Why “Bi”?

This quote comes from the Bi Visibility Project at UC Davis, in Davis, CA, and I find it really interesting. What do you think?:

“Doesn’t the word ‘Bisexual’ reinforce the gender binary?

Many people agree that the word ‘bisexual’ isn’t perfect. Some people don’t like the fact that it has ’sexual’ in it because they feel it reinforces the stereotype that bisexual people are promiscuous, and some people don’t like that it has ‘bi’ in it because as a prefix, ‘bi’ means ‘two’. This interpretation implies that there are two genders, which leaves out the fluidity of gender, genderqueer, transgender, and intersex people.

Thankfully, newer descriptions of what it means to be bisexual talk about being attracted to many genders, all genders, same and other genders,
or people regardless of gender. This concept is similar to that of pansexual, omnisexual, ambisexual, polysexual, trisexual identities, which acknowledge attraction irrespective of gender. Ultimately, identities are self-defined.

‘Bisexual’ has been used to mean ‘attracted to two genders’ in the past, but ‘gay’ also used to mean ‘happy’ and ‘queer’ used to mean ’strange’. It has evolved from being another word for intersex in the 1800s, to Freud calling it a developmental phase around the turn of the century, to invisibility in the gay and lesbian movement, to now. We are in the process of appropriating it once again as something that recognizes gender fluidity while retaining the rich history bi activists have laid for us.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 12:25 am and is filed under Academia, Bisexuals/ Bi Activism, Community Organizations, Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.