Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality

by Julia Shaw

She found that both bisexual and non-bisexual students were able to describe what people with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual identities look like, but they too were unable to recognize any equivalent bisexual appearance norms. There was no consistent style that people thought of when they thought of bisexual people. This was echoed in research from 2020 by sociologist Rosie Nelson, whose article was simply titled, “What do bisexual people look like? I don’t know!” Nelson found that in interviews and photo-diaries, “plurisexuals wish to present visually but are not certain of how to do so.”6

Your sexuality is political, whether you want it to be or not. So many bisexual people live in a family, community, or country, where they are in danger. Where they cannot explore, or express, their sexuality. Where if they voice their sexual feelings they are likely to be harassed, discriminated against, assaulted, imprisoned, or killed. To be in danger simply because you are upsetting the heterosexual norm is a particular kind of isolation.

if you are queer, the state may also be your enemy. State violence often happens under the guise of protecting public order or social mores, or in connection with enforcing laws that criminalize same-sex relations. Russia, Korea, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Indonesia are named in the UN report as countries whose state agents are known perpetrators of violence.