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Bisexual media

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by searchin, Dec 15, 2018.

  1. searchin

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    Why is it hard to find positive media portrayals of bisexuals?
     
  2. Shorthaul

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    That is an interesting question. Granted it might be due to the fact no one really thinks we are real, you are either straight or gay, no middle ground.
     
  3. Secrets5

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    There's ''The Bisexual'' on ITV

    I have no idea what it's like I didn't watch it.
     
  4. Aspen

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    Hollywood doesn't know what to do with bisexual characters. They're either gay as soon as they enter a same-sex relationship (Hi, Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or a bicycle that clearly has to have sex with every other queer character in the established universe (Hi, Sara in Legends of Tomorrow). I am going to say that young adult literature has gotten a lot better about them in very recent years. I went into Dread Nation by Justina Ireland not expecting any queer characters at all but ended up with a wonderful bisexual MC and her asexual best friend.
     
  5. Fishtail

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    I have asked this myself since starting puberty.
    And why is there none Bichara. even in an european produced TVshow or movie?
    Cuz I have long loosing hope that USA includes the B Part in movies...
    If we have missed any media with Biperson, post it here
     
    #5 Fishtail, Dec 31, 2018
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2018
  6. Chierro

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    Bookwise:
    -Leah from Leah on the Offbeat
    -Autoboyography (I haven’t gotten around to reading this yet, but I’ve been told it’s good representation)
    -Monty from The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (He’s in love with his male best friend, but he does talk about the fact that he is also interested in women, just moreso into his best friend)

    But yeah, bi representation is definitely lacking. I actually did an entire project on it for my Queer Theory class my sophomore year.
     
  7. Lgbtqpride

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    I think the characters in call me by your name is bisexual.
     
  8. AlphaDel

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    I did an essay on this for my English class once. One of my teacher's comments was 'Why is this so important to you?'
     
  9. DecentOne

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    Thanks for mentioning this one, I hadn’t heard of it and I just checked Libby to see if I can get it online from my library. The preview looked good. I’d already read Leah on the Offbeat.

    And @Lgbtqpride I agree the characters in Call Me By Your Name are bi.

    I’ll add Brokeback Mountain
     
  10. Lgbtqpride

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    Because this is human right and you are a human, that is why you care.
     
    #10 Lgbtqpride, Jan 5, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2019
  11. Chierro

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    There's also Magnus Bane from The Shadowhunter Chronicles. My best recommendations are The Mortal Instruments series, The Infernal Devices series, The Bane Chronicles anthology, and the new series coming out focusing on him and his boyfriend and their travels at different points in their relationship beginning with The Red Scrolls of Magic.

    I recommend EpicReads and GoodReads for finding books. EpicReads has a lot of focus on diverse authors and new YA. Sometimes they have authors cater lists of books they like and when they're interviewing LGBT authors or straight authors who write a lot of LGBT YA the recommendations tend to include books with prominent LGBT characters.

    GoodReads is just a good way of tracking books. Eventually it'll start recommending books to you based on one's you've read before. So, if you read a lot of LGBT fiction with bisexual characters, your recommendations may become skewed towards those kinds of books.
    Or it's just because they're a bisexual individual and care about exploring the lack of bisexuality in popular media to try and find representations of themself.
     
  12. AlphaDel

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    I haven't said anything to her yet because I'm still trying to find a nice way to say 'fuck you'
     
  13. Lgbtqpride

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    All Humans are equal regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.I am sure your teacher do not want to be discriminated base on her gender.
     
  14. Loves books

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    If you’re old enough Lost Girl features a bisexual main character. Though considering it’s sci-fi and about a succubus she just has a lot of sex with a lot of people regardless of their gender.
     
  15. AlphaDel

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    Yeah. The semester is almost over anyway
     
  16. LaurenSkye

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    I have two theories as to why there aren't a lot of bisexuals in media. One is that fans want every character to have a relationship with one specific person, so even characters who are bisexual are shown as being either gay or straight (usually gay). The other theory is that people behind the media (writers, producers, etc.) are not bisexual (most likely straight), so they just don't think to make their characters bisexual.

    She doesn't just have sex with a lot of people, she also has relationships and romantic feelings for both Lauren and Dyson on the show.
     
  17. Chierro

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    I think it also depends on the media. Long term shows or book series allow for a deeper look into characters and could potentially explore multiple relationships. Callie Torres from Grey's Anatomy for example had two relationships with men and three with women throughout her time on the show. That was over the course of many seasons and it took quite a while before Callie being bi was even revealed.

    Short term things such as standalone books or movies are more difficult because the goal is often to show one relationship if a relationship is the focus anyways. It can discuss the character's feelings for others, or the fact that they're bisexual, or flashbacks, but short term media usually has one focus.

    However, I will say this: a writer's sexuality does not have much influence on their characters, their writing ability does. Becky Albetalli is a straight woman and she writes mainly LGBT characters, two of them being gay boys (Arthur Seuss and Simon Spier). Non-bi authors can write strong bi characters...it just doesn't often happen.
     
  18. Chierro

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    To play Devil's advocate a little, and keeping in mind that I obviously don't know your teacher, is it possible your teacher just asked you that to try and understand you better? I mean, speaking as a future teacher, I would ask that kind of question to a student to try and get in their head and understand them better.

    I mean, it depends on how your teacher asked it (i.e., tone of voice if asked in person) but just my two cents.
     
  19. CactiCat

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    I’d recommend a book called Pulp. I’m currently reading it.
     
  20. tystnad

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    bi representation is definitely a little difficult to find (and even when it exists, people often conveniently forget about it and just call the character whatever sexuality they assume the character is based on their on-screen relationship) but here’s a few i could think of if you’re looking for some positive rep. Some of these can be interpreted as both bi and later in life gay because they don’t necessarily use the words gay or bi. Just because someone is in a same sex relationship doesn’t mean they’re 100% gay :wink: (i did not include characters who specifically say they’re gay and their previous relationships with other genders were not real or whatever though)

    Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn 99 (there’s literally no piece of media that uses the word bisexual as often as her coming out episode!)
    Darryl Whitefeather in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (he even sings a great song about it)
    Waverly Earp in Wynonna Earp
    Petra Solano in Jane the Virgin
    Annalise Keating in How to get away with Murder
    Delphine Cormier in Orphan Black
    Ilana Wexler in Broad City
    Casey in Atypical
    Eve in Killing Eve
    Stella in the Fall

    less explicitly: Eleanor Shellstrop in The Good Place (never actually dates a woman yet but it’s pretty hard to deny she’s into both men and women, and not just because of fan interpretations)

    None of these die (...permanently) or meet otherwise horrible fates and they’re all prominent characters in their show (so no digging through 5 seasons just for their two episode story arch). I don’t watch a lot of man-centric media so this list is clearly a little skewed in favour of bi women, so i’m not sure how representative it is :wink: