Myths about bisexuality

Bisexuality is the potential to be sexually attracted to and to engage in sensual or sexual relationships with people of either sex. A bisexual person may not be equally attracted to both genders, and the degree of attraction may vary over time. This form of sexuality has created many misconceptions and myths that need to be cleared up:

These myths can be seen in reactions to bisexuals:

• Reactions of straight men: Homophobic, they hate and fear both bisexual and homosexual men, they victimize, harass and are physically violent.
• Reactions of heterosexual women:

Towards bisexual men: misguided fears about AIDS, “stop sitting on the fence and make a decision” attitude.

Towards bisexual women: fear that they will make sexual advances and try to “convert” them to be bisexual.

• Reactions of homosexual men: Bisexual men are really gay, but deny it, they should make up their minds and “just get over it.”
• Lesbian reactions: Mistrust, ‘sleeping with the enemy’, betraying their allegiance to women and feminism, and clinging to heterosexual privilege through relationship with men.

The myths seem to be slowly changing. People have begun to question the notion that sexuality should be labeled.

For those of us whose sexuality doesn’t fit neatly into a box, it’s all very encouraging. As the sexologist Alfred Kinsey pointed out, many people’s orientation lies between the extremes of homosexual and heterosexual. Applying simplified categories is claustrophobic, dangerous, and inaccurate. It reeks of separatism and results in lying about sexual preference to avoid stigma. Too bad if you want to experiment or if, shock horror, you suddenly change your mind.

Bisexuality challenges concepts of sexuality, traditional relationships and family structures, monogamy, gender, and identity. Bisexuals can’t conform or they wouldn’t be bisexual. Instead, they must reinvent personal ethics and values ​​for themselves, and create responsible lifestyles and relationships that meet their needs, even if they don’t conform to anyone else’s rules.