CODE Magazine - July 2012 Issue One withhold the knowledge of my longterm relationship with my girlfriend, as undoubtedly the first question I will receive is ‘So are you gay then?’ It often falls on deaf ears to attempt to explain that I am neither gay or straight, but I don’t consider myself to be simply bi either, for that title denotes loosely a mere fraction of the complexity of my sexuality, as I’m sure is true of other people that have been in relationships with both males and females. As a female, it is with a wry smile that I receive the overused anecdote of ‘Can I watch then’ from men who succeed in morphing the fact that I have fallen for a girl into their seedy fantasy. Safe to say, this does not motivate me to divulge any
‘‘I find no positive outcome from the definition of bisexual and its effect on a large proportion of society’’
Good-Bi to Labels Text Charlotte Elmore Image Kan Kasem
Bisexual is a term which denotes
somebody who is sexually attracted to both men and women. As someone who falls under this category, I have been led to question the necessity of such a label and whether it fulfills its given function properly. It is society which is becoming increasingly obsessed with the lives of others, it no surprise if one’s sexuality comes under the firing line from social networking sites. Upon being asked which gender I am interested in, I dishearteningly find there is no such category as ‘irrelevant’ for me to put my alltelling tick in to. Furthermore though
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I can answer male, female or both; there is nowhere to specify just how far my preferences go. It would seem more appropriate if we as users were given a scale on which to position ourselves, with heterosexual at one end and homosexual at the other. Though this does not take away from the issues centered on assigning categories to sexuality, it removes the specificity given to each label; preventing the need to define oneself so readily. Given the ambiguity of bisexual as a category, I have resisted referring to myself as such. Regrettably, to do so with complete success would be to
further information and I am left dissatisfied by the term ‘bisexual’ as a means to categorise myself and others. I find no positive outcome from the definition of bisexual and its effect on a large proportion of society; I am instead left hoping for the need for categorisation to disappear, or the means to do so to improve. In an ideal world sexuality will step down from its role as a focal part of identification, but fade into a natural part of diversity. Until then, it’s crucial to remember that to ignore social conformities to reveal and specify sexuality amongst other things, is to stay true to the person you.