Emmerdale Demonstrates How to Get Bisexuality Right
Last week rural soap Emmerdale broke an unwritten rule of primetime storytelling: you don’t say bisexual. Robron fan Charlie tells us what else they’re getting right.
Finding an on-screen bisexual is about ten times harder than finding one in real life. This is because films and TV shows seem to have an obsession with alternating a character’s sexuality depending on who they are with at that current moment – especially in soap operas. ITV soap Emmerdale, has been no stranger to this trend.
Ali, who was on the show last year with her partner Ruby, was the butt of many lesbian jokes as she left her husband to be with her new girlfriend, yet it was never explored whether she was bisexual or gay. Earlier this year, a plotline involving Lawrence’s old lover returning did nothing but create confusion regarding his sexuality, since he had been in… Continue reading
The best of the #biactivistsaresickofhearing hashtag
You’ve got to love twitter. We use it for networking, maintaining friendships, sharing news and jokes and judging other people’s grammar. And, of course, we use it for blowing off steam, like today, when a cotterie of frazzled bi activists decided to tweet the most ridiculous, illogical and, unfortunately, ubiquitous things they hear every day.
We kicked off with a few of our own experiences…
#biactivistsaresickofhearing We raised some money for LGBT causes! No, we’re not giving it to any bi orgs.
— Biscuit (@Biscuitmag) 22 August 2016
#biactivistsaresickofhearing Our HR dept really wants someone to do bi inclusion training. Oh, no. We won’t pay you. — Biscuit (@Biscuitmag) 22 August 2016
… and boy did we hit a nerve. Here are 15 of the best responses.
1. The one where non-binary bi people are completely erased
#biactivistsaresickofhearing “Bisexuality reinforces the gender binary, so it’s inherently transphobic.”… Continue reading
10 of the Best Bisexual Pins on Etsy
Enhance your jacket or backpack with an identity affirming pin or two, from the treasure trove of Etsy.
1. Go Simple
With a classic button from CatStasher
2. Show your romantic side
With this enamel love heart from Compoco Pop
3. Keep it classy
With a monochrome statement from wordforwordfactory
4. Embrace your various identies…
With a bundle from CwtchPride
5. … or share with your friends
With Bimblesnoot’s cute selection
6. Put the Bee back in LGBT
With an apiculturists delight from theartfulscientist
7. Get pixelated
With some throwback crafting from BowsbyRia
8. Submit to the inevitable cash-in
With a bisexual Poké Ball by EllenKayDesign
9. Subtly combat erasure
With a declaration from astropuke
1o. Re-live your emo phase
With a vespertilionine pun from shopfives
Pan on Campus: Biscuit Interviews Pansexuality Advocate Elle Long
Pansexuality may be as old as the hills, but the pansexual movement is still young, and that means that it’s still a little mysterious to outsiders. We’re natural allies, and we’re nosy, too, so we caught up with advocate Elle Long to get the skinny on what’s happening in pan activism right now.
Hi Elle! First of all, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do. How long have you been involved in pansexual activism and advocacy? What sort of things do you get up to as an advocate?
I am a junior at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, majoring in Political Science and Law, minoring in Ethnic Studies. I’m involved with the Speech and Debate team for the school but that’s about as sporty as I get!
My main focus in advocacy for pansexuality has been education and it started when I came… Continue reading
Eight Myths About Pansexuality, Debunked
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
Another EXCLUSIVE extract from British Bi Guide Purple Prose
Biscuit has been given a sneak preview of Purple Prose, a guide to the bisexual community from indie publisher Thorntree Press now crowdfunding over at Indigogo. The book is billed as “a guide to the bi community in the UK, and an exploration of the issues facing bisexuals everywhere”.
In the second exclusive extract Biscuit editor Libby gives us a brief overview of the role of allies in the bi community:
“Not every person you find in bisexual spaces, either in real life or online, falls under the bisexual umbrella. Monosexual-identified people people who are invited into our spaces and communities might be our friends, partners or members of our families, or someone with a professional interest in bisexuality, like a health worker or researcher. They might even be someone who is just curious to learn more. People with a supportive interest in bisexuality are usually called allies.… Continue reading
Booking opens for BiCon 2016
It’s that time of year again: booking is now open for BiCon 2016.
This year the three night event, taking place at the University of Central Lancashire, falls just days after the first EuroBicon for more than a decade. The team anticipates a greater number of first time attendees:
“There are three major airports within 60 miles of Preston, so you could hop over from Amsterdam in just a few hours,” they told Biscuit.
The event runs from 4th – 7th August in Preston and includes a packed schedule of workshops, seminars and talks as well as nightly entertainment.
To book your place, visit 2016.bicon.org.uk now.
EXCLUSIVE extract from British Bi Guide Purple Prose
Biscuit has been given a sneak preview of Purple Prose, a guide to the bisexual community from indie publisher Thorntree Press now crowdfunding over at Indigogo. The book is billed as “a guide to the bi community in the UK, and an exploration of the issues facing bisexuals everywhere”.
In the first of two exclusive extracts Marcus Morgan, Chair of The Bisexual Index, talks about bisexual activism:
“If you’ve been reading the chapters of this book in sequential order then by now you have a better understanding about bisexuality, the bisexual community in the UK, what biphobia is, and how bisexual erasure (or invisibility) hurts people.
If you’ve been paying attention, you might even be starting to get cross. What right do people have to oppress us, who decided that bisexuality would be erased, what’s the deal with the lack of services, information and support?… Continue reading
We Need To Talk About Intimate Partner Abuse in the Bisexual Community
We asked four bisexual survivors of domestic- and intimate partner violence to tell us their stories, and this is what we learned. [Contains frank descriptions of abuse in survivors’ own words]
We don’t have a frame of reference for our experiences
Stereotypes abound when it comes to partner violence. We believe men are abusers and women are abused and we believe same-sex relationships are by their nature free from violence. We believe abuse must… Continue reading →