(...why no) woe?

[reenka]

You know, it just struck me that I've yet to find a fic or manga that has anything I could term 'bisexual angst'. I mean, there's 'omg, no, I'm gay and I like someone I could never have' angst and there's the regular old 'omg boys/girls drive me INSANE yet I like one, woe!' angst... well, there's a bunch of variants, but. Point being, bisexuals always seem to be portrayed as being free spirits for whom gender doesn't matter-- either in a slutty way or just in a really 'enlightened' way, and that sort of... annoys me, actually. Not least because in my own experience, at least, gender does matter in terms of attraction, even if you like -both-; there's still that intrinsic difference between both and either, right? (Though yes, I realize both are different types of bisexuality; it's just that I see one represented and not the other.)

I mean, sure, everyone knows it's rude and un-PC to perpetuate the bi-slut stereotype, but the whole 'uncommon wisdom' shtick can also seem oppressive, in a way, simply because it doesn't recognize that we -all- have the same kind of identity crises and self-questioning at some point. Yes, even straight white male quarterbackers in the Midwest can question themselves sometimes, I'm sure.

In other words, in fanfic and manga-- and even in general media-- I find that whenever bisexuals aren't -invisible-, they're... kind of dismissive and/or dismissed-- like, oh, they're bi, so that whole angst you-the-pov-character are having doesn't apply.

I mean, I can easily see a character having -more- confusion because wow, they're attracted to -both- and it's easy enough to have -no- clue what you want in that case. What if Harry was bi, and therefore liked -both- Ginny and Draco in 'that' way, for instance?

...I dunno. Maybe that was my rare sudden burst of bisexual angst or... something. :/

Comments

Re: Late, from metafandom

[my_daroga]

More diversity in outlook? I don't know. I would hesitate to say that; everyone's story is different, regardless of orientation. One "problem" with bisexual identity, which I think is relevant to a discussion about fiction, is that there is not a standard "coming out bi" story as there is a set of standarized gay, lesbian, or straight "coming of age" tropes. There is a history to draw on which I haven't detected for bisexual experience. That's not all good; I think many of those tropes are overused and over-relied upon. To risk being a purveyor of said cliches, there's always the "bi is a step on the way to gay/lesbian" thing, which means that lots of stories that start out "hmm, I might be attracted to members of my gender as well as the opposite" become "hey, wait, I'm gay!"

There are very good reasons for this; in a culture where many of these themes are not "accepted" by everyone in it, ambiguity might be construed as "weakness." Positive (strong, unequivocal) images need to be set up before we can start messing around with them the way I want to. Minorities can't really afford to say, "hmm, well, *maybe* this is where I stand..." My sexuality, like many peoples' probably, is rather ambiguous. I think, in time, this will come out more in writing; perhaps it's just too early to ask people to move beyond simple, declarative categories and into that slippery slope of fluid, and therefore dangerous, sexuality.

Re: Late, from metafandom

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Minorities can't really afford to say, "hmm, well, *maybe* this is where I stand..."
It's odd thinking about in a less modern of context, where it may not have even occurred to people to label themselves, and there's stories of people behaving in homosexual ways while vehemently denying anything but their complete hetero nature without intending hypocrisy. I think things can be pretty fluid when people don't try to put names to them in the first place, though without a name you don't get rights or recognition, but in some ways you'd have to be taught to expect or want these things, too, culturally. In other words, it seems like ambiguity had a long reign before now, where there's this culture-wide rush to identify & deal with every permutation of identity. I'm not sure if you could say it's only about civil rights, since all sorts groups want their 'recognition'-- not like that's a bad thing, but I do think in some ways unpredented.

At least, I think until recently, even in Western countries you had people who would refuse to strongly identify themselves as 'fringe' or 'Other' (homosexual), and somehow 'bisexual' actually seems more dangerous in some ways in that context, if one would even admit that to themeselves; having to keep navigating the dangerous depths without a consistent compass. Most people would probably take the 'easy way out', whatever that'd translate to. Most people would probably still take the easy way out, no matter what orientation, just 'cause they're human, but that's neither here nor there.

Same-sex attraction is seemingly either viewed as a 'slippery slope' (if there's even a little, then you're risking complete disintergation of the moral structure) or 'irrelevant' because it lierally doesn't matter what you think you want in the face of the moral structure. Both models don't seem to leave much room for ambiguity.

I've actually tried to decide one way or the other, myself, all in vain. Sometimes I still ask myself if I could be gay/straight just 'cause it'd be convenient, so that's probably why all the bi characters with their 'gender doesn't matter, I take 'em all' attitude just baffle me...