#other articles

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Having A Bi Buddy Is About More Than Just Romance

If I had it my way, I’d never not work with a fellow bi person. We need each other.

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Largest study to date confirms overlap between autism and gender diversity

People who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times as likely to be autistic as cisgender people are.

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Pepper Mint

First, the idea that bisexuals are slutty, promiscuous, sexually out of control, or nonmonogamous seems to have real currency in mainstream culture, and particularly in the media, to the point where these subjects seem to come up in any discussion of bisexuality. This is despite the fact that a significant proportion of bisexuals are in fact happily monogamous. Why is the connection between bisexuality and sluttiness so persistent, to the point of ignoring the reality of large numbers of bisexuals? [...] Second, rates of nonmonogamy seem to be relatively high among bisexuals, when compared to heterosexual people and lesbians... What gives? These two discrepancies provide this paper with its shape. In the first half, I will attempt to deconstruct the bisexual-as-slut myth. In the second half, I will discuss the effects the myth has on the bisexual community and the implications that it has for bisexual and nonmonogamy activism.

[mediumkravitz]

Kimberly A. Fuller & Cynthia A. Hovland

I found a heartwarming study today!

Through the eyes of the bisexual person identified by a snow-ball sampling method of bisexual persons living in the United States, 197 participants completed an open-ended question on positive experiences with partners, with 96 of them emphasizing acceptance and understanding. Findings suggest there are multiple ways bisexual individuals encounter acceptance from their partner—some more neutral expressions and some more overt. Neutral messages were twice as likely to occur compared to overt forms of acceptance. Participants reported themes of: (1) didn’t try to change me, (2) ambivalence, (3) proud/rooting, (4) asked me about my experiences, and (5) feeling loved.

[mediumkravitz]

Bianca D. M. Wilson

Lesbian gender expression is a persistent theme in research and writing about lesbian culture. Yet little empirical research has examined the ways lesbian gender functions within the sexual culture of lesbian communities, particularly among lesbians of colour. This study was aimed at documenting and assessing the functions of lesbian gender among African American lesbians. Particular attention was paid to identifying core characteristics of sexual discourses, such as evidence of dominant and resistant sexual scripts and contradictions between messages about sex. This study took the form of a rapid ethnography of an African American lesbian community in the USA using focus groups, individual community leader interviews and participant observations at a weekly open mic event. Findings document how lesbian gender roles translated into distinct sexual roles and expectations that appear to both parallel and radically reject heterosexual norms for sex. The deep roots of the social pressure to date within these roles were also evident within observations at the open microphone events. While data highlighted the central role that lesbian gender roles play in this community, analyses also revealed a strong resistance to the dominance of this sexual cultural system.

[mediumkravitz]

Paula C. Rust

“Make Me a Map” explores the questions of whether bisexual men feel that a bisexual community exists and, if so, what makes it a community; whether they derive a sense of belonging from it; and how it is related to other sexual and political communities. [...] Also explored in “Make Me a Map” are bisexual men’s perceptions of racial, political, gender, and sexual diversity within their bisexual communities, issues of visibility and self-identification, and the relationships of their bisexual communities to gay and lesbian communities. The analysis concludes with a theoretical consideration of the relationship between individual perceptions of community and the concept of a collective social reality. 

[mediumkravitz]

We Don’t Need Visibility, We Need Solidarity

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility. This is a day that I have very mixed feelings about, as do many other trans women. TDOV was…