Bisexuality

[flexibeast]

In a fascinating post to the postqueer LJ community (amongst others), entitled "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die", nyabn laments the lack of interest exhibited by many non-monosexual people in organising around bi-relevant issues and/or supporting bi advocacy groups. It very much put me in mind of an email i wrote to the Bi-Victoria e-list last year in response to someone suggesting that maybe most bi people don't really believe in the existence of a "bi community" and/or that a bi community based on activism and discussion is irrelevant to their needs:

On the basis of my experiences, i suspect you may be right - at least in the Australian context. (i've very much got the impression that there are thriving bi activist communities in the UK and US, as evidenced by the bi-related cons in those countries.)

As some background, i'd like to once again requote some data from the "Australian Study of Health and Relationships", which found that, of the more than 14,000 people who responded to the survey,

97.4% of men identified as heterosexual, 1.6% as gay and 0.9% as bisexual. For women 97.7% identified as heterosexual, 0.8% as gay and 1.4% bisexual. Nevertheless, 8.6% of men and 15.1% of women reported either feelings of attraction to the same sex or some sexual experience with the same sex. Half the men and two thirds of the women who had same sex sexual experience regarded themselves as heterosexual rather than homosexual. This illustrates that same sex attraction and experience are more common in Australia [than] is indicated by the relatively few people reporting a homosexual or bisexual identity.

Given that the combined numbers of bisexual-identified people are roughly the same as the combined numbers of lesbian- and gay-identified people, i personally would expect that the amount of activism in the bi community would be within an order of magnitude or two of the amount of activism in the lesbian and gay communities (which is rather considerable). And yet the amount of public bi activism in Australia appears to me to be minimal. Why?

Is it because, as i mentioned in my last post, and as many lesbians and gay men have said for ages, bi people generally aren't affected by queerphobia? Do most bi people feel that biphobia doesn't really exist, or that it does exist but doesn't affect them? Are most bi people in differing-gender relationships and not affected by the issues surrounding same-gender relationships? Are there not issues that affect bi people specifically to greater extent than other parts of the population, homosexual or straight? (At least some research suggests that there are, e.g. [1]). Are non-monosexual people less and less identifying as 'bisexual', an identity under attack from at least two sides: on the one hand, from the notion that one can't be bisexual, but only in transition between forms of monosexuality; and on the other, from the notion that identities are often too restrictive and the cause of much angst as people try to pidgeonhole themselves and others? (i know a number of people who identify as 'bisexual', yet in practice are not only attracted to people who identify as 'male' or 'female' but to people who have another gender identity altogether.) Is there an "I'm all right Jack"-type attitude prevalent amongst bi people? Do bi people on average have more commitments than lesbian and gay people, or are bi people on average more affected by adverse life events than lesbian and gay people, such that bi people are less able to involve themselves in activism?

Please note that i'm not saying that any of the above things /are/ true - i'm genuinely wondering any of those things are in fact the case, and a determining factor in the relatively low amount of bi activism in Australia when compared to the amount of lesbian and gay activism. Any research that people could point me to which may assist in answering these questions would be most welcome. :-)

. . .

[1] From an article published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in May 2002:

METHOD: A community survey of 4824 adults was carried out in Canberra, Australia. Measures covered anxiety, depression, suicidality, alcohol misuse, positive and negative affect and a range of risk factors for poorer mental health. RESULTS: The bisexual group was highest on measures of anxiety, depression and negative affect, with the homosexual group falling between the other two groups. Both the bisexual and homosexual groups were high on suicidality. Bisexuals also had more current adverse life events, greater childhood adversity, less positive support from family, more negative support from friends and a higher frequency of financial problems. Homosexual reported greater childhood adversity and less positive support from family. CONCLUSIONS: The bisexual group had the worst mental health, although homosexual participants also tended to report more distress.

Perhaps nyabn's post indicates that this issue is not as localised to Australia as i thought?
 

Comments

[sacred-harlot.livejournal.com]

Thought provoking stuff, will be interesting to see what other people think, as you know what I think!

Love Sacred Harlot X.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

By my observation Australian bisexuals are on the whole much more timorous -chicken- than are those in the UK or US.

We've a dispersed population and some sections of the lesbian community have historically targetted us very heavily..this may be one reason.

Another could be that our gender roles are fiercer where one might expect respite eg in big cities.

We lack Out role models.