least publically).
However, I believe that this public acceptance is to some extent a largely superficial one, and ultimately female bisexuality shares many of the same obstacles as male one. One of them is being taken seriously. Ironically, the very interview with Megan Fox mentioned above provides an example of it. She said:
” have no question in my mind about being bisexual. But I’m also a hypocrite. I would never date a girl who was bisexual, because that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I’d never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man.”
At least she’s honest about that hypocrisy. A rather inconsistent one that doesn’t make much sense, since she is currently engaged to a guy (presumably the only clean one?) and has previously declared that she is attracted to women like Olivia Wilde and Jenna Jameson, both of whom are in relationships with men.
In any case, I think that’s something many bisexual women have to suffer. If they are good looking, it’s a hawt thing in theory (nevermind the uglies), but at the time of dating, both men and women are likely be reluctant.
Male bisexuality remains hidden though. The UK version of Big Brother started this week and there’s a self-identified gay contestant called Charlie who claims to have had sex with over 100 women but still considers himself to be gay rather than bi. Why are men so scared of the bisexual label? There is no way a man would have sex with so many women if he didn’t enjoy it. And if he enjoys it, he is bi, not gay!