Putting the “B” in the Sexual Orientation Alphabet
Bisexuality isn’t just a phase. Well at least members of the general public seem to recognize this fact. But after releasing its June 2015 cover story with Cara Delevinge, it appears that no one has clued Vogue into the “B” in the sexual orientation alphabet. In the article, Rob Haskell insinuates that Delevinge, who discusses her committed relationship with her girlfriend, is simply going through a phase. He wrote, “Her parents seem to think girls are just a phase for Cara, and they may be correct.” Editorials were penned and petitions gathered thousands of signatures in just a few days. But amongst all of the uproar, and calls for Vogue to apologize, there lies a bitter truth — Haskell’s beliefs are a perpetuation of our culture’s understandings about bisexuality as portrayed in popular media.
In its 2014 “Where We Are on TV” report, GLADD found that there was an increase in the number of LGBT characters on television for the 2013 season; however, GLADD predicts a decrease (from 22 percent to 18 percent) in the number of LGBT characters for the 2014–2015 broadcast. If finding gay characters on TV is difficult, portrayals of bisexual characters are almost non-existent. As GLADD’s report states, there were over twice as many gay characters in recurring roles on broadcast networks as opposed to bisexual characters (35: Gay, 12: Bisexual). Maybe the lack of bisexual characters in television is due to the difficultly of explaining the complexities of sexual fluidity in just 40 minutes. But that is why it is imperative that the few bisexual characters on TV must be depicted in a way that is positive and supportive of the community.
Orange is the New Black has been praised for its portrayal of lesbian, gay, and transgender characters. However, critics have continued to take issue with the way lead character Piper Chapman, played by Taylor Schilling, resists identifying herself as bisexual. Though Piper acknowledges her relationship with a woman, outside of the prison, she identifies as a heterosexual. Piper is open about her past lesbian relationship to her close friends and fiancé. But when she tells her parents about her prison sentence and her past same-sex relationship, Piper is quick to reassure them that she is a “former lesbian.” However, as the series develops we see Piper rekindling her feelings not only for her former flame, Alex, but also for another women in the prison. While I am not trying to push Piper into a particular sexual orientation, her resistance to identify as bisexual reflects a misunderstanding of the definition. Her issues with identifying her sexuality as fluid, perpetuates the idea that sexual orientation is only a binary. This directly contradicts the concept of sexual fluidity as advocated by American biologist Alfred Kinsey, developer of the famed “Kinsey Scale.” As explained by the Kinsey Institute, the rating scale was created “in order to account for research findings that showed people do not fit into neat and exclusive heterosexual or homosexual categories.” Her fiancé, Larry, is exactly what Amy Zimmerman defines as “heterosexual redemption.” As she explained in her 2014 Daily Beast article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV,” men will often play this role due to the fact it is a continuation of the damsel in distress narrative. In this case a woman who identifies as having same sex attraction is “rescued” by a male protagonist who helps her resist her desires. Not only is this perception harmful to bisexual viewers, it also further perpetuates the idea that bisexuality is just a phase.
LGBT issues are complex, as all of our understandings of sexual orientation should be, but that does not disqualify us from recognizing bisexuality as being legitimate and showing it in a positive way on television. Of course, there are characters that we can recognize as portraying bisexuality in a positive way (Callie Torres, Grey’s Anatomy; Mulan, Once Upon a Time; Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife). But these few examples are not enough to erase the harm caused by the overarching dialogue discussing bisexuality flippantly. Delevinge has responded to the Vogue interview and said, “My sexuality is not a phase. I am who I am.” Now that we’re all clued in, hopefully Vogue and popular television will also catch on and remember all of the letters of the sexual orientation alphabet.
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