Bisexuality Stories Onscreen, Explained

so i'm bisexual so what it's a thing and it's real when it comes to sexuality few groups have been as misrepresented as bisexuals then there are bisexuals though some just say they're kidding themselves even as bisexuality and pansexuality have become increasingly common they remain relatively scarce on screen i'm not straight i'm bisexual and i don't care what you think about it filmmakers have also been reluctant to embrace it and when bisexual characters do appear they're often depicted as sexually greedy it's greedy he's double dipping untrustworthy or confused bisexuality isn't even a thing it's like saying i'm a cat person and a dog person pop culture continues to reinforce the idea of bisexuality as an experimental phase you and her it was just a phase just a phase or a passing trend that generation is all about sexual experimentation all the kids are going by or worse a myth bisexuals are like demons or aliens they don't exist while film and tv have generally become more inclusive toward homosexuals why have we struggled to give bisexuals and pansexuals the same recognition it's called lgbtq for a reason there's a beat in there and it doesn't mean badass okay it kind of does but it also means bi here's our take on how pop culture has shaped our view of bisexuality and how the increasing prominence of sexual fluidity has left them both more and less visible than ever i'm also a unicorn maybe a bicorn either way i'm starting to believe in my own magic you're watching the take thanks for watching and be sure to share and subscribe [Music] this video is brought to you by mubi a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe it's like your own personal film festival streaming anytime anywhere [Music] on screen bisexuality has long been associated with uncertainty if not outright deceit women like cher's title character in the 1969 film chastity had affairs with men and women because they were lost unsure of who they really were what do you want chesty i wish i had a dollar for every time somebody asked me that question in 1967's the fox and haywood's ellen lives in isolation with a woman she loves yet she's seduced by the first man who happens by their farm what's wrong i want to go i want to [Music] eventually this uncertainty would be weaponized bisexual women were portrayed as untrustworthy femme fatales he falls for the wrong woman what happens she kills it in erotic thrillers the idea that women could sleep with anyone made them sexy and dangerous as lecturer catherine fahrend has noted the bisexual femme fatale is a gratuitous attempt to pander to the heterosexual male gaze using their sexuality as a provocation in 1992's basic instinct michael douglas's detective finds himself caught in a web of sex and murder with two women whose bisexuality is portrayed as alluring sinister and key to their duplicity would you like her to join us sometime the film garnered protests from activists who decried it as anti-gay and anti-women reinforcing the stereotype that anyone queer is evil or not to be trusted she's got a degree in school with people's heads but even 1996 is bound which was lauded for its depiction of romance between gina gershon and jennifer tilly still makes bisexuality part of its character's deceit everybody knows you can can't be trusted tilly's character falling for gershon's lesbian ex-con marks the beginning of her betrayal of her criminal boyfriend you don't want to shoot me there caesar you don't know in these depictions bisexuality inevitably revolves around men with women using it to mislead or titillate them and usually both after tonight the three of us are not to be seen together again while not as prevalent or eroticized depictions of the bisexual man are often just as dangerous and can sleep with untrustworthy can't in the 1970 black comedy something for everyone michael york's bisexual conrad seduces the son and daughter of a rich family to gain access to their fortune quitter and quintos approve of you they only approve of murders and power which are you both he's insincere in all his affections his sexuality is defined solely by how he can exploit it for personal gain the 1988 tv series midnight caller offered a far more menacing spin with a controversial episode about a bisexual man who deliberately infected people with hiv he feels that if he pretends he doesn't have the disease if he denies its existence it won't kill him now that's sad for him but it's deadly for those he sleeps with although these kinds of portrayals are largely in our past the myths they foster remain pervasive bisexuals you just can't trust them to lie to anybody a 2013 study in the journal of bisexuality found that the misconception of bisexuals as hyper-sexual led many to say they don't trust bisexuals believing they're more likely to cheat i know you've been with men you've been with women are you just looking at that guy bisexuals have long been viewed with skepticism even disdained by both heterosexuals and homosexuals you can't even decide if you like boys or girls that is if they accept that bisexuals even exist i'm not even sure bisexuality exists [Music] this kid stop thinking about you you and that guy and the guy what the mistrust of bisexuals manifests in another damaging stereotype the idea that bisexuals are simply confused how can he be by anything he's a child he's obviously very confused pop culture has often portrayed the bisexual man especially as secretly gay even in ostensibly sex-positive shows i like to think of myself as pansexual pansexual isn't that just a rest stop on the highway to homo when will and grace's will a gay man is introduced to the bisexual trevor he refuses to accept it trevor you're not bisexual you're gay on sex and the city carrie reacts with disgust when she finds out a guy she's dating is bisexual is that a problem i mean what kind of question is that is that a problem of course it's a problem and whereas the female bisexual is celebrated as sexy or exotic the male bisexual mostly just causes others to recoil when women hook up it's looked at as sexy but men are immediately marginalized because our whole culture revolves around the male gaze this aversion is even more pronounced among people of color where black men especially are expected to be hyper-masculine why can't black men explore their sexuality without being labeled gay or bi or whatever because i want my man to be a man when insecures molly discovers her new partner jared slept with a man in college she panics about what this means for his sexuality and their own relationship you can't keep dating him he's gay because that totally makes him gay right the myth that bisexual men are secretly gay has been propagated even by the media that ostensibly aims to tell their stories romances between men are inevitably marketed as gay even if their stories are more nuanced than that brokeback mountain's reputation as a gay cowboy movie contradicts the fact that even if ennis and jack clearly love each other most they also end up married to women they do exhibit attraction to and share sex lives with jake gyllenhaal has a verb that it's really about two straight guys who develop this love this bond you know i ain't queer me neither his co-star heath ledger saw no need for labels at all saying the whole point is that it was two souls that fell in love with each other i wish i knew how to quit you call me by your name as frequently referred to solely as a gay love story despite the fact that both elio and oliver are seen enjoying female attention and elio clearly gets great pleasure out of his first sexual experience which is with a woman a similar erasure occurred around the 2016 film moonlight which was praised as a film about black gay life but its protagonist shiron has only ever had one sexual experience you're the only man that's ever touched me i haven't really touched anyone since with his childhood friend kevin an open bisexual you remember samantha finance amen kevin junior me and samantha man and we're seeing shiron at the beginning of even connecting with his sexuality far from clearly defining it thus even though we've become more sophisticated in our depictions of queer romances we still see them labeled according to monosexist ideas that erase bisexual pansexual and more sexually fluid experiences this reflects our societal compulsion to ignore or dismiss more ambiguous ideas of sexuality and deny the rights of queer people to dictate their own identities at some point you got to decide for yourself can't let nobody make that decision for [Music] you and then i realized the only reason i wasn't automatically asking them out was because she was a woman increasingly gender and sexuality have been understood as far more fluid than those traditional labels suggest sexuality is a spectrum pop culture has embraced the idea that love and attraction are about the person not a gender it's about the connection you have with a human being and can encompass a vast array of non-binary identities some guys like guys some guys like girls some guys like both i'm not even sure what i like this idea has taken root in shows that significantly also treat this as no big deal judy on the netflix series dead to me has relationships with men before entering into a romance with a woman i like you michelle like i like you like you it's a shift that her friend jen accepts without questioning what it means for judy sexuality you like her i do she makes me feel really good you deserve that as showrunner liz feldman explained to refinery29 at this moment we're living in i know so many people for whom it just is what it is you love who you love you're attracted to who you're attracted to the shit's creek character david expresses similar sentiments after sleeping with his female friend stevie who had just assumed he was gay i like the wine and not the label does that make sense david and stevie then go on to date the same man at the same time before david ends up in a committed relationship with his business partner who similarly awakens to his own fluid sexuality david he seems like a really great partner honey in business he's also a great partner outside of business while david says he's not into labels he actually does have one my son is pansexual the growing embrace of fluid sexuality has also led to an increase in queerbaiting stories that hint at a character's sexual ambiguity without ever actually defining them as queer robin scherbatsky is many things friend confidant occasional guest star in some confusing dreams that remind me a woman's sexuality is a moving target this has often been played for laughs as on the good place where eleanor repeatedly drops hints that she's attracted to tahani without ever explicitly identifying her sexuality she's tall and glamorous and has cappuccino skin and curves everywhere and now i'm complimenting her and kind of turned on this can be a form of erasure as can the general reluctance to use words like bisexual and pansexual at all would you say then you are a bisexual no i see no reason to label everything characters who present themselves as sexually fluid like piper and orange is the new black demonstrate their sexuality without putting a label on it which certainly offers a more modern enlightened approach i like hot girls and i like hot boys i like hot people but it also frustrates bisexuals and pansexuals who long to see themselves represented openly and meaningfully within that larger spectrum [Music] fortunately bisexual representation seems to be growing in quality if not yet in quantity you don't have a preference italian mexican thai white is one choose one food over the other characters like brooklyn nine-nine's rosa diaz have been straightforward about their bisexuality without the show turning it into a joke or a conflict a pretty private person so this is kind of hard for me but here we go i'm bisexual jane the virgin has used bisexual love interests not just to explore those persistent societal myths but openly interrogate them is being bisexual stop uh on your way to coming out as gay definitely not um it just means that i'm open to a connection with a man or a woman and crazy ex-girlfriend introduced no less than three bisexual characters across its run even giving them their own anthem i don't know why but i like ladies [Music] far from being portrayed as villains punchlines or confused anomalies bisexuals are increasingly treated thoughtfully and compassionately i'm ambitious black bisexual this recognition matters giving those who identify as bisexual the feeling of being seen in a culture that's long viewed them with snark or skepticism if it's looked at them at all i mean technically i'm bi so you are i don't want to be some girls experiment okay so why don't you call me when you're done going through this whole buy phase and for the audience including these characters makes for a far more realistic diverse and compelling depiction of who we really are every time someone steps up and says who they are the world becomes a better more interesting place if you're new here be sure to subscribe and click the bell to get notified about all our new videos this video is brought to you by mubi a streaming service we love mubi is a treasure trove of films every day mubi premieres a new film whether it's a movie you've been dying to see or one you've never heard of before there is always something new to discover so in this world where it's very easy to spend hours debating what you should watch mubi is like having a really cool friend with amazing tastes in movies making it so much easier for you they feature hard to come by masterpieces indie festival darlings influential art house and foreign films lesser known films by your favorite famous directors and more plus you can even download the films to watch offline and there are no ads ever this month mubi is proud to be partnering with the locarno film festival directors lucretia martell love diaz and miguel gomez have curated a selection of films from the festival's rich history that will show in the movie library movie will also premiere highlights from last year's festival including festival favorite echo luna runerson's beautifully shot portrait of iceland we can't recommend mubi highly enough you can try it out now for free for a whole month just click the link in the description below [Music] you

Channel: The Take

Views: 305,604

Keywords: bisexual, dead to me, the good place, schitts creek, pansexual, euphoria, schitts creek david and patrick, jane the virgin, greys anatomy, annalise keating, how to get away with murder, community, pose, torchwood, basic instinct, glee, will and grace, grown-ish, how i met your mother, broad city, vicky cristina barcelona, piper alex oitnb, orange is the new black, piper chapman, rosa diaz, brooklyn nine-nine, the good wife, greys anatomy callie torres, crazy ex-girlfriend

Id: RFS2pQyKdD0

Length: 16min 23sec (983 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/albinoman38]

An interesting video on the history of bisexuality in film. I hope that going forward, we see better representation.

[u/[deleted]]

Oh boy, Rosa Diaz thumbnail?.... I'll watch it but I'm concerned it won't recognize how shes fallen into one of the biggest cliches for bisexuals.

Edit: so far so good, highlighting prominent examples of stereotypes.

Edit2: as we become more welcoming of queer stories, we still define them by monosexual terms- well said.

Edit 3: ohh no, saying only pansexuals can be attracted to trans people.

Edit 4: also probably not a good idea to laid OitnB as they only mentioned bisexuality explicit in episode 89 out of 90 where they then shut it down hard.

Edit 5: and using Harley and Ivy? Another show showing bisexuality as homewreckers? I'm disappointed.
Edit 6: good video, just wish it did like 20% more and applied the (valid) criticism of past representation to the current bits of representation.