It seems like one of those debates that never ends: are woman only spaces empowering or discriminatory? Are they valuable or dated and unnecessary? Do they build bonds, or build walls?
We hear a lot from men who are against the concept, but bi activist Grant Denkinson is not one of them.
I’m a bisexual cisgender man and if women choose women-only spaces that is their business and not mine.
However, some people might be interested in my opinions including other men processing how they feel:
The first thing I think of is feeling excluded; unwanted; not allowed in. I’m a bit sensitive to that sort of thing as many of us are. I might feel a bit frustrated or annoyed. One of the things I’ve learned from polyamory is to stop a moment and take notice of feelings like jealousy; This might be a similar feeling. I… Continue reading
A version of this post first appeared on Abigail’s blog, Experience Is To Be Believed.
About two years ago, I partook of some Netflix binges – re-watching all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and powering through the whole ofThe L Word were just too irresistible. Although I can’t deny I hugely enjoyed both of these binges, there was something I just couldn’t get past – the way bisexuality was treated in both.
Since then, I’ve kept them in my mind, and to be honest, I’ve yet to encounter any programmes made more recently which give bisexuality positive treatment, so let’s step back in time.
The year is 1997, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer has hit our screens. (I was only 6, so of course I wasn’t watching it then. But for reasons which will become clear, I feel hugely influenced by this programme, so indulge me.) We… Continue reading
It’s hard to deny that ignorances and misunderstandings about pansexuals exist, and the bisexual community is not immune – despite facing plenty of myths of our own. Myths around bisexuality and pansexuality overlap, but pansexuality also attracts some unique prejudices. It’s time to put them all to bed, starting with eight of the most common panphobic myths.
MYTH: Pansexual is a new term
FACT: We’ve been seeing the word pansexual since at least 1924. It’s shifted in meaning since it was coined, of course, just like the words ‘bisexual’, ‘homosexual’ and even ‘furniture’, ‘girl’ and ‘manufacture’. That’s just how language works.
It was first used by contemporary critics of Freud such as Otto Rank and Wilhelm Reich in derision, as an ironic validation of Freud’s suggestion that “that the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity”; or that our libidos either directly or indirectly, drive… Continue reading
After a long wait, the UK government has released its Report on Transgender Equality.
The report covers topics such as treatment of trans individuals by public services such as the NHS and the prisons service, the lack of sufficient statistical data on trans and non-binary identities, and the controversial ‘spousal veto’.
Crucially, the report recommends that changes be made to the Gender Recognition Act (2004) to allow for self-determination of gender, and that provision should be made for 16- and 17-year-olds to apply for gender recognition, alongside a number of recommendations to counter discriminatory procedures, demands and behaviors exhibited by the National Health Service and its staff.
You can read the report here [.pdf].
To read the Non-Binary Inclusion Project‘s response to the report, click here [.pdf].
Certified bookworm and friend of Biscuit Sophia reads a first-hand account of living as a cross-dresser.
This intriguing book by Catie Maye explores the issues surrounding the lives of an often marginalised part of the transgender community, male cross-dressers and gender-fluid people.
Maye has approached the topic through the lens of her own experiences as a male-to-female cross-dresser and her widening exploration of what she calls her ‘feminine side’, at first tentatively and, as the years passed, with increasing confidence.
Born in 1960 and growing up in a working class area of London, Maye began cross-dressing at the age of nine (not untypical), and has continued to do so to the present day. She’s heterosexual and is married with children, which again is most common. The majority of male cross-dressers identify as straight (the percentage who identify as gay or bi is roughly in proportion to the figures for… Continue reading
Here’s a round-up of some of the news, blogs posts and comment we missed this week.
Did… Continue reading
“Fancy a 3sum?”: Online Dating As A Bi Woman…
The fact that I’m in search of a mono relationship is spelled out in nursery level English on all my dating profiles. Yet I’ve probably had at least 10 direct requests for threesomes just this month. I even had to block a man who took the time to send nine messages, each more fire and brimstone-filled than the last, explaining how my orgiastic lifestyle would land me in Hell.
It hasn’t all been doom and gloom, though. Having the chance to gauge whether or not a date will deal with the “b-bomb” OK is out of the way at the beginning, so by the time you’re at the meeting… Continue reading →