Writing Bisexual Characters

Since it was Bisexual Pride Day yesterday, I thought I'd keep on theme by posting a bit about writing bi characters. You'd think it wouldn't be that difficult-- or at least not any more difficult than writing a gay or straight or asexual character. But not only are bisexual characters seriously underrepresented in fiction (fanfic doesn't count!), but the ones who do turn up tend to land straight into the Unfortunate Implications zone. There are some common and obnoxious manifestations of this:
Bisexuals with no standards. Just because someone's dating pool includes more than one gender doesn't mean they find anyone with a pulse attractive, any more than straight people find any and all random people of the opposite gender attractive. Bisexual creepers. Although the Evil League of Evil does believe in diversity, I'm speaking about characters who are bad people because of their orientation, and use their sexuality to make life miserable for everyone else. This trope really kicked off in the 50's, but it's still going strong and has been used by high-profile authors such as Diana Gabaldon. Bisexuals as fakers. This is probably the most common and annoying trope. The idea being that bisexuals are either straight people angling for attention, or gay people peering cautiously out of the closet. Even Glee has been a major offender. Now, this isn't to say you shouldn't write a bi character who has poor taste in partners, or is a dodgy character, or is an attention-grubber or uncomfortable with their orientation. All of these traits are fairly equal-opportunity. However, it's something to write with care, to make sure to write a fully-developed character with a number of traits which include both sexual orientation and bad behaviour, but whose behaviour is not a pathological and inevitable outgrowth of their sexual orientation. [image error]