What do you think?
Rate this book
Women and Bisexuality
Bisexual Studies; Case Studies from 150 Bisexual Women of Various Ages, Race and Background - Study of Bisexuality and Lifestyle
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
60 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 21, 2019
it took me a despicably long time to finish this bht im glad i stuck with it!!! i heard about it through a talk on bisexuality and i wanted to know more. highly recommend to any women who are questioning their sexuality and confronting compulsory heterosexuality!
July 5, 2023
i definitely expected something else from certain chapters and others are a bit uninteresting if you already have even a tiny bit of knowledge on certain topics or don’t particularly care for detailed descriptions of people’s sex and love lives. but overall, it’s alright.
content/trigger warnings; biphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, hiv/aids, misogyny, political lesbianism, lesbian separatism, sex, racism, sexual abuse, divorce, incest, child sexual abuse,
notes: even though the author claims to use self-identification to determine who is bisexual and that we can’t apply current and western labels to other times and places, she still labels women bisexual who didn’t do so themselves (and then doesn’t include self-identity in her definition later) and say “it’s more correct to call them bisexual” about certain women and others should be “reclaimed as lesbians”. the author states women gained the vote in the 1920s, but not all women did. the author believes everyone is born bisexual and then, in some people’s case, become gay or straight. and wow i’m so fucking over the kinsey scale and the klein grid.
now some quotes:
“this book uses self-identity to define whether or not a person is bisexual, as i believe that anyone who consciously feels sexual and emotional desire for people of both sexes, whether or not they prefer one over the other, and whether or not they act on their feelings, is bisexual if they consider themselves to be so.”
“what the experiences in this book affirm and society does not want to acknowledge is that all sexual identities can be seen as fluid; that a woman who identifies as, say, heterosexual this year, will not necessarily identify in the same way forever. however, that does not mean that we should abandon the use of sexual labels altogether: it would, of course, be great if we could all just be sexual, attracted to whoever we liked, but the prevailing heterosexim makes this an unlikely scenario, at least in the short term.”
“it is simply inappropriate to apply current, western-specific sexual identities to other times and places.”
“despite the fact that bisexual women have always worked within lesbian groups, we are accused of taking advantage of all that lesbians have worked for without giving up any of the privileges of heterosexuality.”
“many bisexual women do in fact live without any ‘heterosexual privileges’: a woman in an established relationship with another woman, however she identifies, in practice suffers the same oppression as a lesbian. and though a bisexual woman in a similar relationship with a man will not suffer the same practical oppressions, she will suffer emotional oppression if she feels compelled to present herself as heterosexual when she is not. judgmental moralism has made many women unnecessarily guilty and miserable.”
“the 1974 conference formulated the sixth demand of the women’s liberation movement: ‘a right to a self-defined sexuality and an end to discrimination against lesbians’.”
“once forms of sexuality are named, then people find that their longings, which had previously been lonely, unspeakable, perhaps unformed, have a home.”
“labels are helpful if used with thought and caution. it’s a matter for individual choice.”
“perhaps the easiest option is to claim as bisexual anyone who defines themselves in this way.”
“the only person who can decide your sexual identity is you.”
content/trigger warnings; biphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, hiv/aids, misogyny, political lesbianism, lesbian separatism, sex, racism, sexual abuse, divorce, incest, child sexual abuse,
notes: even though the author claims to use self-identification to determine who is bisexual and that we can’t apply current and western labels to other times and places, she still labels women bisexual who didn’t do so themselves (and then doesn’t include self-identity in her definition later) and say “it’s more correct to call them bisexual” about certain women and others should be “reclaimed as lesbians”. the author states women gained the vote in the 1920s, but not all women did. the author believes everyone is born bisexual and then, in some people’s case, become gay or straight. and wow i’m so fucking over the kinsey scale and the klein grid.
now some quotes:
“this book uses self-identity to define whether or not a person is bisexual, as i believe that anyone who consciously feels sexual and emotional desire for people of both sexes, whether or not they prefer one over the other, and whether or not they act on their feelings, is bisexual if they consider themselves to be so.”
“what the experiences in this book affirm and society does not want to acknowledge is that all sexual identities can be seen as fluid; that a woman who identifies as, say, heterosexual this year, will not necessarily identify in the same way forever. however, that does not mean that we should abandon the use of sexual labels altogether: it would, of course, be great if we could all just be sexual, attracted to whoever we liked, but the prevailing heterosexim makes this an unlikely scenario, at least in the short term.”
“it is simply inappropriate to apply current, western-specific sexual identities to other times and places.”
“despite the fact that bisexual women have always worked within lesbian groups, we are accused of taking advantage of all that lesbians have worked for without giving up any of the privileges of heterosexuality.”
“many bisexual women do in fact live without any ‘heterosexual privileges’: a woman in an established relationship with another woman, however she identifies, in practice suffers the same oppression as a lesbian. and though a bisexual woman in a similar relationship with a man will not suffer the same practical oppressions, she will suffer emotional oppression if she feels compelled to present herself as heterosexual when she is not. judgmental moralism has made many women unnecessarily guilty and miserable.”
“the 1974 conference formulated the sixth demand of the women’s liberation movement: ‘a right to a self-defined sexuality and an end to discrimination against lesbians’.”
“once forms of sexuality are named, then people find that their longings, which had previously been lonely, unspeakable, perhaps unformed, have a home.”
“labels are helpful if used with thought and caution. it’s a matter for individual choice.”
“perhaps the easiest option is to claim as bisexual anyone who defines themselves in this way.”
“the only person who can decide your sexual identity is you.”
April 8, 2019
3.5/5 — Read in college. Gave insight on the perspective.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews