Bisexuality, like most terms in the LGBTQ+ community, is an umbrella term that covers a broad spectrum; in its most basic definition, bisexuality is considered to be romantic or sexual attraction toward both men and women. There are tons of amazing bi people out there, but, unfortunately, our society is disregarding at best and biphobic at worst.
How many widely known bisexual people are you aware of? How many celebrities, authors, or YouTubers can you name that openly identify as bisexual? If you’re like most people, you’ll have a hard time with this, and there’s a simple reason for that: bisexual erasure.
The term “bisexual erasure” has been thrown around a lot lately, but not many people reflect on what it actually means. Wikipedia’s definition of bisexual erasure is “the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.” The phenomenon is not only triggered by the social homophobic structures that rooted during the formation of society, but by patriarchal dominant ideologies as well.
There have always been homophobic people in our society, and there likely always will be, but the dominant ideologies of heterosexuality are really where bisexual erasure comes into play.
Many bisexual people in relationships with someone of a different gender are automatically referred to as straight—Angelina Jolie is a perfect example of this. Despite being openly bisexual since 2003, Jolie has been assumed to be straight by the masses due to her previous marriage with Brad Pitt. Yes, you heard that right: because Angelina Jolie (a woman) was in a relationship with Brad Pitt (a man), she is considered straight, despite the fact that she is openly bisexual.
It’s absurd to think that even in 2022, we’re still facing problems such as this. We need to re-learn that just because you may be in a relationship with a person of a different gender, it doesn’t make you any less bisexual. If you are a man dating a man, you can still be bisexual. If you are a man dating a woman, you can still be bisexual. And if you are a woman dating a woman, you can still be bisexual.
Going back to the issue of bisexual awareness, most people can’t name many bisexual people, even though bisexual people make up a large portion of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s time to change that.
Here’s a list of names (that you may or may not recognize) of people who have at some point openly identified as bisexual: Amy Winehouse, Paul Goodman, Bella Thorne, Drew Barrymore, Lady Gaga, Kristen Stewart, Lilly Singh, Becky Albertalli, Amber Heard, Shane Dawson, Halsey, Casey McQuiston, Megan Fox, Alan Cumming, and Billie Joe Armstrong.
And that’s just the tip of the bisexual iceberg.
Who you date does not define you, and whatever your preference happens to be doesn’t define you either. In the famous words of Ashley Mardell, “all you need to validly be bi is to identify!”