Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Bisexuals are part of Straight Guise too!

Mark Simpson, the man who coined the term Metrosexual talks in his blog about bisexuality. I agree with his beliefs that it is easier for straight women to admit they enjoy, have and seek sex with women. They can self-identify as bisexual and not face discrimination the same way a man would. They are not punished in the same way men are as Mark blogs below:



Straight women now have something to gain and little to lose by admitting an interest in other women. Rather than exile them to the acrylic mines of Planet Lesbo, it makes them more interesting, more adventurous, more modern… just more. For the most part, however, straight men still have nothing to gain and everything to lose by making a similar admission. It renders them considerably… less. Unlike women, men’s gender is immediately suspect if they express an interest in the same sex. What’s more, any male homosexuality still tends to be seen as an expression of impotence with women; in other words: men’s attraction to men is equivalent to and probably a product of emasculation.
A straight man admitting that he finds masculinity desirable – as so many clearly, thrillingly do – threatens to cost him the very thing he values most: not only his own manhood and his potency, his reputation with the ladies, but his lads-together homosocial intimacy with other men. It’s a nasty, vicious, bitchy trick to play on millions of red-blooded men, but this is what passes for common sense in the modern, anglo-saxon world.



2 comments:

Monika said...

There are some very excellent points here.

However, I would like to point out that viewing female's bisexuality as titillating to men, as is how it is almost exclusively portrayed in our patriarchal, heterosexist society, is not empowering to bisexual women, and in fact reduces their sexuality to the needs of men.

Absolutely, there are differences in how society (and friends and family) react to bisexual men and women, and even within the Queer community, bisexuals are not always given equal status to (for example) gay men or lesbians.

But I think we can recognise the oppressions we face without diminishing the oppressions of others (i.e. suggesting that bisexual women have it 'easier' as if fighting to be considered someone sexually interested in women for our OWN sake and not for the excitement of men, is easy!)

Monika

Dr. Joe Kort said...

I agree Monika. There is most likely more biphobia than homophobia.